We are in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and we are winding down and we started looking at verse 13
and we are working through the points that are in your outline.
For by grace only are you saved through faith. And point number
one is what we were working with for quite some time now, bound
to glorify God. Bound to glorify God. The Greek term there for bound,
Ophelio, is the term for to be indebted. An individual who owes
something. The status of feeling as if you
are obligated because of something that God has done for you or
something that has been done in your behalf. And the apostle
in verse 13, saying to the church at Thessalonica which is the
object of this letter we are bound to give thanks always to
God for you brethren beloved of the Lord because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation and last week we
went at length through the concept of being chosen and I dealt with
a particular nuance in that word of from the beginning you'll
notice that God chose us and that's the reason why We are
bound to give thanks. We are obligated to thank God
because he chose who? We didn't choose him. He chose
us. We didn't call him. He called
us We didn't save ourselves. God saved us and And when you
know that salvation is of the Lord, what you also know is that
any person who comes to know the grace of God, like you do,
are an object of God's grace for which we are bound to give
God thanks. So we thank God every time we
come to know a true believer in Christ. In fact, that's an
obligation. Paul says, I am obligated to
thank God. And what I share with you before
concerning that being bound to thank God is that that was rooted
in a knowledge Christ when you come to know the gospel in in
somewhat of its fullness who God is and who Christ is and
what Christ did to redeem you the more you learn about God's
grace in your life the more you feel indebted to praise him and
to thank him for what he did is that not true the more you
come to know about the grace of God in your life and who Christ
is and how he assumed all of these offices by which he established
eternally your salvation. We thank God. We thank God. But
Paul said, we thank God for you, brother and beloved. We're bound
to thank God for you because he from the beginning have chosen
you. So we've talked about election
and we understood that the concept election, which is the same term
to choose, is not an easy term for people to grasp who have
not come to understand that You and I don't deserve salvation.
And so when we talk about election, it can be a little threatening
because election actually takes the onus and the obligation and
the warrant of any kind of security and hope out of the hand of the
center that saved. When you come to discover that
you didn't do anything to save yourself, but that God did it
and that he did it with a plan that he had determined, that's
your second point in your outline, that he had determined, notice
point number two, he chose you. He, in his own determination,
chose you before the world began. And in your outline, you'll notice
the gospel is what? The work of God. The gospel is
the work of God. One of the things you'll learn
if you are coming to know Christ is that he will strip you of
every human confidence, every sense of self-worth, every sense
that you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. The gospel
will strip you of that. And every time you come to believe
that maybe you were somehow involved in your salvation because you
were a little better than the next person, God will prove to
you that that's not the case. And one of the reasons why in
religion today, election is just a horrid doctrine to embrace
is because it basically strips man of all of his, what's the
word? Pride. Just strips him of his pride.
Election says God chose you, God saved you, God called you,
and God has to keep you if you're going to be saved. And all that
means is that we are totally what? Dependent on God's mercy. We are totally dependent on God's
mercy. Now, proud people don't like
to be in that position, but it's true. Salvation is really an
act of God's mercy, isn't it? Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but by his what? Hath he what? Saved us. Not by works of righteousness.
Are you kidding? The whole religious world bases
its confidence before God on its own works. And yet those
who have come to experience the sovereignty of God in salvation
realize if it were left up to my works, the only thing that
my works would merit is sending me to hell. Do you understand
that all your righteousness are as filthy rags? that there's
none good, no not one. You guys understand this truth,
right? You understand that even AC, after the cross, you are
still a sinner? and that even your best motives
are so tainted with sin that God can't accept it as a grounds
of righteousness? He can use your works and my
works after we become saved as long as they are washed in the
blood of the Lamb and as long as you and I reject them as a
basis for merit or the grounds of our relationship to God. So
frequently in the Bible, you and I will run across this doctrine
of election and the fact that God will remind you that he chose
you, you didn't choose him. In other words, you don't really
add anything to God by him having saved you. You guys got that?
I know this is a humbling part of the beginning of the study,
and maybe you were already struggling with your self-esteem, but we're
gonna kill that one right about now. Okay, I understand that.
I'm sorry about that. But see, the promise of the gospel
is to kill you and then make you alive. To wound you and then
to heal you to break you and to build you up But you've got
to be broken. You've got to be wounded. You've
got to be killed. That's what the cross is all about That's
what the cross is all about. You remember what paul said in
galatians chapter 2 verse 20 That's the model that every christian
lives with I am crucified with christ That's the fundamental
principle of your new life. I am presently what crucified
with christ nevertheless, I what live yet not I but the grace
of God, which is in me for the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by the faithfulness of
the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So here's
what Paul is saying. Paul is saying that the believer
lives out of his death with Christ on Calvary street. And on that
tree, in that work of the cross, you and I learn to divest ourselves
of every form of self-confidence and self-righteousness and rely
totally upon God's grace in our life. That's what we rely upon.
And this is a mystery, isn't it? That to live, you have to
die. that to abound, you have to abase. That's just the tension of scripture.
And that's the way God sets it up. And here, this is the marvelous
thing. Paul is rejoicing in that. So
when we talk about election, when we talk about God having
chosen us, we have to understand that God determined to save us. And then here's point number
three that we were looking at before. Point number three, the
objective, the objective. Not only did he choose us from
the beginning, but then there's an objective. that God saves
us for. And that's important too. Sometimes
we can get a little bit, we can get a little bit cocky when we
are Christians because now we are children of the living God.
And you know, we can kind of frame language like somehow we
can take on heirs. But do you know when God saved
you, he rescued you? He rescued you from hell. He
delivered you. You were a captive. You were
a slave. Look at point number four, the
objective to obtain salvation. Here's the reason why God chose
you, that you and I might obtain salvation. He rescued you. It was an escape that happened
for you, a deliverance, and more than that, a recovery, a recovery. You and I were captives. Do you
guys remember that? In bondage to our lust and our
passion and our sin and our ignorance. And God set us free from that
ignorance through a knowledge of Christ. Shouldn't our hearts
be filled with adoration for that? Shouldn't our hearts be
filled with just great, great thankfulness to God because we
are not where we used to be. We are no longer the tyranny
or the objects of the tyranny of the devil. He doesn't just
have his way in our life like he used to have before. Now we
are the servants of the living God. Now we are slaves of Christ. And there was in this obtaining
of salvation, notice what it says in verse 13, for God has
from the beginning chosen you unto salvation. That's what God's objective was
in choosing you. unto salvation now salvation
has within it just a very Comprehensive truth that needs to be understood
and that is you and I have been saved from something and we are
being saved Presently and we will ultimately be saved when
Christ comes. It's kind of a threefold perspective
I know we don't always think about it that way, but I want
you to think about this for a moment. There is a sense in which there
is a past tense in our salvation. Is that true? We have been saved. In fact, the Bible says that
you and I were saved before the world began. Remember 2 Timothy
1, verse 9? Go there in your Bible for a
moment and notice what it says, just to be reminded. There's
a sense in which God views us as having saved us before the
world began, having placed us in Jesus Christ. Listen to this
language of the Apostle Paul. We have to be careful when we
assume this position, but it's still a legitimate position,
at least from God's perspective. Look at 2 Timothy 1, verse 8
and 9. The Apostle Paul says, Be not
thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of
me, his prisoner. Now watch this. But be thou a
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, According to the
power of God Now look at this verse 9 now watch this who hath
what saved us. You see that first clause It's
in the Aries tense who hath saved us. It's a past tense clause
And so what Paul is saying is there's a sense in which God
has fully Recovered you fully Saved you fully delivered you
in Christ. I in Christ and then he called
you by his grace. Do you see that next line? Notice,
who have saved us and what called us. So Paul is talking to Timothy
reminding Timothy that it's important for us to be able to know that
your salvation didn't start with you. This was a plan that God
himself conceived before the world began And he secured it
in his son, Jesus Christ. So I want you to grasp this in
your mind before we develop this second and third phase of your
salvation. In God's mind, before the world
began, not only were all of his works done because God sees the
end from the beginning in terms of creation, but this was true
in terms of our redemption as well. If God the Father and God
the Son and God the Holy Spirit stood in unity to save a people
before he created the world, and since God can't lie, fail,
or what? Change. In the mind of God, the
salvation of every one of his elect was secure before the world
was created. Does that make some sense? Let
me say that again. Since God can't lie, can't change,
and can't fail. And since with God all things
are, that's what omniscience is, omniscience never views things
that are to be, for God everything is all at once. So he can declare
the end from the beginning because he knows it's so, right? You
and I can talk about what we want to do, but you and I can't
bring a thing to pass unless it's God's will, right? But God's
will is as good as being done because of God's nature. One
of the things that's critical for you and I to learn with regards
to what God is doing for us and will do for us is the God who's
doing it. One of the things we have to
learn about what God is doing for us and will do for us is
the God who's doing it. In religion too, one of the deficits
that you experience in the church is a lack of a knowledge of God.
Really, we have really diminished our God to a little bit more
than a human being. He's like a Superman today. You
know, I mean, He works hard to get the job done so long as we
cooperate with Him. But the reality is, is the God
of the Bible doesn't need anything, has never needed anything, and
can never fail of anything that He does. Now, when we understand
God in His attributes, then we begin to be even more thankful
for his work because his work flow from his character. His work proceeds from who he
is. You know, if you've got a friend
who has always shown himself faithful to you, I mean, just
through thick and thin, always been there for you. You haven't
always been that way for him, but he's been that way for you,
right? You can trust that person to come through when they say
they'll come through. Isn't that right? And that's the way it
is with God. So when you read your Bible and
you think about what God is doing for you and what God will do
for you, understand that that's a secondary blessing. The primary blessing is the God
that does it. This is why David would say in
the Psalms, I rejoice in the God of my salvation. Did you
get that? Learning to rejoice in the God
of your salvation actually secures your understanding of the salvation
that God has provided for you. See, really this is the secret
behind Paul's rejoicing. He knows the God who is saving
these Thessalonians. So notice what it says again
in verse 9. "...who have saved us and have called us with a
holy calling, not according to our..." What? but according to
his own. Now watch this, his own purpose,
that's another term for will, or as we have in our second point,
determination, God's purpose. Watch this now, he saved us and
then he called us not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
at the time we accepted him. Is that what verse nine says?
I just want to make sure you grasp this because the New Testament
theology sprinkles this aspect of God's character in the redemption
of his people all throughout the epistles in order to help
us understand that salvation does not start with the mutual
effort of God offering you and you responding. And that's really
what goes on in religion today, isn't it? God's basically a heavenly
or a celestial salesman really trying to sell you a vacuum cleaner
called salvation. And he got his foot in your door
trying to keep you from shutting the door and negotiating with
you. But for us who know the gospel,
here's what we know, that God himself has already accomplished
our eternal redemption and he brings it to us freely by his
grace and qualifies us to receive it. By the time we discover what
God did, what we come to discover is he already did it. By the time we come to discover
what God did, what we come to discover is he already did it. See, this is the way the construction
is given in our verse. He had saved us and he had called
us with a holy calling. He qualifies that not according
to our words, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given, who? Us. So mark that. You can circle
that. If you want to exegete or do a deconstruction of verse
9, here's what you know. There are three or four things
that God already did. The objects for which He did
that is the us. And it's put in the context of
a gift, which was given us in Christ Jesus, Before the world
began now, this is quite a magnificent because here's what it's saying
before the world began There was the father the son and who
the Holy Ghost now the son is the means by which we're saved,
right? Everything necessary for our salvation was laid on him
and placed in him Everything necessary for our salvation was
laid on him and placed in him So to the degree that you can
fix your eye on Jesus, now you can see what's yours in him. Now you can see what's yours
in him. And if you were to ask the question,
Lord, when did you give me eternal life in Jesus Christ? What he
would say is before the world began. Do you hear me? When did he, when did you obtain
my eternal redemption? When did you bring about for
me a security of salvation before the world began? Now notice what
he goes on to say in verse 10, but is now made manifest by the
appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death
and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
I'll let you chew on that. Here we have the obtaining of
our salvation in the aspect of the past tense work, which is
in Christ. Then you and I have what is called
the present tense salvation, which takes place in us. Go to 1 Corinthians 1. There
is the salvation which God accomplished for us in Christ. Then there's
the salvation that you and I experience in us. Before you were actually
born again, you were dead in trespasses and sins. Before you
were actually born again, you were lost and didn't know where
you were. Before you were actually born
again, you were blind, you were dead, you were deaf, you were
dumb. But when the gospel came in power, it saved you from the
inside. When the gospel came in power,
it saved you from the inside. Now notice what Paul says in
verse 17, 18 of 1st Corinthians chapter 1 for Christ sent me
not to baptize but to do what preach the gospel Not with wisdom
of words lest the cross of Christ should be of non effect now watch
this now watch this brethren listen to what he says here For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness
There are some people who perceive the gospel as inane as moronic
as as foolish and nonsensical. Have you ever met people like
that? When you share the gospel with them, their eyes cross over
and they glaze. And it's like you're speaking
in a foreign language. It's because they actually have no experiential
relationship with the subject matter. You're just talking a
whole nother language to them. They can't identify with it now
notice. That's the them they think is
foolish They can't wait till you stop talking like that because
it doesn't put bread on the table money in their pocket doesn't
fix their bills But notice the next clause But unto us do you see the phrase
but unto us now I want you to hear this next construction which
are Saved do you see that? Which are saved in the original
which are being saved But unto us who are being saved It is
the power of God Do you see that now? I want to tell you what
it is. That's the power of God. It's the gospel The gospel is
the power of God to those that are being saved now of Martha's
now. This is very practical If you've been a Christian anytime
What you know is that you have tried a lot of things in your
life in order to get better even in your relationship with God,
right? You've tried, you know, going to church and you try being
on the ministry team, you try being in the choir, you try,
you try this, you try that, you try a lot of things only to come
to find that you were no better having tried those things than
the day you were saved. Really no better. I mean if you're
honest with yourself you like our sisters priest a great message
last night night in our women's theology class called fig leaves
putting on fig leaves and that's what we do in religion we put
fig leaves on and we try to show people that we are better now
that we're in Jesus and We're better now. But the mistake that
we're making when we do that is we're saying that the gospel
has just enough power to get me converted at the moment where
I need Jesus. But in terms of my practical
everyday walk, I leave the gospel behind. And now I go to sanctify
myself by do's and don'ts and rules and regulations that are
human in nature. That's profound, isn't it? And
really what it indicates, if that's what I'm doing, is it
indicates one or two things. Either I am ignorant of the power
of the gospel, or I have failed to be taught properly that I
need the gospel that saved me 30 years ago today. I need the
same gospel that delivered me. You remember when the gospel
came in power? This is Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and 17. Do you remember when it came
in power? Do you remember how when the gospel came in power,
it just knocked you upside your head and opened your mind to
the reality of God's glory and it just, it just land blasted
you, just leveled you right where you were and you found yourself
just unraveled, just coming apart at the seams as a sinner. You
were just, just helpless. Remember that? Vulnerable. Remember
that? Just vulnerable to God. And then God in his mercy picked
you up and showed you the grace of forgiveness. And it was the
sweetest feeling in the world, wasn't it? To know the unshackling
of your sins and the freedom that comes in Christ. And over
time, you kind of settled down in this new walk in Jesus. And
what you fail to realize is That same power that broke the chains
the first day you came to know the grace of god in truth Is
the power that has to break the chains every day of your life It's the power of god unto salvation
to everyone that is continually believing See and here's what
paul said we who believe know that because every day I need
that same power that saved me the first time to save me today
In other words, I need the efficacy of the cross work of Jesus Christ
to forgive me today, to strengthen me today, to guide me today,
to inform me today as it did 37 odd years ago. Now, if what
I'm saying is true, if what I'm saying is true, then here's what
you and I must have resolved in our life. I must learn the
gospel and all of its infinite implications every day of my
life. In other words, we don't ever
really get away from the gospel. The gospel is the complete counsel
of God for the life of God's people. It's the foundation,
it's the root, it's the source from which every other blessing
flows, right? I want to live to God's glory,
don't you? I want to be pleasing to God, don't you? I want to
live a successful Christian life, don't you? Well, if that's going
to happen, it's going to be by us remaining in the gospel and
allowing the gospel to transform us little by little, day by day,
as we are conformed the image of Christ let me remind you of
what the verse says again then I'll show you a future tense
verse and then we'll move on to our next point listen to verse
18 again let me show you verse 21 for the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are being saved
it is the power of God verse 21 for after that in the wisdom of God, the
world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that what? See, and is it not true
that God has called us to a daily walk of faith? Hebrews chapter
11 verse six, right? The Bible is very clear. He that
cometh unto God must believe that he is and is a what? A rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. Now you have the walk nature
of faith calling you to believe God every day. What are you believing
God for every day? A big house? A good job? Health? Strength? Favor? Blessings? Whatever? What are
you believing God for every day? All those things are fine, but
those are very secondary issues. What I'm believing God for every
day is to keep His promise that He made to me the day that I
heard that He had saved me by His grace. That's what I'm believing
God for every day. I'm believing God to keep me
daily until he brings me into his presence when I breathe my
last breath. That's what I'm believing God
for. See, because God has already said in the gospel of Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, watch this now. I want you to hear this. Watch
this now. Here's what he said. He says, if God cares for the
sparrows that fall to the ground, If he rains upon the just and
the unjust, if he rains upon the unmerciful and the merciful
in an indiscriminate way of blessing, if he pours out carnal blessings
upon men and women who don't deserve it, how much more so
you of little faith? So sometimes we find ourselves
asking in prayer and desiring things that are already part
of the promise. In other words, God said he'll
take care of that. The area in which you and I need to grow
is being more committed to Christ and His glory so that we are
preoccupied with our conformity to Christ. That's the area I
need to go. See, because He saved you for His glory. He saved you
for His glory. Now, if He saved you for His
glory, mark this now, He's not going to fill you in the mundane
practical things of life if He saved you for His glory. You're
gonna go now pastor now now now now now. Okay, hold on now because
we're in a we're in a depression now brother And some of us here
have lost our houses and we've lost some we've lost some things
now Well, yeah, the christian church has experienced that for
2 000 years. Do you know there's a lot of
things you're gonna lose? As you make your way to glory
Okay, you never put that in that resume, but you better put that
in there right now what mark this? There are a lot of things
that you are going to lose On your way to glory because there
are things that your heavenly father deems that you don't need
Isn't that amazing how that We will discover in our walk with
Christ that God will not preserve certain things in our life. I
That He'll let those things fall off like branches and twigs that
wither up and dry and have no fruitfulness. Am I making some
sense? And now you're scratching your head wondering, is God gonna
keep me? Well, yes, He's gonna keep you.
But what He's not gonna keep is that. He'll keep you, but
not that. because there are some that's
in our life that actually have to go because God still is teaching
us how to trust Him. Now come on now, if God were
to answer all your prayers for all of the this, that, and the
thirds, you wouldn't be trusting God. You wouldn't be trusting
Him. You wouldn't be trusting Him.
Today, the only reason you trust Him today is because you ain't
got nothing. Now you need God. Okay, so now here's the other
thing about that. And it's a good place to be where
you don't have anything because it reminds you that all your
sufficiency is in God. Now, I know that sounds wild
because in this material age in which we live, our churches
have taught blessing upon blessing upon blessing, right? But see,
the Bible is very clear in the very chapter in which we are
in, not many noble, not many wise, not many wealthy, not many
prominent, but the poor and the despised. and the rejected and
the said it not are those who inherit the kingdom of God. You
got that? See, are you willing to join that band of rejects,
abjects, disregarded, neglected, abused folk whom Jesus loves
only to kiss them and tell them to be patient until he gets them
the glory because he knows what he's doing in their life down
here is bearing record to his grace in the life of sinners?
Are you willing to forfeit? the promises of God in eternity
for a few blessings now. You see what I'm getting at?
In the process of God saving us, be sure of this. God won't
have a problem cutting away a lot of things in our life. Go with
me now in your Bible to first Peter. I'm going to show you
the future tense of this and then we'll go back. So there
is a sense in which we were saved when we had come to know the
gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus and trust him as savior.
We were saved. There's a sense in which we were
saved before we knew him in the person of Christ, our redeemer. And then there's a sense in which
we were saved at the moment of our conversion. That's really
the area because of our own personal narcissism that we, uh, that
we focus in on. I was saved 32 years ago. I'll
often say 32 years ago. That's all good. I might use
that at the pool rank on people. You know how us elders do. Yeah,
I've been in the Lord 32 years. You know, and I just start pulling
rank on the young cat said I've been in the Lord 10 years Yeah,
I've been a lot 32 years, you know, if I was living in the
days of Noah Methuselah, they'd be running around Yeah, I've
been in the Lord for 675 years. Okay, you know and all that's
fine, but it means nothing in relationship to eternity What
is 32 years compared to eternity see what I'm getting at. I or
even 500 years. So we need to be very careful
to understand the breadth and scope of God's salvation. It's
from eternity to eternity, and within the bounds of time, it's
in Christ, it's at our conversion, it's throughout the process of
our sanctification, and it culminates in glory. You and I are being
saved. Listen to the language, 1 Peter
1. I'm going to start at verse 7, and I want to go through
verse 9. I want you to mark verse 9. Know
this, that the trial of your faith being much more precious
than of what? Gold that perishes. Now that's
before God, just in case you let that run past you. I don't
want this to run past you. If you are really wondering,
if you are still thinking it's strange, the fiery trials that
you go through, if you are still thinking trials to be strange
to you, You have yet to mature in Christ. If you are still thinking
that trials are an alien thing that should not be part of our
everyday life, you have not come into a state of maturity in Christ.
And I would suggest that you give Brother George's and Wacadu's
message a couple of weeks ago. It's back there. He preached
out of James chapter 1 for us in our men's meeting on Saturday.
And he explained out of James 1 that the mature man comes to,
learns to rejoice in his trials. You know what the text says?
The mature man comes to a place of learning how to rejoice in
his trials. Do you remember what verse 3
says? Rejoice when you fall into divers temptations and troubles. Isn't that crazy? Isn't that
crazy? And we made a caricature out
of that. We said, you know, if you ran
across somebody that was walking down the street and somebody
ran up and hit him upside his head with a stick and took all
his money from him and he jumped up and down shouting, hallelujah,
thank you, Lord. We would want to call a loony
bin on him, right? Wouldn't we want to do that? But see, the
reality is he may be understanding something about what God is doing
in his life that you and I don't see. He may have saw, you and
I may have saw money being taken from him, but what he may have
seen is the presence of God drawing closer to him in the midst of
that affliction and trouble that secured his relationship with
Christ. Am I making some sense? And so
here's the thing, if you and I continue to think trials strange,
we have not matured. And so what Peter is saying to
the church is when you go through trials, Understand in the sight
of God your trials are more precious to God than gold that perish
it Even though it be tried with fire and it might be found unto
praise and honor and glory At the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ whom having not seen you and I have not seen Jesus yet
If you meet somebody I say they saw Jesus then truly called the
loony bin You know, I saw you know, I met Jesus I Call it a
loony bin. Because see, inspired text tells
us we have not seen Jesus. You know what inspired text says?
It's wild how our churches just go buck wild and say things they
shouldn't say, contrary to the scripture. I had a conversation
with Jesus last night. Oh, really? Really? You had a conversation with Jesus?
What does he look like? and see if you go through all
the cultures around the world that play this game of having
this sort of anointing where they can talk to God kind of
personally. Jesus looks different to every ethnic group around
the world. Did you know that? He just transforms to every ethnic
group he goes to. No, that's foolishness. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. God is far more pleased with
his people who walk with their eyes wide closed than people
who are looking for existential and empirical evidence of God.
You are closest to being a child of your heavenly father when
you simply hold his hand and close your eyes and walk this
walk of faith until you see him face to face. That's the truth. And that's what Peter is saying
here. Listen to it. He says that it might be found under praise
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ with whom having
not seen you love. Do you love Jesus? This is one
of the evidences you're born again. By the way, if you want
to know, am I saved? Do you love Jesus? That's one
of the fundamental evidences. It's the evidence and criterion
for ministry. You can't do ministry unless
you love Jesus. You can't actually walk this walk of faith unless
you love Jesus. I've taught us this for years. Here's the principle.
Faith works by what? And it works no other way. This
is why Jesus will say, if you love me, then do what I tell
you to do. If you don't love me, don't do anything. He doesn't
have a relationship with people who don't first love him. So
at the foundation on the premise of our relationship with God
and the premise of faith is love. It's love that moves us out of
obedience to do what God tells us to do. And that love is a
gift from God to shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
Listen to what he goes on to say. Whom have you not seen your
love in whom though now you see him not yet believing you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Here it is. Do you
see verse nine receiving the end of your what? even the salvation
of your soul. So you see in our earlier contemplation,
we saw in 2 Corinthians 9, 1 verse 9, our past tense salvation.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, our present tense. And now what we
see here is our future tense. You and I have been saved, are
being saved, and what? We'll be saved. We will ultimately
receive our salvation when jesus comes don't let it be more complicated
than that also because sometimes you can break these up in their
components and theologically you have broken them up in their
proper format i have been saved i am being saved and will be
saved and then you can get stuck in one of these components isolating
it and get in trouble they must stay connected having been saved
and being saved, will be saved, must stay connected. They must
be a continuum that starts with Christ and finishes in glory.
That's very important. All right, in our outline, the
objective of our salvation has been clear. The next thing I
want you to see, point number four, is the methodology of it.
Go back to our text. The methodology of our salvation.
So, you got saved five years ago or ten years ago or however
long ago it was you got saved. And then all of a sudden, like
Pilgrim's Progress, some of you might bear me record. You're
walking down the road on the journey to the Wicked Gate, and
an interpreter told you, be careful when you pass through certain
cities, certain towns, the city of enchantment. Bypass metals
and a number of places and and be careful not to what lose that
scroll Remember that be careful not to lose the scroll. Now. What is the scroll ladies and
gentlemen, it's the Word of God It's the Word of God. Here's
what I'll tell you. We're back at our text. You guys are back
at your text Here's what I'll tell you the one area in which
Christians get in trouble Is that a few months or a few years
into their Christian walk, you know what they start doing losing
their scroll. I It used to be you used to sleep
with your Bible. You know, you thought you was
going to be able to get the word of God into your brain through
osmosis. So you stuck your Bible under
your pillow. Remember that? And even when you, am I telling
the truth? Didn't you think you was going to get it through your
osmosis? You thought God would just kind of secretly run it
up in your brain. You know, that would be, that's
some shown up speed reading while you're asleep. Right? Remember
that? And he's telling the truth. And then you carry your Bible
in your car. Remember that everywhere you went, you had your little
Bible, didn't you? And you would tell anybody, I got my Bible.
I got my Bible. I got my Bible. One day you found yourself without
your Bible. Isn't that right? You and your
Bible had separated. The book you love, you and it
had parted ways. You have parted ways. You failed
pray to thinking you were all right with God because you had
actually started learning how to do religion. You are also
living on memory. Can I get a witness? Now watch
this. You had started doing religious
things and those religious things took the place of a personal
daily communion with God and his word. Secondly, you have started living
on memory. You know what I mean by that?
When God saved me, 17, 18 years old, one of the things I did
was read the scriptures every day. I worked for the Oakland
public school system as a janitor, and then I read the scriptures
during break. I read them before I went to bed at night. I read
them when I got up. You know that love affair you had with
Jesus when you first met him? You know how the scripture says,
thy word, you know, have I hid in my heart that I might not
sin against you. Oh, how love I thy law. It's my meditation
all the day long. And you know, you just had this
wonderful love affair with scripture, remember? Just loved you some
scripture. You just, and you would tell
people, I don't know what I would do if I didn't read my Bible
every day. Remember that? And then all of
a sudden one day, not only the Bible is not with you, but you
don't even know where it is. Can I tell the truth? You don't
even know where your Bible is. Oh Lord, where my Bible at? Well,
these here are paradigm shifts that take place in our life.
They are paradigm shifts that take place in our life of which
the Bible warns us about. to tell us you can endanger your
journey if you fail to continue doing the very same things that
you did when you first started. That's what Colossians tells
us in Colossians 2, verse 7. In the same manner in which you
received the Lord Jesus Christ, continue to walk in him. And
one of the things I know that we do in the church is we start
playing church so well that we forget to read our Bibles. But
if you fail to read your Bible, a number of things takes place.
One is you actually become dull in your senses. You don't know
it, but you are. You fail to remember those very
acute passages of scripture that speak to you in areas of your
life that are critical to your honesty with God. You know, if
you read your Bible every day, if you're reading your Bible
like you ought to, God would say things to you through the
scriptures that would check you in your everyday life in areas
that you would never be able to check yourself. Isn't that
right? And that's the beauty of the scriptures, aren't they?
You figure today, you know, you're all messed up. You're out of
calibration. You know you are. You need a radical not only a
massage, but you need to be lined up all together, right? Every
aspect of you needs to be lined up all together. You need a radical
spiritual chiropractic readjustment, right? You need your bones broke
and realigned. So you just walking all twisted,
right? You just look all... And that's how you look spiritually,
because you're all jacked up. You haven't been in the book
in months. You're twisting scriptures, you're mixing scriptures together.
You know how bad it was when you started mixing verses together?
Pastor, where's that verse that says, you know, all things work
together for the good of them that love Jesus? No, man, you're
mixing verses up right there. Right? And what it is, is that
you and I have gradually shifted from those fundamentals that
are critical to what salvation is seeking to achieve in your
life. And in our text, we are told in verse 13, the latter
part, here it is, but we are bound to give thanks always to
God, brother and beloved, because God is from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. That's the objective, through,
that's what we call methodology, what? Sanctification. Do you
see that? That's one of those big words
that if you went to public schools, this here might hurt your brain.
But think about this for a moment. Sanctification. Sanctification. One of those big old long words
that we run from most of the time. God's objective is to save
you, but his objective is to save you through a means, and
that means it's called sanctification. Got it? Don't ever be scared
of that word. Sanctification is what God does
to bring you to himself. God is holy, therefore be ye
also holy. And in fact, here's the truth.
If God touches anything, do you know what that thing becomes?
Holy. So we might turn it around and
use this as a basic syllogism, or at least a logical consequence
of that proposition. If God touches something and
it becomes holy, then what we know holiness is, are you ready?
is God touching you. If what God touches becomes holy,
then this is what we know. Holiness is God touching you. How did I become holy? God touched
me. I didn't become holy by something that I did. I became holy because
God touched me. Now what we are talking about
here is, in the experiential sense, in the area of sanctification,
the Greek term is hagios, which has its derivative in the word
holy or sanctification. They're two sides of the same
coin. And what we are really talking about is the work of
the third person of the Blessed Trinity in the experiential aspect
of the Christian life. God the Father is always viewed,
as I said, on his throne in glory. When you read your Bible and
you think about God the Father, think about him as always seated
in heaven on his throne. This is why our Master says,
when you pray, pray our Father who art where? That's right.
That's the concept that the Divine Trinity would have us understand
about the persons of the Godhead. The Father is remote. He is remote
because he is transcendent. But the Son is for us our mediator. He mediates between us and God.
Isn't that right? No one comes unto the Father
but through the who. I don't care what you say. You don't
get to even talk to the Father apart from the Son. So the mediator
between the Father and us is the Son. He's the mediator, the
go-between. He stands between us and God.
As Job said, he's our twix-man. He's our go-between. He lays
his hand on God, and he lays his hand on us, and because he
lays his hand on both God and us, we can have communion with
God. But we only have communion with God through Christ. Now,
that's the mediator. The father's remote, the son's
the mediator. He's closer than the father.
but the Holy Ghost is what I've termed the E-mediator. You know the term immediate?
It's the preposition right up against. The work of the Holy
Ghost is to be immediately in your life, to bring to reality
God through Christ. Sanctification comes by the Spirit
of God entering into your life to make Christ a reality in your
heart and in your mind and in your life. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? The Spirit of God is the one
that takes you and brings you into the realities of Christ. He touches you. He touches you. The Spirit of God is the one
that hunts you down. He breaks your heart. He opens
your understanding. He raises you from the dead.
He convinces you of sin. Isn't that what John 16 says?
Verse 8, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness
and of judgment. That's his job. It's the immediate
work of the spirit of God. Whatever you know by faith in
Jesus Christ, you only know by the spirit. The spirit of God
is the one that brings us into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now, who I'm talking to and those
who bear record with what I'm talking about are actually children
of God. It's the spirit of God that bears
record with our spirit that we are sons and daughters of God.
And so when a true believer talks with another true believer, we're
not talking apples and oranges. We're talking family language.
This is adoption language. This is the huyas language of
the family. And God sent the spirit of his
son into our hearts whereby we cry, Abba Father. So we know
the father through the son by the spirit of God. Is that okay?
But here's the means that the Spirit uses. Look at our text.
We're dealing with methodology now. Look at what it says. He
chose us from beginning under salvation through sanctification
of the what? Spirit. Here's the last clause. And belief of the what? See it? See it? So now, you know, if
I wanted to, I could jump on all of my Holy Ghost brethren
right now, who love to talk about the Holy Ghost. And I guess I'll
do that now because the text gives me warrant to do so. Here's
what you need to know. The Holy Ghost never lies. The Holy Ghost never endorses
lies. He never promotes lies. And the
Holy Ghost never says anything against the truth. Are you guys
with me? We got a few more minutes before
we open the floor for questions when we are talking about the
spirit You know today everybody knows something about the spirit.
You know what he's called. He's called the spirit of what
truth He's called the spirit of truth, you know what John
17 17 says right Sanctify them in thy what? Thy word is true
If the spirit is true the Word is true, then the Spirit will
never say anything contrary to the Word. Am I telling the truth? If the Spirit is true and the
Word is truth, then the Spirit of God will never say anything
contrary to it. This is why you need to watch your mouth, child
of God, especially my religious brethren who love to talk like
they sit at God's elbow every night and get the secret stuff. No, yeah, yeah, they got a little
secret latch where they can get back inside the white house of
God's glory and get up to the father's elbow and listen in
on the secrets of God because they can't come wait to come
back to tell you this is what the Lord told me to tell you
now listen to me very carefully if One time you say something
contrary to what God's Word says you lied on God And you lied on the Spirit of
God The Spirit of God never speaks contrary to His Word. Do you
know what that means? I am obligated to make sure I
know what the Word teaches if I'm going to open my mouth in
confidence that the Spirit of God is speaking through me. I must know what the Scriptures
teach if I'm going to be confident that the Spirit of God is going
to work through what I say to instruct men and women. I can
never say, thus said the Spirit of the Lord, and not know whether
what I'm saying corresponds to the truth. Unfortunately, there are multitudes
of people who operate in that type of mindset. In your outline,
it's talking about the connection between the spirit and truth.
In Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 4 and 8, Romans 10, 17, Ezekiel
37, 1, 10. We just went through Corinthians
1, 18, 24, and Romans 1, 17. The two, the spirit of God and
the truth of God, are the two instrumentalities by which God
saves the sinner. God saves the sinner both by
his spirit and by the truth of God's Word. Is that right? God
saves the sinner both by the work of the third person utilizing
the truth of the gospel to bring that individual into a saving
knowledge of Christ. Is that proposition valid? Now,
here's what the scriptures say in John chapter 4 verse 24. The hour is coming And now is
when they that worship the father Will worship him how in spirit
and in what you got that see that's what jesus said. He laid
it down He laid it down. He laid it down this two-sided
coin One side the spirit of god the other side the truth of god
and the two can never be separated You can't separate the spirit
from the truth. You can't separate the truth from the spirit when
it comes to efficacy The Spirit of God always works through the
truth of God's Word to save, to sanctify, to correct, and
to build up his people. If that is true, let me say this,
ladies and gentlemen, wherever a body of professing believers
is who call themselves full of the Holy Ghost, it better be
that they are full of a knowledge of God's Word. Are they perpetrating
a fraud? Did you hear what I just said?
Now we're in trouble, aren't we? Because we are a bunch of
imbeciles by nature. And study is the last thing that
we like to do. And therefore we are always culpable
and in danger of saying, thus said the Lord, when the Lord
has not said thus. And where this line is not told,
Vigorously this principle that I'm laying down here vigorously
you have all kinds of stuff going on in the name of the Holy Ghost
Which doesn't even remotely bear? resemblance with the truth of
God's Word We have every reason to during those sorts of occasions
where people are as it were professing to know God but by works denying
him raising the question do they know God at all and You see,
God gave us his word to be able to verify every spiritual activity
in our life. Notice it again. The methodology
is spirit and truth. God chose you from the beginning
under salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. We looked at, when we dealt with
this a few weeks ago, Ezekiel 37, 1 through 10. I won't go
through that again. I'll only follow these two points
in our outline. Do you see where it says, for
the preacher, it starts with the gospel? Do you see that?
And then you see where I say, for the dead sinner, it starts
with who? Good, because sometimes I've
shared this with us last week. We're getting ready to get to
our basic premise now. Our next verse is this. In religion,
we love to argue circuitous arguments that can never, ever be resolved.
Don't we? Here's one. Are you ready? And
I used this analogy before. I'm going to use it again. It'll
wake some of you up because you've fallen asleep on me. Here it
is. Which came first, the chicken
or the egg? Which came first the chicken
or the egg That brother that looks like he's been hanging
out with Methuselah He said a chicken I agree with him because he looked
just that old like he been there when the world began But see you can't really give
an empirical answer to that and it wasn't designed to be a Because
we know just in the process of things that are created, that
if we have a chicken, we had to have an egg. And if we have
an egg, we're going to have a chicken. It's a circuitous argument. You
know what you need? You need both. So now watch this. When it comes to the salvation
of sinners, some people will argue, well, before they get
saved, they need the spirit. They can't even hear the Word
without the Spirit. You guys got that? But at the
same time, what we learned is that the Spirit doesn't work
apart from the what? So now we got this argument going
on in theology. Are we saved through the Word?
Are we saved through the Spirit? Are we saved through the Spirit?
Are we saved through the Word? Can I share something with you?
We're saved by both. And if you want to be safe, you
know, because, you know, in our religious circles, boy, we start
denominations on one side or the other, don't we? If you want
to be safe, just simply say the work of grace in the area of
utilizing the spirit of God and the truth of God are synonymous. Are you hearing me? They're synonymous
if you want to be safe, if you want to be safe, because there
are faulty implications if you go on one or the other side.
Remember Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 1 through 10 when God told Ezekiel
Ezekiel what do you see? He said I saw I see a valley
full of dry bones. Remember that the dry bones Valley
Valley and In Ezekiel was asked by God. Can these bones what
live? Ezekiel said Lord, you know,
remember that and do you know what God told Ezekiel to do in
a situation where everybody in that Valley was dead and You
know what God told Ezekiel to do? He told Ezekiel to preach
the Word. Watch this now. So for the preacher,
it starts with the Word. Where is the obligation of the
truth to start? With the preacher. His job is
to preach the truth. His job is not to try to invoke
the Spirit of God to do something in the life of the dead sinner.
His job is to say the Word. Remember what Ezekiel said? Ezekiel,
speak to these dry bones. You got that? Watch this then. We aren't crying and begging
the Holy Ghost to come in where we have not preached the Word. You remember what the text said?
The text says that after Ezekiel had preached the word, the bones
came together to his bones, sitting upon his flesh in the mirror.
And they stood up. Right. And then he said, Ezekiel called
to the four winds that they may breathe on these bones, that
they may live. You guys got that for the bones? It was the spirit that gave them
life. For the preacher it was the preaching
that was the vehicle by which the spirit worked to give them
life For us our job is to preach the word It's god's job to blow
upon the dead bones That they may live Otherwise you and I
are fit to be tied when we have babies And we raise the babies
up in the fear to nurture the lord. We teach them the word
for five, 10, 15, 20 years, right, right. They're still dead, but
we've taught them the word. And we're like, God, what happened?
Well, you did your part. God now has to do his part. Am
I making some sense? For us then we receive both commands
to teach the truth and pray that God would be pleased to work
through that truth to save our children. Okay, we got a few
more minutes. Let me just deal with this last clause in our
outline. The methodology then for us by which You and I are
sanctified and brought into a saving truth is the work of the Spirit
through the truth of God's Word For the preacher it starts with
the gospel first Peter chapter 1 23 to 25. The Word of God is
alive All flesh is as grass, but the Word of the Lord abides
forever. This is the gospel by this is the word by which the
Gospels preached unto you and you and I must preach the gospel
and pray that the Spirit of God works behind it point number
five in our outline speaks to the unalterable process the unalterable
process. And here's where I will stop
tonight. When you and I are talking about
sanctification of the spirit and talking about being chosen,
what we are talking about is the grace of God. That's what we're talking about.
That's the, the, the one word in our vocabulary as Christians
is the grace of God, right? Well, if God gives you his grace,
here's what you can be sure to shore up. It will lead you to
where glory. It starts with grace and it ends
in glory. It starts with the grace of God
and it ends in the glory of God. Your salvation starts with God's
grace and it ends in glory. Let me say that again. I'm getting
ready to wind it down. I want you to get it. Salvation is by
grace through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift
of God. but salvation ultimately leads
to glory. Turning your Bible to Psalm 84,
just one Psalm, and then I'm going to open the floor for questions
before we close tonight. I want you to see this. Now,
the reason why I want to call your attention to this is in
order to give you a sense of confidence. If you're like me,
if you're like me, here's what you know. If it wasn't for the
grace of God, I'd be lost. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, I'd be lost and I wouldn't even know I was lost. Everything
for me starts with the grace of God. It's the grace of God
that gives me confidence that God looks upon me in favor. It's
the grace of God that allows me to wake up every day trusting
that God will keep me today like he kept me yesterday. Are you
guys with me so far? The grace of God is just a, it's a commodity
that never fails to bless the earnest human being, the earnest
sinner. I love grace. I love the grace
of God. But I also love the grace of
God because the grace of God is like a seed that when it flourishes
and grows up, you know what is going to manifest in its ultimate
fruition? Glory. Glory. Glory is where
God is taking us who believe. Glory is where we are going.
Are you guys are you with me so far glory is the end game
Pastor, how do you know that because it's what we lost All
have sinned and come short of the glory of God It's what we
lost in the garden is what God recovered in Christ. It's where
we're going, right? I It's where we're going. It's what God is preparing us
for. Did you know that your heart, once it's been made new in Christ,
now can contemplate the glory of God? Isn't that a wonderful
thing? This sack of dirt, call you,
can actually contemplate the glory of God. And your mind can
get around the idea of the ineffable bliss, this transcendent beauty
and splendor of God. You can think about that. Can't
you think about that? Now watch this. And you can think about
it without fear. In fact, you can anticipate it.
And in fact, you actually can long for it. Don't you want to
be in the presence of God? Don't you want to experience
the fullness of the blessings of the gospel? Well, listen to
this. Here's the promise. The promise is right here. Psalm
84, 11. This is what David says. Listen to
what he says. For the Lord God is a son and
a what? The Lord will give grace and
what? Do you see that? If God is giving
you His grace, you can be sure you're going to receive His glory. The same God that gives grace
is the God that gives what? See, all you have to ask the
question is, do I have the grace of God? Is the grace of God in
my life? And if it is, then the glory
of God is the ultimate fruition of that grace. God shall be a
son and a shield to them that believe the Lord God will give
grace and glory. No good thing Will he uphold
from them that walk uprightly? Lord of hosts Blessed is the
man that what trusted in you. All right That's where we're
gonna stop next time We will pick up at the cause and then the
admonition and we'll try to get through chapter 2 The floor is
open for questions for 10 minutes and then we'll wrap it up. You
got a question my brother. I Hold on for a second, because
they get mad at me if we don't get this on the mic. Yeah, G, you can run. My question
is, after saying that we were elected before the foundation
of the world and that we are being saved and sanctified, would
you say that once saved, always saved, in your mind, from what
you understand from the word of God, once saved, always saved?
That's my question. Once saved, always saved. Do
you, can you guys get your minds around that statement, once saved,
always saved? Have you ever heard that statement
before? Once saved, always saved. Do you know that that statement
is true on one hand and dangerously false on another? It's true and
false in this sense, that once saved, always saved, and I've
said this before, based on who saved you. Is that okay? Now watch this.
If you saved yourself, one saved ain't always saved. You get lost
every day if you saved yourself. If your salvation is based in
part or in whole on what you do and what God does, well, some
days you're saved and some days you're not. Right? So once saved
always saved is a total fallacious statement in churches where salvation
is supposed to be All you did was walk down to an aisle make
a decision for jesus and now you're saved and therefore you
always say That's a lie from the pit of hell Be sure of that
Salvation is not based on your decision for jesus. It's based
on his decision for you and it's based on him actually saving
you This is why we don't do altar calls We don't do altar calls
because if you come down here and and go through the crying
and whooping and hollering Oh Lord Jesus save me And then the elders and the deacons
talk about oh man, he he gave a snotty-nosed prayer he must
be saved And then a week later you back in your field Are you hearing me watch this
You certainly wasn't saved by that act. But now if you buy
into the preacher telling you they're there, you've said the
sinner's prayer. You accepted Jesus into your
life. You don't have to ever worry. You're going straight
to heaven. That's the stuff that is sending more people to hell
than I can even begin to imagine, because there was no conversion
there. There was no conversion there. You notice the reason
why I actually taught today three aspects of salvation. Past tense,
present tense, and future tense was in order to discard the notion
that your salvation is a past tense act where you got your,
you know, salvation card in your back pocket. Cause you remember
the day to time, the song they sang when you got saved and you
got your card in your pocket. So when you die, all they got
to do is put a card. Is he saved? Let's look at his back pocket
and see if he got a card. Say he's saved. Oh yeah, he's saved cause
he got a little card. No. Are you guys following me?
Salvation's of the Lord. And when God saves you, he saves
you with an everlasting salvation. Now, if we were to take this
up at length, we would talk about what does salvation look like
from beginning to end? That's a whole nother story.
Here is your obligation in mind. Are you ready? Make your calling
and election sure. Second Peter chapter one, verse
10. Next question. 200 denominations in the Christian
church and growing. It's a sad thing that we have
denominations in this sense, that denominations become barriers
to people getting to Christ and his sufficiency. That's the sad
thing about denomination. Well, I'm a Baptist. Well, I'm
a Methodist. I'm a born in the wool Pentecostal. I'm gonna live one, I'm gonna
die one. Well, you might just very well do that. and everything
in between Lutherans and Episcopalians and Catholics and all that type
of stuff. Well, you know, it's a sad thing
when you go, I am, you are actually designating your identity when
you say that. And that's unfortunate because
Luther didn't save anybody, nor did Calvin, nor did the Baptist,
nor did the Pentecostalist. None of those entities can save
you. It would be much better for you to simply say, I am a
Christian, in my opinion. See, but what that does is it
strips away particular and unique expressions of what you believe,
which is often rooted in pride. You guys understand what I'm
saying? It's a facade. Now, here's what I do want to
say. If you if you want to know what the derivative or the benefits
of denominations are, you have to study the history of each
denomination because there's a sociological benefit to the
denominational existence. Often denominations came into
existence because they were fighting against heresies or errors as
they perceived it, and they wanted to preserve the people group
who believed like they did. There is such thing as apostasy
and error and heresy and false doctrine for Jesus. That's the
other thing that's not taught in our churches today. Everybody's
a Christian today. You guys know that, right? Everybody.
Soon as you meet me, I'm a Christian. Where you go? I'll go here. Well,
I'll go there. And because people say they're
a Christian, then we give them the credit, you know, benefit
of the doubt they're Christian. But that doesn't make you a Christian.
It really just doesn't make you a Christian. And so what people
have to do is learn to leap beyond the barrier of denominational
terminology and ask the question, what does it really mean to be
saved? So as far as you're concerned, AJ, your conversation with the
individual who might have an angst against denominations,
if he says, well, what's with all this denomination? So say,
man, I agree with you, man. I really don't care much about
denominations one way or the other. What I'm concerned about
is knowing Christ. See what I'm getting at? So then
you take that individual to the heart of the matter and get him
right to the foot of the cross and his need for Jesus Christ.
And the rest of that stuff will take care of itself. You know,
And in our Friday night Bible said we have a couple hundred
people here every Friday night a Good vast majority of these
people a good portion of them go to different denominational
churches You're not true Y'all go to and y'all know good and
well that me and your pastor wouldn't be able to sit in the
same room When it comes to you know that with the theology,
you know, you know now, you know You know, I'm stepping on his
toes five days a week Now, what's the basis of your
unity in mind? This Christ, isn't that right?
That's the basis of our unity. The basis of our unity is Christ.
The basis of our disunity is all that other mess. All right,
another question before we shut it down over here, right here.
Yes, they will. Traditionally speaking, Catholicism
is a full-blown system of Christianity that is based totally on humanism.
And every facet of Catholicism in terms of its soteriology or
its salvation doctrine, and in fact everything else, is rooted
in man's work. And inherent in its whole system
of salvation, they warn to believe that your salvation in any part
justification, sanctification, or glory. If you believe in any
part that your salvation is based solely on what God did for you,
you're anathema. This is Catholic doctrine. So
that means in the Catholic Church, they do not allow their people
to believe that they can rest purely in the finished work of
Christ as the grounds of their acceptance, but that they have
to believe in what Jesus did and what they do in order to
affirm that and to to perfect that. Justification is a process
for them, not a one time act by which God imputes his righteousness
to you freely by the grace of God in Christ. The same thing
with sanctification. Sanctification is not, as I said,
the touching of the sinner by the work of the Spirit of God
and the Spirit of God doing the work of conforming you into the
image of Christ through the Word. For them, sanctification is the
church-going Catholic engaging in all the sacraments in the
church by which he sustains his justification infuses his justification
with his sanctification and hopes that he dies in the good favors
of the church. Otherwise, he has to go to purgatory
and deal with the rest of his sins until somebody either pays
him out or prays him out. And then he goes to glory. That
sounds like grace to me. Arminius, Jacob Arminius, was
a defender of Catholic doctrine against John Calvin and Erasmus
also against Luther. All right, another question right
there. Yes, we are. But don't say that. We are non-denominational church.
And I don't know why one of our guys wrote that up in our banner
on our website. Because see, listen, titles damn
you if you do and if you don't. Isn't that right? So you got
this non-denominational thing that damns you because non-denominationalism
sounds like you don't have a backbone. Right? You know, we're non-denominational.
That's kind of like being independent or, you know, or moderate. You know, I don't know, whichever
way the wind blows, that's what. No, we only say that we're non-denominational
because we believe in the sufficiency of the gospel of the grace of
God to establish our