33 - The Father and Salvation, Part 1

Welcome back to the Striving for Eternity Academy's School of Systematic Theology. We welcome to have you here with us. We are glad that you can join us for another lesson that we're going to be getting into a new topic this week.

Yeah, I know, it's the one you guys have all been waiting for. We'll see what it is. But we encourage you to grab a syllabus. If you have your syllabus and can grab that, it would be great. Then you can follow along and following along is a good thing.

So grab your syllabus. We are going to be in your syllabus in book number two. And we're in book number two. We are looking at God's gift to man. And in that, we are in section number three is dealing with the doctrine of salvation.

I told you we're going to get into some fun things. That is the doctrine that everyone loves to debate over. Well, okay, there's the doctrine of salvation and the doctrine of end times. Those are the two.

Those seem to be the two that everyone likes to study and to research and a lot of people seem to know very little about anything else. Actually, some people seem to know very little about those doctrines as well.

Yeah, just saying. But we are in the lesson in our syllabus, lesson number five with the father and salvation. That is going to be the lesson we are going to look at today. And you really like that little zipping thing, huh?

Oh, it's called copy machine. Okay, yeah. New toys for the engineers. All right, so you know why they don't give me new toys? I'd break them. But anyway, so no, I wouldn't break them. I was just told I would play with them too much.

I play with toys too much is what I'm being told. Okay, well, let's play with our syllabus. How's that? All right, so we are looking at the doctrine of salvation. Now, before we get into this, I hope that if you're new to the academy, which I guess I should be welcoming the new students.

We had some new students that joined with us and actually, I guess I could say that we were at the compelled conference that was put on by Hearts for the Lost. Great, great group of guys, five guys that put together that are Hearts for the Lost go around to churches free.

So, if you want some evangelism training and you want them to come to your church, you can go to heartsforthelost .com and check them out. Great, great conference that we had and we did get some new students from there.

So, welcome if you are joining for the first time and if you are, you're in the wrong class. No, well, not exactly, but you shouldn't start studying the doctrines or theology in the center, like in the middle.

I mean, this is like lesson, what, 33 or something? So, we're kind of in the middle of this and this is the problem that I find most people have. We're going to get into these lessons and people are going to start wanting to share them on Facebook and share them, you know, with friends and say, oh, you got to listen to this sort of thing because there's a lot of people that are out there that get into these discussions.

That's great and if you're looking to learn things about the doctrine of salvation, that's good, but you don't start with the doctrine of salvation. You really need to start at the beginning where we talked about the attributes of God because much of the confusion as we're going to see as we go through these many lessons going forward is that a lot of people have difficulties because they didn't study the attributes of God first and they didn't work their way through understanding man and sin and things like that.

If you remember, I said in the past few lessons that when we understand what sin is, it's going to help us in understanding these lessons. Now, the first three of these lessons are going to be looking at the role of the Trinity in salvation.

We're going to start with the Father and then the Son and then the Spirit. So, those will be the first three of the lessons and then, yes, I know the lesson you've all been waiting for. We're going to get into the lesson on God's sovereignty and human responsibility.

That's where all the debate is, so we'll get to there. So, just hold on, but this week we're going to look at the Father and salvation. Now, looking at that with class, let's start with this is that we've learned that man was created unique from animals.

Let's just throw up some verses for that. We've looked at this in last class when we looked at the doctrine of man and sin in these past few classes, but here we see that it says that God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish and the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over the earth and over the creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him male and female. Now, that's the creation. That's how he started the creation, but then what happened? Well, we're created in the image of God and if you go back to the lessons on the doctrine of man, you'll see that we did talk about that, what that means, and now we're going to look at because man sinned, we're now by nature a sinner.

We looked at that in the doctrine of sin. We see that most clearly here in Romans 3. Let's just look at the first and last verse of that. It's just for time. It says, as it was written, none are righteous, no, not one.

Then at the bottom, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, what you have here is you have a case where we are created in the image of God. Man was created with the image of God, created very good by decree as we had seen that God, after he made man, said everything was very good.

So, prior to Genesis 3, everything was very good. Now, problem is that because man sinned, we are now by nature a sinner and our soul is now separated from God spiritually and without an act of God, separated even for eternity.

Let's take a look at a verse that talks about that and that is Revelation chapter 20. It says here, then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. For his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them.

I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which was the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in these books according to what they had done.

Stop right there for a second. Notice how they're being judged. They're judged by what they were done. So, you have these two books, the dead are being judged, whether their name is in the book of life or by this other book, which is actually called the book of works and it's judged by the very things that they do, which is what they trust in for to get into heaven.

But we'll get into that. Look at verse 13, and the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had.

What's that word? Oh, what they've done. Those works again. The dead, then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, they were thrown into the lake of fire.

Notice there, because this is going to be important when we look into later lessons. What is it they're being judged for? They're being judged or judged by? They're being judged by their works. So, do you notice that?

Through that, not only are we separated for all of eternity, if we are without Christ, if our names are not written in that Lamb's book of life, then our names are written in that other book, the book of works.

Those are the things we're going to be judged by, which is our works, the things we've done. We're going to see that in much more detail. But if you've seen already, building off of the doctrine of sin, I think it should be very clear and easy for you to make the next step to see this is why we're separated.

When we see how bad sin is, then we get to see why it is that we need an act of God. To be able to reconcile with God and get into a right relationship with God. So, this leads us to the crucial study now of the doctrine of salvation.

Now, the word salvation, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, has the basic idea of deliverance. In other words, to make safe or sound. Okay, and we have to start with understanding how this word is used because this word is used as a very general word and we've got to be clear and precise in the usage of what we mean by it.

In the scriptures, the term can mean referring to a saving of someone from a physical disease. Let's look at a couple of verses for that. Let's look at Luke 18. So, Jesus said to him, Recover your sight, your faith has made you well.

So, the word well there is the idea of salvation. Another verse we see is Jesus turned and seeing her said, Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well. So, what we see with that is that there is a case where the word for salvation is used in referring to physical disease, being saved from physical disease.

Alright, but it also could be referring to temporal danger. Matthew 8 .25 says,. And they went and woke him saying, Save us, Lord, we're perishing. I mean, you can't read that like save us, Lord, we're perishing.

You got to put some emphasis on that. Save us, Lord, we're perishing. You know, they're freaking out. They think they're going to die. Another verse would be in Acts 27. When neither the sun nor the stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay upon us, all hope of being saved was at last abandoned.

So, here you see a temporal danger that someone is being saved from. So, salvation could, in a general sense, refer to someone being saved from physical things, from, you know, from disease, or from a physical danger, temporal danger.

Or it could be, as we most often seem to think of it in Christian terms, eternal damnation. Matthew 1 .21, She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sin.

Also in Romans 5 .9, Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, which much more shall we be saved from the wrath of God. So, there you see it the way we most generally refer to it. Now, we'll look at this at different times, but at a later lesson we're going to get into some more detail, but the idea of being saved actually has three different tenses.

Okay, there's three different ways of looking at this and understanding what salvation, in a Christian sense, means. Salvation can have three meanings. In the past tense, it can refer to the point in time that you were redeemed.

And we call it being saved, past tense. That time that you were an enemy of God, now you became a follower of Christ. The time you repented, you put faith in Christ. You were adopted into his family. All of those things.

In a later time, I hope to send out to all the students that have enrolled down at that website down there, you're going to get an email that gives you a nice little chart of all the different things that happen at salvation, I think.

But a lot of things happen at that time, that point in time when we go from darkness to light. We go from being damned to being redeemed. That's a past tense thing. But there's also a sense we can say we're being saved.

And this is where a lot of people get into trouble because as some cults and groups do, they start to say, oh, well, salvation is a progressive thing. It's something you continue doing. And so you're not really saved, referring it to that previous tense, the redeemed view.

And really what they're confusing is the doctrine of sanctification, where we're made more in the image of Christ. That comes after that redemption. We're redeemed. That's saved. We're being saved. That's present tense.

That's that sanctification process where we're made more in the image of Christ and we keep growing in faith. And then there's a future saved, which is glorification. That time that we're, sin is gone.

Now we're in a right relationship with Christ and we're without sin. We're in a glorified body. And so that is the idea there. So, what we have here is those three. Now the focus of our study in salvation as it relates to deliverance of the soul from eternal damnation.

That's where we're going to focus as Christians. We're going to begin by examining the triune God in providing salvation. Now there's three things, a couple things actually you see all three members of the Trinity involved in.

You see them involved in the creation of man. In the creation of universe. You see all of them involved in the Christ's death on the cross and his providing of salvation. You see all of them involved when it comes to his resurrection.

So, these are certain things that you see all three members are active in and salvation is one of them. And we're going to look at each member's specific role in the Trinity. No, sorry, in salvation. Being the idea of us being redeemed.

Now, there will be three key texts that we're going to elaborate all three persons of the Godhead as being actively working in salvation in the believer's life. So, let's look at these three. First, this is a longer one, but let's look at Ephesians 1 verses 3 to 14.

And this is a lengthy one, but this is a good one. It has a lot here. So, blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, here you see that this is speaking of God the Father. I hope you kind of get that one, right?

So, you're going to see, let me just explain this before we read it. You're going to see God the Father, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit. Each having a role that is going to be played here. So, let's look at each one of those three, okay?

So, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us from Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

He predestined us for the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. To the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him, now this is speaking of Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses in accordance with the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

And in Him we attain an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were first in hope to Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

In Him also, when we heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, we believed in Him, were sealed with the promise of the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it and praise to His glory.

So, let's go on to Titus chapter 3. We'll read another. Titus 3, 3 -7. I guess they're going to get shorter in these three. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and hatred by others, and hating one another.

But when the goodness and the lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works which we have done in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly, Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And then lastly, 1 Peter 1 and 12. It was revealed to them that we were serving, that we were serving not themselves, that they were serving, that's what, I knew I was reading that wrong. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have been made, have been announced to you through those things who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, the things which the angels long to look.

Now, a couple things that we see there. We see one, that all three, and this is the main part of reading each of those, you see in each of those main texts that all three members of the Trinity are active in our salvation, in our being redeemed, okay?

I love that last part of 1 Peter because what that says is that the very act that happened to you and I as believers in Christ, if you are a believer in Christ, those very things are the things that when we look at them, okay, angels long to look for.

Do you realize that? You and I have something that angels wish they could understand. Just saying, okay. So, long introduction. Let's start in our syllabus, Roman numeral one. Now, if you're a good note taker, good outliner, you're going to go, wait a minute, Andrew, help me out here.

I see Roman numeral one, the father planned salvation but as I look through this lesson in my syllabus, if you have a syllabus, I don't see Roman numeral two and Roman numeral one should always be followed by Roman numeral two.

That's next class. Thank you very much. Just saying because I know there's some students out there that they're going to be focused on just that there's no Roman numeral two and they'll be emailing me, I'm sure.

If not, they'll just make fun of it on Facebook. But Roman numeral one, the father planned salvation. The father planned salvation. That's the role that we're going to see he had. He planned salvation and he is the initiator of it.

God the father is the initiator. Remember when we talked about the doctrine of sin and we said that it was not God who initiated sin? Well, in this case, what you have is you'd be seeing that God is the initiator of salvation, God the father.

And so, well, God actually, but in this case, we're speaking of the father's role and we're going to look at some scriptures and the significance of the scriptures we're going to look at and the significance of God being the initiator is that because man is depraved, we looked at that in the last class, last lesson, that man is depraved and we explained what depravity means.

But just because some people may not go back and though they should watch last class, depravity does not mean that we are as wicked and evil as we can be. It doesn't mean we do every level. We're not at every level of depravity and do every evil thing, but it means that every part of our body, every part of our nature was affected by the sin.

Okay, so we are as including our will. That's the real issue. So because man is depraved, there is nothing in him that seeks God. That's your blank. You're filling the blank there. Seeks God. There's nothing within man that seeks God because he is depraved.

Therefore, God therefore needed to initiate the divine plan. Now, this is the point. The point is that because man cannot be the initiator, God must be. Why can't man? Because of what we looked at in the nature of sin.

This is why those previous lessons are so important. So you understand man's condition, how bad sin is. So you understand that man cannot be the initiator. Now, I understand that many people have an issue with this.

Okay, I was just told that earlier in the lesson, the slide said 1 Peter 1 .12 and it was supposed to say 1 verse 2. Sorry. Okay, thank you for letting me know. So in the slide that was up earlier, it said 1 Peter 1 .12.

It should have said 1 Peter 1 .2. Okay, sorry about that. Thank you. Now, you think you're... They think that I don't remember where I am and they're going to throw me off and I'm not going to know where I am in my notes.

What page am I on? Oh, no. Okay, so we are talking about the fact that God has to be the initiator. Now, the interesting thing with this is that many people will say that God was the initiator, that salvation is completely a work of God, and then what do they do?

Then they talk about it as if man was the initiator, as if man was the one that started to seek after God. You ever hear of those churches that are called seeker sensitive? Who's that seeker? There is no seeker that's sensitive.

I mean, if we read Romans 3 and we looked at that, we read that earlier, so let's not put it up, but no one seeks after God. Now, let me think. I could be... Let me put all my thinking into interpretation principles and no one seeks after God means there's no one.

No one. There are no seekers, okay? There's no seekers that are seeking after God. Now, let's take a look at some scriptures with this and I'm going to... Let's look at, start with 1 John 1, 12 and 13, all right?

"...but to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.". Now, stop right there for a second. Notice something. Many people say, ah, we're all children of God.

Is that what that verse says? No, it doesn't. Only those who receive Him have the right to be called a child of God, but how do they get that right? Well, let's look at the passage in verse 13. "...who were born," notice this, not of blood, that means genealogy.

It's not of their genealogy. In other words, my Judaism didn't save me like I thought, "...nor of the will of the flesh," okay? So, that's talking about the works, you know, those very things that we think we're going to do to save ourselves.

It's not by works. "...nor of the will of man," in other words, it's not because I just greatly desire it, I wish to be saved, "...but of God," okay? So, what you see there is God, that man could not become a child of God by willing it.

It took an act of God to make the provision. Now, I think it's easy for many will say, okay, I understand, it's not by genealogy just because I'm born Roman Catholic or I'm born Jewish doesn't mean I'm going to heaven based on what my parents, you know, because of my parents.

There's plenty of verses and we'll look at them about works, that we're not saved by works, but there's some that struggle with this last one, "...but of a willingness," I mean, that's what this whole idea of seeker-sensitive is about, that there's somehow these seekers after God, there's people who seek after God, and because they're seeking after God, they're somehow going to find Him.

No, it's not going to happen. Why? They're not seeking, okay? It's not by their willingness. That's what that is saying, okay? 1 John 13 is making it clear it's not by the works that we do. It's not by our willingness, our great desire.

I always think of the book Pilgrim's Progress. I don't know if you've read that. If not, it's a really good book to read, you know, it's basically an allegory by John Bunyan. I think he wrote it while he was in prison even, but it's supposedly a dream, he says it's a dream he has, right?

But he wrote this book as if he's dreaming. And it's about this man Christian and he meets different people and he meets a man called Ignorance. And you'll find that, you know, there's a worldly wise man and there's ignorance and all these different people are named after their, you know, personifications of the things they represent.

Ignorance just is willing to go to heaven. He desires it. He greatly desires it. And throughout the book, Ignorance is walking along the path thinking he's on his way to heaven, to the celestial kingdom.

But after Christian gets into the celestial kingdom, just before the end of the book, I know I'm giving away the end of the book, but it's still worth it anyway because there's a whole lot more to read.

But what you end up seeing is that Ignorance at the very end, he finds out that even at the gates of heaven is a doorway to hell. And his great desire to go to heaven was not enough to save him. And he was cast into the lake of fire.

There were two others. I forget their names offhand that are seen climbing over a fence to not go according to the path that God has set. But they climb over a fence to get on the right road and they say, well, to Christian, well, hey friend, we're on the road just like you.

And therefore, we're on the same road. It takes us to the same place and therefore we're fine. We don't need a certificate. We don't need to go through the way you went through. And really what that's picturing is that there's many people who say we don't have to go through the process as long as we desire to go to heaven.

That's enough. As long as we desire God, we don't have to change the way we live. We don't have to give anything up. We can just sit and say, hey, we just have a desire. We will it to be this way. Well, if our will was what initiated salvation, in other words, if we actually could seek after God, then we would be the initiator, not God.

Those that start to want to learn more about God, those that you may see coming to church because they have some desire to know about God, you know why they have that desire? Because God put it there.

We're going to see that when we look at the Holy Spirit. God convicts of sin and that's what is there. So, let's look at another passage here, John 6, 44. No one can come to the Father. Now, again, you know, I know it's this thinking.

Let me try to understand that. That said no one. That means some people can, right? No, no one means no one. All right. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. So, who's the initiator?

Who is it that does the drawing? Man? No, no, no, no, no. God. Unless the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. No one will come to the Father unless the Father draws him.

Well, no one's going to come to the Son, sorry, technically. No one comes to the Son, Christ, unless the Father draws him. So, in other words, who initiates? Who starts this process? God the Father. He plans it.

He starts it. These verses, oh, sorry, we got one more? Okay, John 12, 32. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Ah, so he's going to draw all people. That means everyone's going to be saved, right?

It says all. Who's going to do the drawing there? It's going to be Christ. And he's going to draw all people to himself. In other words, all people are going to know about redemption. Now, I think in a way where God gives us a consciousness so we all know, he's going to draw all people.

Some he'll draw to judgment. But what these verses teach us is that it is impossible for anyone on their own initiative to seek salvation or to know that God is true, to know the true God. Now, this is the problem.

Some people have issues with this. And I'm taking some time and I'm being made fun of because I'm not going to finish this lesson that was so short that I should have finished in one week. But I'm not going to.

Fine. Peanut gallery. So, we probably won't finish this lesson this week. But I think it's important for us to understand because this is really a big issue. This whole idea of seeking in a seeker-sensitive church is really, really important to understand and to have a good foundation before we move on.

I'm hoping that if anything, we're showing you that as we go through all these 30-some lessons that we've gone through, that we're trying to build upon a foundation so that you understand that this is not just something someone pulls out of the air.

Someone doesn't just go, oh, God initiates salvation. Boom. I just said so. You know, well, let me grab a couple of verses here and there when there seems to be some verses that seem to indicate that maybe man is, you know, the initiator.

So, we'll grab a couple of those. Well, how do they fit in context? Well, when you understand the context of our sin and how effective it was in the curse, you realize that man can't be seeking. When you look at these verses, then you realize the verses teach that it's impossible for anybody to seek after God and know the true God.

But it's because God's the initiator. He draws. So, how does He do it? How does the Father draw men to Himself? Well, let's look at three things and we'll probably try to wrap up with those and finish up next week.

But the Spirit convicts. That's your blank there in your syllabus. The Spirit convicts the sinner of his need. This is something for those Calvinistic friends of mine who are out there who love the doctrines of grace.

This is the one that many of us kind of forget. The very first act in the salvation process is not redemption. We're going to see this in two lessons when we talk about the Holy Spirit's role, but it's the convicting work.

That's the very first thing. The Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his need. That's the first act, the first part of the process. In drawing men to Himself, the Father has the Spirit to convict them of sin.

Let's look at a couple of verses, two verses. First, Thessalonians 1, 3 -4, and that says, Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfast hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For we know, brothers, we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you. Let's look at another in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. But we ought always give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

So what you see there is really, really clear that the first thing of the choosing process, it's the convicting. The Spirit convicts. Next, the Scriptures expose the sinner to his need. So where the Spirit convicts the sinner to his need, the Scripture exposes the sinner to his needs, to his need.

Now we already saw 2 Corinthians 2, verse 13. Let's look at 2 Timothy 3, verse 15. And how from childhood, this is Paul writing to Timothy, you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to salvation through the faith in Christ.

So it is the Scriptures that make him wise unto salvation. So we see first, and this is the first step, is that the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner of his need. Second, in your syllabus there, the blank is expose.

The Scriptures expose the sinner to his needs. Third, is that the servant, that meaning Christ, is part of God's plan to witness to the sinner. Okay, the servant, actually no, that should be lowercase s in the syllabus.

That's not reading right. That should be the servant, you and I, is how that should be. You and I then have a role in God's plan to witness to the sinner. So, we'll have to change that for future editions of the syllabus.

I shouldn't have a capital S there. But you and I play a role in salvation of other people. Did you realize that? You and I are active in salvation because what we do is we act to take that part of being a witness.

In Acts chapter 1 and verse 8,. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to the inner part of the earth.

So, who are the witnesses? Those believers. Let's look at Romans 10, 14, and 15. Romans 10, 14, and 15 says, How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe on him of whom they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. So, what you see there is you see a case where we have these three parts of the drawing process.