WWUTT 678 Obtaining the Salvation that is in Christ?

The Need to Know the Implications of the Gospel

Do you believe in Jesus Christ? That he died on the cross and rose again from the grave? Wonderful! Now, can you tell me what the implications of those things are? Even these details are necessary for us to know when we understand the text.

Program Introduction and Reading 2 Timothy 2:8-13

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to 2 Timothy chapter 2 today, and once again, verses 8 through 13, where we read, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal.

But the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy.

For if we have died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

This week we've been focusing on mainly that statement that Paul makes there in verse 8, Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, all these ways that Paul ties the identity of the true Christ to the gospel that he preaches.

This isn't just some secret knowledge that was revealed to Paul that nobody else can know, but it is confirmed according to what the scriptures teach, that we are preaching the right Christ that the scriptures prophesied about.

Christ then came and fulfilled those things. And the gospel is the good news that Jesus has died for sins and all who believe in him will be forgiven and receive eternal life with God. This is the good news of the gospel, except no substitute, except no imitation.

In fact, Paul would say with the Galatians that there is no other gospel. And if anyone comes to you preaching a gospel different than the one that we preach to you, he is accursed. You must know the true Christ and you must know him truly.

And how do you know that what you believe about Jesus is true? Because of what God has said about Christ in his word, the Bible, we know Jesus according to what is said in the scriptures. This affirms that what we believe about God is true.

It's not simply enough for you to believe in someone who is named Jesus and therefore you would be saved. But that the things you believe about Jesus point to him being the true Messiah that was prophesied in the Old Testament that showed up and confirmed the things that were prophesied about him and then commissioned his apostles to go out and spread his gospel.

Because whoever believes in what he said will be saved and their sins will be forgiven. Jesus said in John 5 24, truly, truly, I say to you, so you know how important these words are. Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

In the next chapter, John 6 63, Jesus said, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. And a verse I quoted, I believe it was yesterday, Romans 10 17.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. And we're told in the book of Hebrews that without faith, it is impossible to please God. The only way we please God is by faith. And the only way we come into faith is through the word of Christ.

Jesus said to his disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. And then in the next chapter, John 17, he says that we are sanctified in the truth. And God's word is true. Once again, it is the Bible that shows to us the truth we must believe in order to be saved.

The Importance of Details in Recognizing the Right Christ

My grandmother on my dad's side was very fond of reading the obituary. I don't really know why my dad didn't know why either. Just was the thing that she did. She woke up in the morning, opened up the newspaper and read the obituaries.

And one day she woke up and read her own obituary. Same first name, middle initial, last name and the address that she resided at. And there was a thought that crossed her mind. She thought, is this how you find out that you've died?

You wake up one morning and you read your own obituary in the newspaper. She had friends that read that obituary as well, and they started calling the house and they're asking my grandfather, what happened to Margaret?

We didn't even know she had passed away. And here we're reading her obituary in the newspaper. And she would get on the phone and say, no, you're hearing my voice. This is some honest mistake. And so when she and my grandfather called the newspaper, they found out there was a Hughes that had passed away.

Same middle initial. But when the newspaper looked up the address to print it in the paper, they looked up the wrong Margaret Hughes and ended up printing the address of my grandmother instead of the woman that they were attempting to report on.

So you see how the details point to an identity point to the identity of a person. In this case, those details were wrong and pointed to the wrong person. But when it comes to worshiping Jesus Christ, how do we know who Jesus is?

It's according to the details that we read about in scripture. There are plenty of other people out there who think they have details on who Jesus is, but they're the wrong details. They point to the wrong person.

They point to the wrong Christ. The Bible and the details that are shared here about who Jesus is points to the right Christ, who it is that we should truly be worshiping and worshiping him as he has said he is to be worshiped, not as how we want to worship him, but according to the details that God, the father and his son, Jesus Christ, and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have been given to us in the Bible.

How do we know who Jesus is? According to what the Bible says about him, how do we know what Jesus said about himself? According to what we read in his word? How do we know how we are to please God when it comes to worshiping Christ?

That's all given to us in the Bible. Remember that Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well in John chapter four, the worshipers that God is seeking will worship him in spirit and in truth. How do we know what that looks like or what that means?

What true worship is supposed to be? It's according to what the Bible says. The Old Testament scriptures point to this Messiah who is going to come. Jesus came and fulfilled what the Old Testament said about him and by his life and ministry and the things he did.

We read about Christ in the gospels. Then Jesus died on the cross. He rose again from the grave. He ascended into heaven where he is seated at the right hand of God, the father. What do these things mean?

What does it mean that Jesus died on the cross? What does it mean that he rose again from the grave? What does it mean that he is seated at the right hand of God, the father, where he is currently reigning?

What does it mean that he is coming back again? What do all of those things mean? There are some people out there who will preach the gospel and yes, what they're saying is true and it is the good news, but they don't talk about what it means.

Like they might say to a person, well, you need to believe in Jesus. You need to believe that he died on the cross. You need to believe that he rose again from the grave. And if you believe those things, then you'll be saved.

Yes, that's true. But what do those things mean? Because there are some people who believe those things, but what they believe about those things is wrong and they don't believe the truth. So therefore, they don't actually believe the true gospel.

So let's just take the basic details that I outlined there. Believing in Jesus, that he died on the cross and that he rose again from the grave. Okay, the resurrection. We're just taking those three details.

Jesus died on the cross, rose from the grave. Well, a person can believe in a man named Jesus, but that he was only a man and he was not God. So they deny the divinity of Christ and they have made up a false Jesus.

They've also rejected many of the claims that Jesus made about himself when he claimed to be the son of man who was prophesied in the scriptures who would be sent from heaven by God the father. And when they reject that Jesus claimed those things about himself, then they're believing in the wrong Christ.

They may believe in a real historical person named Jesus who lived 2000 years ago, who said many great things, did many great things. He actually walked this earth. But over time, the things he said and did turned into myth and people deified him and started worshiping him.

But that really wasn't who Jesus was. He wasn't actually a God. He was just a normal man who did amazing things 2000 years ago. If that's what a person believes about Jesus, though, they believe that he was truly a historical person.

They still believe in the wrong Christ because they don't believe in what he said about himself and what the Bible says about him. They've made up a person in their minds that is different than the true Christ.

Let me give you another example of this. Abraham Lincoln, born in 1809 in the state of Kentucky, grew up in the state of Indiana, met a woman named Mary Todd, whom he would eventually marry, and he would go on to become president of the United States.

Well, based on those details, you know exactly who I'm talking about, right? No, you don't. I'm actually talking about the main character of the fictional film Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, not the true Abraham Lincoln recorded in American history.

By the way, I've never seen that movie, so don't take that as an endorsement. I'm just using that as an example. But it just goes to show just because you believe in a historical person that shares the same name and some of the same details does not mean that you are believing in the right person.

So it requires more than just believing that a person named Jesus existed 2000 years ago. You must also believe the things he said about himself and what history and the Bible truly records about him.

Believing in a man who lived 2000 years ago named Jesus saves nobody. For Jesus again said in John 524, whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. So we must understand the implications of what we mean when we talk about Jesus Christ and who he is.

That's number one. Second example that I gave is we're just kind of whittling it down to the basics. Second example is that Jesus died on the cross. What does that mean? What are the implications of that?

You can even go as far as saying Jesus died on the cross for our sins. All right. What does that mean? Well, we must first understand that we sinned against God. All of us are lawbreakers. We transgress the law of God.

The law said do not lie. We lied. The law said do not commit adultery. Jesus pointed out that we have all committed adultery in our hearts. If you have even lusted after somebody, you've committed adultery with them in your heart.

The law said do not murder. Jesus pointed out in Matthew five, we're all murderers. If you've even hated someone in your heart or called them names, you've murdered them in your heart and you are guilty of the hell of fire.

Everyone is guilty. No one is innocent. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. No one can pay back the debt that we have incurred by rebelling against a holy God.

We all stand before him condemned. But God so loved the world that he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, who is the righteous one. And he lived perfectly and kept the law when we could not. He fulfilled the law.

We can't keep the law. Jesus did. And he became our substitute in his life so that by his death on the cross, his shedding of his blood, dying the death that we deserved, he took our sins upon himself and God poured out his wrath that we had incurred because of our unrighteousness.

He poured out upon Christ. Instead, Jesus took our sins upon himself and has given us his righteousness so that all who believe in him, God looks upon as righteous. He does not see a guilty sinner. He sees a righteous man or woman of God because we have the righteousness.

We've been clothed in the righteousness of Christ. This is what it means when we say that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But the way a person receives that righteousness, receives that forgiveness of sins is by belief is by faith in Jesus Christ.

We have our sins forgiven and we stand innocent before God because of what Christ has done for us. That's what it means when we say Jesus died on the cross for our sins. There are some false teachers out there who mean something different when they say Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

There's a false teacher by the name of Brian Zahn, pastors a church in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is just a little more than two hours from where I live. And I have felt the effects of his false teaching in the area where I live.

When Brian Zahn stands in his pulpit and he says Jesus died on the cross for our sins, he believes something different than what I just described. He believes that we sinned by crucifying an innocent man.

And that's what it means when we say that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. It just means we sinned by killing somebody who was innocent. Zahn has taken the implications of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ out of theology.

Now it's just a historical event, which once again doesn't save anybody. You can believe anything in history. History doesn't save. It's believing in what Jesus said and who sent him. That is our salvation.

And by the way, Brian Zahn hates the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement, which is what I just described. And he believes that it makes God into a monster. But that's exactly what the Bible teaches.

And so Brian Zahn is calling God a monster. So those are the two examples that I began with. Jesus Christ, who died on the cross. And then number three, he rose again from the grave. What do we mean when we say that?

Do you mean that Jesus merely had a spiritual resurrection? That's what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached, that Jesus did not rise bodily from the grave. He merely had a spiritual resurrection. But what are the implications of believing that Jesus' body rose again from the grave?

Well, Paul lays it out clearly in 1 Corinthians 15 in verse 17. He says, if Jesus Christ did not rise again from the dead, if his body did not come out of that tomb, then you are still dead in your sins.

Romans 10 9 tells us, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So there's the implications of believing in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

So once again, Jesus Christ died on the cross, rose again from the grave. Who are we talking about? And what is the significance of that? Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, who came from heaven and lived a perfect life, fulfilling the law and the prophets.

He died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins, his shed blood as an atoning sacrifice for the sins that we had committed against God. And God the Father showed that he received this perfect sacrifice of Jesus by raising him again from the grave so that all who believe in Jesus will be forgiven their sins and will have his eternal life.

There's the details and the implications, and they must be present in the gospel that we believe and also in the gospel that we share. Here's an example of somebody sharing the gospel and how empty it is because the details and the implications are not present.

Listen in.

A Gospel Presentation That Lacks Sin and Judgment

So we live in this world, and it's characterized by brokenness. We don't have to look very hard to see there are things like disease, disasters, wars. There's a lot of pain in this world, but this is not God's original design.

God has a perfect design, and the way that we have gotten ourselves into brokenness is through something that the Bible calls sin. Sin is turning away from God's design and pursuing our own way, and that leads us to brokenness.

Brokenness eventually leads us to death, and this death will separate us from God forever. But God doesn't want us to stay in brokenness, so he's made a way out, and that way is Jesus. Jesus comes and he enters into our brokenness, and the death that we deserve for pursuing brokenness, Jesus takes our place and dies on a cross, and his body is broken for us.

And three days after he dies, he rose from the dead, and he made a way out of brokenness. And people try many things to get out of brokenness, things like religion, things like success, or relationships, education, or drugs and alcohol, but none of these things can get us out of brokenness.

The only way out is Jesus. And if we turn from our sin and believe that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead, we can leave brokenness and grow in a relationship with God and pursue his design. And more than that, we can go.

We can be sent, just like Jesus, back into brokenness to help others come through him to pursue God's design. Now, there's two types of people in the world. There are people that are pursuing God's design, and there's people that are still in brokenness.

We have to ask ourselves, where are we? So, where do you think you are?

I'm sure that the man who made that video means well, but I don't believe that anyone would be saved by listening to that presentation of the gospel. There's no understanding there of the sins that we had committed against God.

And for those sins, for our rebellion against God, we deserve to be destroyed in the final judgment. We needed a savior to save us from the wrath of God, burning against all the unrighteousness of men.

And that savior is Jesus Christ, sent from heaven by God, taking on human flesh, living perfectly, sinless, fulfilling the law and the prophets. He died on the cross for our sins, taking our sins upon himself, giving us his righteousness so that when God looks at us, he sees not our sins, not an enemy against God, but he sees sons and daughters of God.

We have been adopted into the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus rose again from the grave so that all who believe in him will be forgiven their sins. He has ascended back to the right hand of God, the father, where he intercedes for us on our behalf.

And a day is coming when Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. And only those who have believed in him will escape from the wrath of God and live forever with him in his eternal kingdom.

We become fellow heirs with Christ by faith, by believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven our sins and have eternal life with God. Following Jesus means that we repent. We no longer walk in the sinful way, but we follow in Christ's righteousness and we obey the things that he commanded of his disciples.

One of those things that he commanded is that we go and share this gospel with the world. It is only by believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ that a person is saved from judgment and the wrath of God.

So we must preach that others may turn from sin and know Christ and believe. Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in the gospel, the word of God, which is not bound.

Therefore, we must endure everything for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy. If we have died with him, we will also live with him.

If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Amen. Praise the Lord.

Glory Hallelujah. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.