The Unconverted “Believer” (2): What is the Gospel of Salvation?

First Baptist Church Leominster

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in Psalm 2 is quoted as being realized in Christ here in Acts chapter 4.

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Acts chapter 4. And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the

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Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

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And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening.

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But many of those who had heard the word believed, and a number of men came to about five thousand.

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On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all were of who were of the high priestly family.

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And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power or by what name did you do this?

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Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom

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God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

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And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated common men, they were astonished, and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.

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But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another, saying,

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What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

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But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.

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So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

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But Peter and John answered, Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge.

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For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard. And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them because of the people, for all were praising

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God for what had happened. For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than 40 years old.

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When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

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And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father

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David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, Why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain?

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The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.

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For truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant

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Jesus, whom you appointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the

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Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

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And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant

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Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were filled with the

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Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Now, the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.

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And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

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There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

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Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas, which means son of encouragement, a

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Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

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Let's pray. Our Father, this is such an encouraging passage when we read about how you mightily worked within the early church.

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And Lord, we need to remember that you are still mightily working in your church, and the wonderful things that happened then can happen now.

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We thank you that there is salvation and no one else, that there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

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And we pray, Lord, that we would exalt and adore and lift your name on high as we proclaim you to a lost and dying world.

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Lord, we pray that you would help us understand your word. We pray that you would teach us and guide us.

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Give us instruction, Lord, as we listen to this sermon. Help us to learn something about you and something about ourselves.

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And we pray, Lord, that we would live it out in the strength of the Spirit. Thank you, in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, let's turn in our

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Bibles, please, to 1 Peter chapter 2. And in a few minutes we'll be reading verses 21 through 25,

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Lord willing. Last Lord's Day, we began this series, important series, on the unconverted believer.

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And we put believer in quotes because, of course, we're speaking about a believer who is not a true believer, doesn't have true saving faith, only thinks he does.

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We had read from the Word of God of the propensity and the pervasiveness for fallen mankind to believe that they are pure and clean before God, even though God regards them as defiled and damned in their sin.

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And that's based on Proverbs 30 verse 12. A generation perceiving itself to be clean in reality is defiled, not washed from their filthiness.

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One of the manifestations of sin is that sin convinces sinners that they are not sinners before God, but they are in favor with him.

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The Word of God speaks of the deceitfulness of sin, and sin deceives a person, assuring him that he is safe with regard to his standing before God, when actually the wrath of God abides on him.

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And if we wanted to take the time, we could show from the Scriptures that sin is not only the deceiver of sinners, that they are in favor with God.

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Satan too is a great deceiver, of course, who would have unconverted people believe themselves to be right with God.

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And then of course the fallen world itself will bolster the fantasy of those self -deceived,

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Satan -duped souls. And then sadly there are even those in pulpits who contribute to the spiritual delusion of them who are misled.

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And so it's really no wonder that there are so many deluded people when considering the ease in which souls want to be deceived, and the many forces and voices that would encourage them in their fanciful presumption.

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Charles Spurgeon once wrote, alas, alas, it is a marvel that there are not more deceived.

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The wonder is that any find the gate, that any discover eternal life, when we are so, so mad, so foolish, so insane as to trifle where we ought to be awfully in earnest, and to play and toy where the whole heart is all too little to be given to a work of such dread, such everlasting importance.

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God help us, since it is so easy to be deceived, to search and watch and look and test and try, that we be not found castaways at the last.

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Now there are common characteristics of unconverted people that must be exposed to them and recognized and acknowledged by them, changed in them, when they are converted to God through Jesus Christ.

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Proverbs 14 6 reads, a wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and notice his self -confidence.

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The fool. He assumes he knows best how to govern his life while presuming that God is pleased with the course that he's chosen for himself.

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Fallen man is a God unto himself, though he does not think so or does not realize it is so, and God must bring him down to the dust before he will look up to Jesus Christ alone.

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This is a preparation work that God does in people in bringing them to salvation in Christ.

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This sinful pride is reflected again in all the world, but it was reflected in ancient

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Judah when God had brought his judgment upon them when he sent his armies, the armies of Babylon upon Jerusalem, Judah.

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We may read of the manner in which the majority of the people thought and lived in contrast to the relatively few, the remnant, who were humble before the

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Lord. And so here's Jeremiah 17 5 and following, thus says the

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Lord, cursed is a man who trusts in man, makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the

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Lord, for he should be like a shrub in the desert, shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited.

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In contrast, however, blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is the

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Lord, for he should be like a tree planted by the waters, alluding to Psalm 1, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

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And it's within this context that this next verse is found, which is probably familiar to most of us.

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The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

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That's a rhetorical question implying no one can, that is no human being can. I the

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Lord searched the heart, test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

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That's a judgment, of course, of our works. And so the majority of these people were under the wrath of God, but they had thought they were blessed of God.

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They had ordered their thinking and their lives according to their will, according to their own values and opinions, but they were in error regarding their ways.

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They were ignorant of God's ways. They presumed that their ways of thinking were in accordance with what

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God would have them think. Their fallen hearts had deceived them. God had said to them, obey my voice, but then

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God said, yet you did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart, therefore

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I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant. In other words, his judgment.

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Fact is, people are ignorant of their sinful condition and they're ignorant of God's true assessment of them.

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In preparation of a soul to call upon the Lord Jesus, to submit wholly onto him in all matters of faith and practice,

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God must show the sinner the error and folly of his own way, his own way of thinking, and of his own independent and proud spirit that had disregarded the

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Word of God. I was reading about David Brainerd and how he wrote in his diary, he died as a young man of tuberculosis in the home of Jonathan Edwards out here in Northampton, but after he died

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Edwards found his diary and then published it and the diary of David Brainerd became itself quite a devotional classic and it's available today.

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And he was a missionary to the Indians and he wrote in his journal of the effort and of the difficulty to inform and humble people with respect to their sin.

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Especially I discourse repeatedly on the nature and necessity of that humiliation, self -emptiness, and full conviction of a person's being utterly undone in himself, which is necessary in order to a saving faith.

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And the extreme difficulty of being brought to this and the great danger there is a person's taking up with some self -righteous appearances of it.

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The danger of this I especially dwelt upon, being persuaded that multitudes perish in this hidden way and because so little is said from most pulpits to discover any danger here, so that persons being never effectually brought to die in themselves are never truly united to Christ and so perish.

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And so one of the major responsibilities of a church and of a pastor teacher is to show not only the glory of God but the bankruptcy of the human condition and the inability to please

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God. That's why we need a Savior. The errant self -assessment of one's spiritual condition with the

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Lord is not only common to the people of the world, it is also very commonplace in churches.

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And I fear that there may be multitudes of believers, again in quotation marks, who are unconverted.

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In fact it may be a greater problem in the church than in the world. It's our desire to expose this problem of nominal

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Christianity and to present the biblical corrective which is true salvation in Jesus Christ.

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And really the thing that is motivating me a lot in this is trying to help you to have the tools to talk to family members and friends.

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You know they think they're Christian but they don't give any evidence that they know the

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Lord. How do we awaken them to their condition? We concluded last week by asserting that biblical salvation is not widely proclaimed or understood and that the gospel that is often popularly espoused in evangelical churches is not what is set forth in the

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Word of God. So may our Lord help us to be right and true respecting this important matter.

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Now I want to insert a word before we proceed. As I had expressed last Lord's Day, I'm concerned for the tender -hearted soul becoming fearful and overwhelmed by our subject.

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And I knew this would be a problem with some. In fact I had two of our members this week expressed separately to me of their fear concerning this subject to the point of wanting to stay away altogether.

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I understand their fear, I do. But I would urge none of us to succumb to the devil's temptation to do so.

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God has commanded that we perform proper and thorough self -examination. And when this is done we can expect

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God to do a thorough work in our souls and bring comfort out of our conflict.

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Our Lord assured us, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. God cuts deep and exposes to us any number of issues that we are then to address before him.

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We do not want to close our hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls but be open to it.

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I'm reminded of an encounter I once had with a relative, he was on my wife's side by the way, many years ago.

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I believed he was a true Christian. He's still walking with the Lord today. This was 30 years ago. And his faith in life testifies to that reality.

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But I also knew that his knowledge of the gospel was rather weak and the basis of his assurance of salvation was flawed, wasn't biblical.

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It was based on some decision he made. And I thought

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I would help him in this. And so I said to him, many Christians have a faulty basis of assurance of salvation.

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I believe I could show you wherein you think wrongly about your assurance of salvation. Well it became quite alarmed.

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He literally closed his eyes, standing right in front of me, and clasped his hands over his ears saying loudly,

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I don't want to hear, I don't want to hear. And I was frankly shocked by his reaction, thought to myself, what a terrible response.

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He'd rather continue in his assurance though it might have been ill -perceived or ill -grounded in the Word of God.

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Don't shake my assurance. Rather than be challenged to assess and correct possible error in his understanding as to what the

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Word of God said about the matter, I would have preferred this attitude. If you can shake me of my assurance of salvation, show me wherein my thinking is faulty, please do so.

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For I do not want to be an error about the eternal destiny of my soul. Don't tell me what

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I want to hear. Tell me what I need to hear, pastor. Because there are a lot of, frankly, men who are telling their people what he knows they want to hear.

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That's how you build churches or it's thought. You're not helping people though.

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We must be right about our own salvation as the scripture declares. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.

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That was to a church. Test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test.

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Our goal is not to rob you of assurance of salvation. Our desire is for the very opposite.

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Our aim and desire is that you have a solid, sound, biblical basis of assurance of salvation.

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We want you to have and enjoy true peace from God through Jesus Christ. And let me exhort you and encourage you if you stay with us through this study and carefully listen, apply the

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Word of God, you will by the grace of God, I believe, receive his blessing toward this end.

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A sound and unshakable assurance that you have salvation. I want to ground you and help you to be full of joy and confident that you have the salvation that the

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Bible speaks about and not to be deluded in any way or confused about errant thinking.

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Now one of the major causes of nominal Christianity in our world is that generally churches fail to proclaim a message that confronts people and reveals to them their lost condition from which they need to be saved.

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There has to be bad news before there can be good news. It won't be good news unless it's in the context of bad news, right?

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That's what makes it good. The biblical gospel is the good news to people whom

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God has awakened to their sin, to their need of true salvation, and to the way to attain that salvation.

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But another gospel has replaced the biblical gospel. And not just in all churches, but I'm saying in many evangelical churches, sadly.

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The new gospel does not result in the true conversion of souls, but it often results in making shallow superficial

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Christians Christians in name only. And this is because there is not a biblical revealing to people their desperate and helpless sinful condition from which

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God alone must save them. Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon, wrote these words in his wonderful book entitled

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The Soul Winner, one of the earliest books I obtained as a Christian back in the early 70s, mid 70s.

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The withholding of the doctrine of the total depravity of man, sinfulness of man, has wrought serious mischief to many who have listened to a certain kind of preaching.

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These people do not get a true healing because they do not know the disease under which they are suffering.

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They are never truly clothed because nothing is done towards stripping them. In many ministries there's not enough of probing the heart and arousing the conscience by the revelation of man's alienation from God and by the declaration of the selfishness and the wickedness of such a state.

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Men need to be told that except divine grace shall bring them out of their enmity to God, they must eternally perish.

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They must be reminded of the sovereignty of God, that he's not obliged to bring them out of this state, and that he would be right and just if he left them in such a condition.

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That they have no merit to plead before him, no claims upon him, but that if they are to be saved it must be by divine grace and by grace alone.

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The preacher's work is to throw sinners down in utter helplessness, that they may be compelled to look up to him who alone can help them.

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Now that was in the middle of 19th century London that he made that declaration. Now we're not unique in making this claim that an aberrant gospel is widely proclaimed, though we're certainly in the minority who think so.

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But J .I. Packer wrote about this back in 1959 in one of the first books published by the

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Banner Truth Press, a reprint of a John Owen classic work, and he wrote this in an introduction which itself has become a classic essay on evangelical

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Christianity. He wrote these words, there are signs today of a new upsurge of interest in the theology of the

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Bible, a new readiness to test traditions, to search the scriptures, and to think through the faith.

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It is to those who share this readiness that Owen's treatise is offered, in the belief that it will help us in one of the most urgent tasks facing evangelical

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Christendom today, and here it is, the recovery of the gospel.

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In other words, it's gone. This was in 1959. This last remark may cause some raising of eyebrows, but it seems to be warranted by the facts.

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There is no doubt that evangelicalism today is in a state of perplexity and unsettlement in such matters as the practice of evangelism, the teaching of holiness, the building up of local church life, the pastors dealing with souls, and the exercise of discipline.

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There is evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with things as they are, and of equally widespread uncertainty as to the road ahead.

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This is a complex phenomenon to which many factors have contributed, but if we go to the root of the matter, we shall find that these perplexities are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the biblical gospel.

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Without realizing it, we have during the past century bartered that gospel for a substitute product which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole decidedly a different thing.

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Hence our troubles, for the substitute product does not answer the ends for which the authentic gospel has in past days proved itself so mighty.

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The new gospel conspicuously fails to produce deep reverence, deep repentance, deep humility, a spirit of worship, a concern for the church.

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Why? We would suggest that the reason lies in its own character and content.

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It fails to make men God - centered in their thoughts, God -fearing in their hearts, because this is not primarily what it is trying to do.

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Arthur Pink, of course, one of the soundest voices in the 20th century, lived a life of obscurity, really didn't become popular till after he died in his writings in 1952.

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He also wrote in the early 20th century that the gospel popularly proclaimed was not the true gospel set forth in Scripture and that this false gospel produced

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Christians in name only, nominal Christians, who remained lost in their sins.

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He wrote, what is the gospel? Is it a message of glad tidings from heaven to make

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God -defying rebels at ease in their wickedness? Is it given for the purpose of assuring the pleasure -crazy young people that providing they only believe there's nothing for them to fear in the future?

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One would certainly think so from the way in which the gospel is presented, or rather perverted, by most evangelists, and the more so when we look at the lives of their converts.

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Surely those with any degree of spiritual discernment must perceive that to assure such that God loves them and his son died for them and that a full pardon for their all their sins past, present, future can be obtained by simply accepting

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Christ as their personal Savior is but a casting of pearls before swine.

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And yet that is how the gospel is commonly, most commonly presented. If you accept

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Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have salvation. And so not only is a deficient understanding of salvation popularly proclaimed and believed, but a deficient gospel of salvation is all too often taught and trusted.

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And this is what has resulted in the false conversion of many who sadly but wrongly believe that they are right with God.

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Of course it's our desire and our effort in the first few Sundays of addressing this topic to show what the

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Word of God does teach about salvation through Jesus Christ to begin to set this matter right.

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So answer the question, what is biblical salvation? And I want us to look at a passage that we considered just a couple weeks ago, 1st

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Peter 2 21 through 25. Pastor Jason expounded on this passage.

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Here we read of what God had purpose to accomplish for and in his people through the life and death of Jesus Christ.

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And so it described the salvation that Christ secured for his people.

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And so the Holy Spirit has given to us these words, 1st Peter 2 21, for to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled did not revile in return, when he suffered he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, and here's what we want to emphasize, that we having died to sins might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, for you are like sheep going astray but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

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Pastor Jason brought forth in a sermon the major teaching of this passage, namely that the

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Lord Jesus in his suffering and his death provides Christians both the instruction and an example to follow in order that they may triumph and endure through unjust suffering and tribulation.

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And so his emphasis was on what is set forth in verses 21 through 23. I would desire for us to focus more so on the result of Christ's suffering and death and that is the salvation of his people.

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And this is stated in verses 24 and 25. And so to what end did

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Jesus suffer and die on his cross and rise from the dead? We read of Christ, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, here's the purpose, that we having died to sins might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, for you were like sheep going astray but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

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Peter was writing to Gentile Christians, more than likely, who probably had only recently come to salvation through repentance and faith.

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And through Peter, God declared it was Jesus Christ himself who had secured their salvation through his life, death, and resurrection on behalf of his people.

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But let's begin to consider precisely what was expressed. First, of course, it's declared that Jesus Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree.

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Pastor Jason addressed these words in some detail so we don't need to do so again here, other than to reemphasize the meaning of this declaration.

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Jesus was the bearer of the sin of his people when he died upon the cross. And so this sets forth the substitutory nature of Christ's death.

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He bore our sins, he suffered the death penalty that was upon us for our sin.

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Peter is probably alluding to Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 12, which reads, and he bore the sin of many.

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The verb translated bore in Greek is sinen neken, and it's frequently translated as offering.

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Christ's death was the realization to which every Old Testament sacrifice upon every altar pointed.

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Jesus's death provided the atonement for the sin of his people. The Word of God had declared the soul that sin shall die, and when

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Jesus bore our sins he died. He died as an offering, as a substitute, as a sin -bearer on behalf of his people.

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Our sins were taken from us and they were laid upon him, and then he died for our sins.

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As one wrote, he himself by his own personal suffering carried the sins up. In other words, the priest was also the victim.

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Christ is the priest, he's also the sacrifice. And the cross, by the way, is the altar.

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That he bore the curse and punishment of God upon sin is clear because he died upon the tree. Here Peter set forth the cross of Christ to be the true altar on which

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Jesus Christ offered himself as a sacrifice for sin. Jesus Christ in his death had become cursed of God for us, and then in dying he paid for our sins so that God could be just to forgive us our sins for Jesus sake.

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And so when you consider the great price that God required for our salvation, of course, reveals to us the great evil of sin, doesn't it?

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John Brown, and there were a series of John Brown's, this was the probably the latest one who was quite well known.

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He wrote a wonderful commentary on 1st Peter 2 volumes. Did Christ the righteous one suffer and so suffer for us?

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How inconceivably malignant must sin be, which made us sufferings of such a glorious person necessary to his expiation and pardon.

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And how inconceivably strong must his love be, which made him willingly to undergo such sufferings rather than we should be exposed to the tremendous consequences of unexpiated unforgiven iniquity.

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Oh how should we hate sin. Oh how should we love the Savior. Nothing is better fitted to animate and strengthen these two master principles of Christian holiness, the hatred of sin and the love of the

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Savior, than the believing contemplation of his sufferings for sin in the room or place of sinners.

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Under the influence of the truth now stated, let each of us say in his heart, here in his love, not that I loved him but that he loved me and gave himself to be a propitiation for my sin.

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I would put that to death in my flesh which put him to death in the flesh. What a wonderful statement.

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I would mortify my members which are on the earth. I would crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts and for as much as he suffered for me in the flesh, born my sin in his own body to the tree, that I being dead to sin might live under righteousness.

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I will arm myself with the same mind that I no longer live the rest of my time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God and taught by the grace of God in Christ his

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Son, the righteous one suffering for my sins in my stead. I will deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and live soberly and righteously and godly in the present world looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearance of the great

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God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.

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The point however we want to make from this passage is that Jesus Christ bore our sins so that we would live lives of righteousness.

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That's what Peter declared here in verses 24 and 25. I might just interject here it was not only that we be forgiven of our sins but that we might live in righteousness.

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That's what salvation is all about. Peter declared the purpose for which

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Christ died. Jesus Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness.

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The conjunction that introduces a purpose clause. It gives the purpose a reason why Christ died.

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The clause reveals to what end, for what purpose Christ died. Peter wrote that the purpose for Jesus died was that we having died to sin.

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So what does that mean? There are places in the New Testament that speaks of our union with Christ when he died.

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Jason read that from Romans 6 a little earlier. When Christ died his death we died in him, with him.

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There was union with Christ. When he was crucified his people were also crucified in him.

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Paul wrote of this and here it is. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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But Peter is not expressing that idea here that when Christ died we died with him.

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Peter is not describing what happened when Christ died but he's describing what happened when we died to sin.

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That is when we were converted, when we became Christians, we died to sins.

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When a sinner experiences salvation through Jesus Christ he dies to the sin that had formerly characterized his thinking and living.

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When we came to saving faith we died to sin, that is we cease to live for sin. This does not mean that we stopped sinning completely, that's ludicrous, but when we were converted we thereafter no longer lived in and for sin.

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We had a new life as so beautifully illustrated before us. Notice that he does not say directly here in this passage, although it stated many places, that Jesus died so that we might be forgiven of our sins.

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That certainly is a truism. Rather the Word of God states here that Jesus died that we having died to sins might live for righteousness.

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I would argue anyone not living for righteousness is not a Christian. They may think they have salvation but they're just deluded.

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Christ died that we might live holy lives. Any representation of salvation and any presentation of the gospel is false, that does not promise not only the forgiveness of our sins but also a life of righteousness.

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The true salvation is not merely the forgiveness of sins. Salvation is seen in new life in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus died that we might live in holy righteousness before him, that is that our lives are in conformity to his will as revealed in his

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Word. For we died with respect to sin so that we might live for righteousness.

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This is the main idea of true conversion. And I would argue that this verse therefore reveals one of the clearest ways by which we can determine if someone has biblical salvation or that one wrongly believes that he has salvation.

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Anyone who claims to be a Christian but he continues to live in and for sin and one who refuses to live under righteousness is not a

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Christian. If he believes that he is a he's sadly deluded regarding the true condition before God, he's yet in his sins.

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This is one of the hardest words I think I ever read of Spurgeon but I think it's accurate when you reflect it to the actually what he's saying.

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Here he's giving instruction on winning people to Jesus Christ, he wrote these words. There must also be a willingness to obey the

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Lord in all his commandments. It's a thing for a man to profess discipleship that he's a believer follower of Jesus and yet refused to learn his

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Lord's will upon certain points or even dare to decline obedience when that will is known.

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How can a man be a disciple of Christ when he openly lives in disobedience to him? If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows his

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Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you're not to pamper his presumption but it's your duty to assure him he is not saved.

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Has not the Lord said that he taketh he that taketh not up his cross and comes after me cannot be my disciple?

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Now he makes a concession here and this is important. Mistakes as to what the Lord's will may be and are to be tenderly corrected but anything like willful obedience,

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I know that's what God's will is but I'm going to do what I want to do regardless of it because I think that's best for me.

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Tell that person there's no way you can have any basis of assurance that you're saved. Now we know that maybe that person is saved and they're just falling into defiance and temporary rebellion and backslidden condition but and but if they are saved the

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Lord's going to bring them to repentance. The Lord's going to restore them, he chastens those whom he loves.

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A true Christian cannot continue with that defiant spirit and a person who persists to live in that way is a nominal

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Christian. The Virgin went on to write, to tolerate it would be treason to him that sent us.

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Jesus must be received as King as well as priest. Where there is any hesitancy about this the foundation of godliness is not yet laid.

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It's very common to hear the testimony, well I believe Jesus was my Savior for a number of years but then

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I made him my Lord. That is totally unbiblical. Jesus has a threefold office of prophet, priest, and King and you can't pick one or two of those offices and set the other side aside for a time.

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You call upon the Lord that's who he is. Faith must obey, Spurgeon always quoted hymns.

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His grandmother when he was a little kid says I'll give you some money if you memorize some hymns and she had to pull back he memorized so many hymns he was bankrupting her but he would quote these hymns from memory throughout his whole many many decades of preaching.

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Faith must obey her maker's will as well as trust his grace. A pardoning God is jealous still for his own holiness.

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Well Peter then explained how it is that they had died the sins of Jesus Christ suffering death he wrote by whose stripes you were healed.

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Now our Pentecostal friends say that means that we're all supposed to be physically well and that there is in the atonement of Christ the promise of you know being being healed physically.

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Now we generally think of the lashes of a whip only in terms of administering punishment but when the

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Bible sets forth the stripes of a whip to have a cleansing result and that it purges a rebel of his resistant and defiant spirit and so the chastised servant comes forth from his punishment humble compliant and ready to serve.

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Through Jesus Christ's suffering punishment that was due us for our sin he healed us of our propensity to sinful rebellion so that we could and would live in righteousness before him.

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And so here Peter was not writing directly of our forgiveness of sins which we can find in many other places in Scripture he was writing of our deliverance from a life of sin so that we might live in righteousness.

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What God has declared before us is that salvation through Jesus Christ is more than the forgiveness of sins and as necessary and important as that is to our salvation

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Christ died so that we would be recovered from our life of sin and the sinful independence and rebellion that formerly characterized us.

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Christ died so that we might be restored to God to live a life of righteousness before God.

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Jesus Christ died that we could live for righteousness a life in accordance with the will of God is set forth in the

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Word of God. Well then Peter then declared Christians were formerly astray but now have returned that is in their conversion have returned in submission and obedience to Jesus Christ.

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Of course Peter wrote this the Holy Spirit through Peter gave a further explanation of what was wrought in salvation.

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You were like sheep going astray but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

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And so Peter described the lies that characterized these Christians before they came to experience salvation before they were like sheep going astray they were wanderers having run away from the

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Lord the shepherd of his people they were going wherever they wanted to go not where their shepherd would guide them and lead them but then we read

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Peter's description of the conversion to Christ he wrote but have now you see having become

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Christians you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. The verb you have returned is very precise in Greek it's the aorist tense speaking about an event in the past and interestingly it's in it's a passive voice verb in other words it's not something that you actively did is something that happened to you

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God did it you have returned you think you returned because you found

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Jesus no no Jesus came found you you return because he brought you is what

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Peter is emphasizing we return to the shepherd overseer Jesus Christ but actually the precise idea that Peter expressed he used returned is a passive voice verb which indicates that this event happened to them it was not something they had actively done what

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Peter was expressing was that their returning had been the work of God's grace upon them and in them not an action they took of their own will in their own resolve or strength the scriptures command people everywhere to be converted to Christ but those who do convert to Christ do so due to the grace of God working upon them and in them salvation is of the

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Lord Matthew Henry wrote regarding this the word is passive the verb you return and shows that the return of a sinner is the effect of divine grace this return is from all their errors and wanderings to Christ who is the true careful shepherd that loves his sheep laid down his life for them and who is the most vigilant pastor and bishop or overseer of souls

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Jesus Christ is set forth as a shepherd an overseer of his people that is he is the shepherd of his sheep speaks of his role and function as their leader and of course they are his faithful followers elsewhere

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Jesus said of his sheep my sheep hear my voice I know that they follow me that's what sheep do and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand true

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Christians those who experience salvation through the life and death of Christ follow their shepherd to follow the shepherd means that they obey him following him in the paths of righteousness in which he leads them another biblical term used to describe a sheep is that they have become as disciples a true

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Christian is a true disciple of Jesus Christ if you're not a disciple of Jesus Christ you're not a

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Christian according to the Word of God for the disciples were first called

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Christians at Antioch but Jesus Christ is also the overseer of your souls if you're a

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Christian he is your protector and provider he governs you he preserves you and this dual role as shepherd and overseer reflects the biblical idea that he's leading his people to a destination that he is protecting and providing for them in their journey to assure their arrival to that destination to which he's leading them and Jesus Christ will see to it that he will lead you and see to it that you will join with him and with all those who know him savingly because he is your shepherd and in conversion you began to follow him before you were wandering away from him what

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Peter wrote in verses 24 and 25 describes the nature of salvation salvation involves breaking away from the power of sin that formerly controlled his people

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God reconciles and restores a wayward and alienated people unto himself and he restores them to his people to salvation also results in his people submitting and following him as he leads them in their lives of righteousness one commentator once expressed this matter within the context of Peter's epistle no striving after personal liberty no or anti -social behavior or opposition to the natural order can be allowed to impair the

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Christian workers imitation of Christ according to verse 24 such conduct is no longer possible for the

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Christian Christ carried their sins in his body on the cross for he took upon himself all human iniquity and brought it to an end by his innocent death so that he so that his believers have already departed from their sins and must live to righteousness they are no longer common weak human beings but have through Christ wounds been healed of all frailty previously they strayed like sheep from one interest to another verse 25 but now they have returned to the real shepherd and supervisor of their souls and have no excuse or occasion to follow false leaders and seditionists into rebellion and then

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Matthew Henry set forth is really the substance of these verses learn first Jesus Christ bore the sins of all his people and expedited they didn't remove them by his death upon the cross and then secondly and emboldened italicized this no man can depend safely upon Christ as having borne his sin and expiated or removed his guilt till he dies on the sin and lives on to righteousness consider carefully those words for it's precisely what we're asserting in this series no one can rightly claim to have the forgiveness of sins that Christ secured for his people unless he has died to his former sin and is presently living in righteousness a

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Christian is living a new life he's a new creation the Apostle John wrote little children let no one deceive you about this he who practices righteousness living the life of righteous is righteous that is justified is righteous in God's sight the first is practical the second is positional the first is sanctification the second is justification how do you know if you're justified before God through faith alone in Jesus alone you have a work of grace that is seen in your life you're practicing righteousness and then a few verses later by this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil some say you can't tell the difference

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John says you can tell the differences how whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who doesn't love his brother that's another thing that salvation brings you love the brethren because they're

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Christian brethren the point we're trying to make is salvation is not just the forgiveness of sins it is that but much more the gospel of salvation is a declaration of good news that God through Christ saves people from sin both the penalty of sin and a life of sinning on to a life of joyful compliance fulfilling service to King Jesus and his people now with all that said let's just consider as we wrap things up the gospel of salvation proclaimed by many or most present -day evangelicals the great problem today is that there is widespread belief in an abridgment of salvation which is only one part of biblical salvation it is assumed wrongly to be the whole of salvation evangelicalism has reduced biblical salvation to only entail

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God's forgiveness of sins pick up most gospel tracks listen to most evangelistic presentations and sermons and what is frequently addressed is only the need for God to forgive people of their sins so that they may not be sent to hell but that they might receive the gift of eternal life yes it's declared that Jesus Christ is

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God incarnate that's declared rightly who lived a life of perfect righteousness but died upon his cross to suffer and pay for sin he rose again the third day but they then say that if you but believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins then

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God will have forgiven you and he's giving you the gift of eternal life now that all sounds fine on the surface we're so accustomed to hear that message but as our text declares biblical salvation is more than the forgiveness of sins as important as that is the gospel of today is guilty of what is called and here is the technical

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Latin phrase reductio ad absurdum in other words the reductive fallacy this has been a aspect of logic since the early days of the

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Greeks when they thought through these matters it is an error of formal logic and that people think something to be true because it has a ring of truth an element of truth but the subject has been reduced to such a level of simplicity that it no longer represents reality one described this error in this way you commit the reductive fallacy when you stop with a one -level description when there are many levels to be described you're mistaken when you reduce a complex entity to only one of its many aspects our generation is especially vulnerable to this problem of oversimplification another name for the same error oversimplification

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I celebrate

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Franklin Graham preaching Jesus Christ but he was guilty of that in the 62nd offer of salvation on a commercial on Fox News supposedly gave the gospel encourage people to call in if you made this decision for Christ in 60 seconds you talk about oversimplification that that illustrated salvation is

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God's rescue of the believer from the guilt and penalty of sin yes but in addition salvation entails much more to limit one's message and offer of salvation as only

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God's forgiveness of sins is not to proclaim a complete gospel it has become a false gospel for it no longer produces the results in biblical salvation for those who embrace it salvation is deliverance from sin it's in its entirety yes from its penalty condemnation damnation but in addition salvation delivers us from the alienation of sin we're brought into the family of God the family of God brothers and sisters in Christ from the power of sin that dominated our thinking of living sanctification and one day from the very presence of sin when the

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Lord calls us and we're glorified in his presence and the gospel we proclaim must speak to this full scope of salvation but it has been reduced this is how you can no longer feel guilty for your sin except Jesus Christ is your

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Savior now you're forgiven you have eternal life too isn't that wonderful it's all of grace is all free and it's not true it's a false it's an aberrant perversion of what the gospel is the fact is thirdly biblical salvation reverses and restores humanity from its fall into sin one way we can see what biblical salvation entails is of reflection upon the fall of mankind into sin when we consider mankind's prelapsarian state before the fall the result and consequences of his lapse or fall into sin including

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God's judgment upon mankind for his sin and when you realize what happened in the fall then you can begin to get a clear picture about the nature of biblical salvation before Adam and Eve sin we read of a blessed condition in which they live before God and for God they lived in paradise the

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Garden of God it was a beautiful place in which they knew God well before God in his creation they walked with God daily reflecting enjoying the work they completed as they tended the garden on behalf of their

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Creator the God whom they knew loved and served both Adam and Eve lived together in love and harmony with one another their relationship with God being the center of their life and being they live with the desire for and the enjoyment of the glory of God that's what motivated them but then through the subtlety of the serpent and the defection of Adam before God mankind fell from its glorious standing a relationship with God sin resulted in them becoming alienated from God and that they sought to flee from his presence

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God was no longer their loving king and protector no longer their shepherd and overseer their souls the devil was now their master and they were his slaves from which they had no desire or power to break free in sin each of them

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Adam and Eve was now serving self which was in reality service to the devil that's what the devil wants you to do serve yourself

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Adam and Eve had become aware and ashamed of their nakedness losing their former glory that had clothed them the relationship between Adam and Eve also was now horribly defaced having become alienated in their affections from one another

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Adam no longer loved his wife as he had loved himself Eve no longer honored and submitted to her husband as she had before delighted in so doing they had become sinners and each of them now failed to assume personal responsibility for their own sin that woman you gave me

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God no it's a serpent but blame someone or something else in short they had spiritually died before God as he had declared they would that would happen if and when they transgressed his law

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God would no longer allow them therefore to live in his presence in that garden paradise he excluded them into the world which now had become a wilderness to them in which they wandered and squandered the days remaining to them and of course it was not long after that that sin had so become so widespread and horrific in its pervasiveness that we have

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God's assessment then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and the

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Lord was sorry that he made man on the earth he was grieved in his heart so the Lord said

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I'll destroy man from whom I've created whom I have created from the face of the earth both man and beast creeping thing and birds of the air for I'm sorry that I have made them

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God of course communicating to us in a human way that we could comprehend him thankfully however

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God had determined to cleanse the world of sin and sinners to a great flood but he purposed he would preserve mankind and so we read that Noah found grace in the eyes of the

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Lord now here's the question I want you to answer well what was necessary for God to do in order to restore fallen man onto himself where Adam and Eve and all their posterity only in need that God forgive them of their sins certainly that was a but is that all they needed forgiveness of sins having been forgiven would they have been allowed and able to return to the garden paradise from which

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God had excluded them and had barred their return of course not for they not only needed to be forgiven of their sins they would have still been in rebellion to God they would have still been alienated in their affections for God and rebellious to the will of God more

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Adam and Eve would still have had a strained and broken relationship with one another and of course being forgiven of their sins were not in itself a reverse the state of spiritual and physical death into which they had fallen they would have continued to be wanderers in a dark and lost world far removed from the dwelling dwelling in the presence of God enjoying fellowship with him and his people what then was their need of salvation they were in need of the

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Savior that God promised to send them they needed one to come one of them from among them to save them from their sin all that was necessary in order for God to restore his people from sin unto himself is what the

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Bible sets forth as salvation what then is the biblical gospel the gospel is the good news to sinners that God has brought his salvation to his son the

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Lord Jesus Christ the gospel is much more than just an announcement God is willing to forgive sins to those who believe on his son although that is an essential aspect of the gospel the gospel is the good news that through faith in Christ his people are delivered from sin and all of its consequences through Jesus Christ God reclaims and restores his people unto himself and enables them to be with him and to dwell with him forever through Jesus Christ God becomes and forever remains their

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God and they become and remain forever his people now

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I know we're you know we're over time we tend to be about this time every week but I really want to address this last concluding part before we close the manner in which the sinner comes to Christ for salvation what then is the common experience of a sinner that comes to Christ as Lord and Savior what does this look like in your life of course

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God deals with people in a variety of ways and he brings them to experience salvation to his son in various degrees of intensity and awareness of biblical truth and we're going to talk about experience and varied forms of it in coming weeks but in general we can speak of the experience of the soul that comes to Christ in salvation first there's a stage of preparation of the sinner to bring to him to see and understand his need and the awareness of his only hope of salvation in Christ and then

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God converts that sinner from his former way of life into newness of life in Christ and so let's just briefly consider

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God's work of preparing and bringing a soul to embrace Christ God began his work in bringing you to salvation by first causing you to become born again by his

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Holy Spirit that he did that to you for you you didn't do something and it resulted in that it was an act of sovereign grace that he determined to produce in you at that time in your life you were not anticipating it you know

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I was minding my own business doing my own will and happy to do so I didn't want God in my life my thoughts no thank you something changed it wasn't me he put life in me in that sovereign work of grace

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God imparted spiritual life to your soul regeneration or the new birth is what began your movement and advancement on the path that would result in your salvation

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God brought you to hear and learn of who he is and what he's like in a way that you had not previously known the desire to know him gradually began to arise in your soul which increasingly occupied your interest and thoughts and for some this was a sudden change in desired interest for others it was more gradual over time but you learn and came to believe in the supremacy of God that he's the creator and the giver of every good and perfect gift that we enjoy in this world you learned of his holy nature his moral purity and his sovereign rule over all that transpires in this world but in coming to know

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God and what he's like you became you came to know yourself in ways you had never seen or known before you came to know the offense that your sin was before this

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God you began to see that you were a sinner in his sight and that you warranted his displeasure and condemnation and you learned that there was a judgment that would take place when you would stand before him and give an account of all your sins you learned of hell as a just punishment of sinners and that was your destiny unless you were safe from your sin but then you learned of God's way of salvation in Jesus Christ you came to see that Jesus Christ himself was the gospel the good news of salvation from sin to faith in him you came to know who he was and what he was like as God incarnate you came to learn and believe that God had sent his son into the world to save sinners like you you learned that God had provided his son and his life and death to be the

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Savior of the world and that after dying he rose from the dead ascended to heaven whereupon his father glorified him and throning him as king of kings and Lord of Lords and at some point the

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Holy Spirit gave you understanding and faith that God would receive you for Jesus sake that if you purposely turn from your sin repent in order to come to him in faith you believed his promise in Christ perhaps you resisted at first you loved your sin did not want to turn loose of the reins of your life surrendering your will to his will but you increasingly understood to fail or refused to repent and believe the gospel would result in your just condemnation and his eternal sentence of eternal punishment and so perhaps then you began to make some efforts to amend your ways you looked at his word you realize it isn't right

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I'm gonna fix it presuming you must maybe you thought you could but the harder you struggled against sin as you attempted to conform to the law of God before you you found the shackles of sin to grow firmer and tighter but the time came when you saw the folly of all such efforts the

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Lord had brought you the place in which you cast yourself down before him helpless hopeless

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Lord unless you set me free I'm a goner and that's when conversion occurred you became a

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Christian you cast yourself down before the Lord confessing your unworthiness and inability to contribute any effort or any resolve to live before him you laid your case before him

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Lord you and only you can make me clean just like the leper you can do it are you willing

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Lord unless you act on my behalf unless you enabled me to do what you've commanded me

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I'm lost and so essentially you you came to Christ in the manner expressed in the classic hymn not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands could my zeal no respite no could my tears forever flow all for sin could not atone thou must say thou alone nothing in my hand

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I bring simply to the cross I cling naked come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace foul

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I to the fountain fly wash me Savior or I die now there is a humble trusting that Jesus Christ alone and that he would save sinners he said he would as you placed your full faith in him you began to discover that the power of sin had that formerly controlled you had been broken the desire to sin no longer was your drive but you desired to live for God to learn more of him to know and serve his son whom now you confess is my

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Lord and my God perhaps the Holy Spirit at that time spoke comfort to your soul but maybe not a sense of peace came over you in a way that you could not possibly comprehend and that it surpassed all your understanding but you came to see that the promises of God in Christ were for you the sinner or who now was the former sinner for now you're a

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Christian pardon and you'd begun your life of love and service to his name you believed on Jesus Christ as Lord you submitted to him as your

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Lord purposing to love him and obey him in life in short you became a committed disciple of Jesus Christ your purpose to show forth your commitment to him your resolve to live for him in your baptism in which you publicly confessed him before others testifying your former life in which you were your own

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Lord of your own life had come to an end and you died your former life in sin and you were raised from the baptismal waters confessing your resolve to live your new life in him before him in the presence and fellowship of your church family with whom you have joined yourself this is the typical way in which the

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Lord draws sinners onto himself sometimes various aspects of the saving work are accentuated sometimes these movements in the soul take place more gradually and less dramatically but the end is the same for all you've returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls and that's what salvation is and our gospel of salvation ought to ought to meet that end ought to be designed toward that end if we're promising forgiveness of sins the people while they continue to live in rebellion to God we are playing the false prophet we are assuring them that they have peace when there is no peace may the

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Lord not allow us to do that but it's a common message may the

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Lord help us to be true thank you father for your word thank you for this glorious salvation that you've given us in Jesus Christ and our

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God of course even though we're following you as our shepherd and we thank you that your overseer we all struggle and stumble our

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God and sometimes we defect and depart for a while our hearts are prone to wander but you're the great restorer of your sheep our

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God and so help us our Lord to be true and faithful to you give a sense of peace and joy for those that are resting in Christ and Christ alone for their salvation take away any futile false thoughts that somehow it's dependent upon us but it's upon Christ and what he accomplished and who he is and it's in him we put our faith and confess him as our