If I Had An Hour with a New Convert – John Samson Fills in on Today’s DL

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Pastor John Samson is back to guest host on today’s program: Imagine the scenario. You’ve had an amazing conversation with someone which has led to their conversion to Christ. You have just an hour with them. After that, you may never see them again. What are the most important things you would wish him to know? What follows is the answer to that question.

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Welcome to the Dividing Line for today. My name is Pastor John Sampson. I'm one of the elders at King's Church in Peoria, Arizona, and I'm delighted to have this opportunity, this amazing privilege to be with you on the
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Dividing Line. Dr. James White is away. He just finished a ministry trip to Switzerland and has now arrived in Kiev.
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The locals call it Kiev in Ukraine, and our prayers are with him. May God continue to use him on this very important ministry trip.
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He's going to be back for a couple of weeks pretty soon and then off to South Africa, and he is a very busy man.
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So keep him in prayer. Watch the blog for all the updates. Some exciting things are happening, and we're very glad to be a part of it in praying for him and standing with him.
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If you have a Bible, I would encourage you to open up to Romans 5. What I want to do today is talk about something that I think will be helpful.
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It's the idea of, if I could have an hour, just one full hour, with a new convert, what would
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I want him to have in his hands? What would I want him to know? And so really
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I could call this time together, What I Wish Every Christian Knew.
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Imagine the scenario. You're in a waiting lounge at an airport. You've had an amazing conversation with someone which has led to their conversion, and it seems to be genuine.
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They're making a profession of faith at least, and in just a short while you'll be going separate ways.
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Perhaps he's going to a remote part of the world where you may not ever have contact with him again. He's perhaps going to South America or somewhere else that is jungle, and when he arrives it's remote, it's hard to get to, letters don't arrive, books don't arrive.
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You've just got this hour with him. What would you want him to know? What would you want to give him?
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What would be the foundation you'd want to lay as you talk with him? Letters don't arrive.
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Books don't arrive. This is your one shot to lay a foundation for this particular man.
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Let's call him Tony. He's genuine, seemingly anyway.
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What are you going to give him? And so what follows is really my answer to that question, What I Wish Every Christian Knew.
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First thing I would want him to know is that he needs a Bible, and I would hopefully have my briefcase with me if I'm on a traveling assignment.
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I usually do. I've had the same briefcase since June of 1987, since I entered the ministry.
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That briefcase has been in wild places around the world, and I would have a
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Bible there, and I would have tracts there, and I would want to put those things in his hands.
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I would give him my own Bible if I didn't have a second one. I would just want to make sure he had a
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Bible, and he needs a Bible he can read. Let's say that he speaks English very well.
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I would want to make sure he had a good translation. The two I particularly recommend above all the others are the
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New American Standard Bible and the English Standard Version, both of which are terrific, word for word, essentially literal translations, and I would explain to him why
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I'm giving him that particular Bible. There are other Bibles, although good, that are not as precise in their translation.
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We call them dynamic equivalent translations, and the idea there is rather than trying to maintain a word for word translation, they're seeking to go thought for thought, and it can be at times an element of commentary rather than translation.
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I would want to put a very good translation in this man's hands. I would tell him that this that I'm giving him is the actual
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Word of God. The original languages of the Old Testament were Hebrew, of course, a little bit of Aramaic in the book of Daniel, but basically a
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Hebrew scripture that we've translated now into English.
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In the New Testament, of course, it's the Koine or common Greek, and a good translation will seek to find the original words and put them into the tongue of the people, and that's what we have with those two versions.
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Jesus had the view that when you're reading the Bible, you're actually reading something that is spoken to you now in the present time by God.
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God is speaking to you as you are reading the Bible. In quoting the book of Genesis, he said, have you not read what was spoken to you by God?
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Matthew chapter 22 verse 31. I would get him a
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Bible, then I would talk about something I probably wouldn't have done maybe 10 or 15 years ago.
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I would talk about a confession of faith, and I would say to him, there's a lot of strange people, weird people, we would call them cults, cult members who would seek to take you off and away from the clear teaching of the
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Bible on certain issues, and you need to avoid them. Although a confession of faith, the one
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I have in my hands is the London Baptist confession of faith, a nice leather -bound edition, but I would actually put in his hands a confession of faith.
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This is in a paper form, and this is actually from a visitor's packet we give to everyone who visits our church in Peoria, Arizona, King's Church.
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We put one of these in there to summarize what we believe Scripture says, and these act like guardrails.
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I remember I did an hour program here on The Dividing Line on the guardrails of the creeds.
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Although no creed rises to the level of Scripture in authority, when we think that in the 2 ,000 years of church history,
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God's been waiting for us to give us a new revelation of the Trinity, that's a pathway to deception.
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No, the Holy Spirit has been with the church through the centuries, and He has gifted men.
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The ascended Christ in Ephesians 4 has gifted men as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, and these are gifts to the church, not only those of the first century, but through church history.
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God has given gifted teachers to the church to aid and guide the people of God into the truth of God, and there's safety in a multitude of counselors, the book of Proverbs says.
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And so it's important that we understand what a creed is. It's a summary, a concise and precise summary of what we believe
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Scripture says, because all the Christian cults, at least, would say we believe the
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Bible. Our creed is the Bible. All right, but rather than taking 70 hours non -stop to read through the
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Bible, what it is saying is important, and we want to know what you believe the
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Bible to be saying. And so a creed or a confession helps in that regard, and I like this one particularly.
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It's the one we use, and I love the fact that behind every statement there's a Scripture verse that you can look up.
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And again, we're always to be reforming. We're always to check our creeds and confessions with the
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Word of God, and yet we don't need to review some doctrines to find out whether they're true or not.
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Oh, we're entering a new year. We need to find out if the Trinity is still a true concept. No, we've established that.
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We know that, and I would put that in his hands if I possibly could. So giving him a
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Bible, giving him a confession, and I would say to him, read this, read it regularly, and read your
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Bible more, but check what you're thinking with a creed.
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And the London Baptist Confession of Faith is a good one. There are others, but that's the one I would put in his hands.
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Don't be looking to find things that no one's ever heard of before. The Holy Spirit has been guiding his church into the truth, and he's not been waiting for us to arrive so he can finally communicate some truth to God's people.
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If we talk about the gospel, I would really want to establish what the gospel is for this man.
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Again, we're calling him Tony. I'd say, Tony, let's go to a passage like Romans 5 and understand that in reading, say, the book of Romans, I would encourage you to read two books of the
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Bible, especially as you're getting started in your Christian walk. The gospel of John, which is phenomenal to tell us who this
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Jesus is. From the very first verse in the gospel of John right through the end, the whole purpose of John's writing was to convince us as to the deity of Christ so that we might believe that Jesus is the
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Son of God and have life in his name. He actually states that as the purpose of his writing.
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And so read the gospel of John, and then read the book of Romans. Other places, the entire Bible is inspired, breathed out by God, but these are books of the
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Bible that are especially helpful in grounding us as to who Jesus is and what the gospel is.
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And in Romans chapter 5, obviously, as you start reading there, I would say to Tony, it says here, therefore, and whenever you see that word, therefore, one old preacher said, find out what it's there for.
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It's on the basis of everything that's preceded it, everything that's gone before, on the basis of finding out from Romans 1 that mankind is deep in sin.
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We are idolaters at heart. We've taken the truth of what we know inherently, that there is a
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God. Nature itself tells us that. Romans 1, 18, tells us the wrath of God is rightfully against all humanity because we know
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God as being there, as the one who has made everything. We know that inherently, and yet we suppress the knowledge of that truth, and that's why we are under condemnation and under God's wrath.
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That's true in Romans 2 for religious people. Although they had the law, they didn't keep the law.
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The law of God is the commands. They are the commands of God that tell us what
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God requires of us and what God requires. We're not able to perform.
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In fact, we're not just not able to get there. We actually violate it willingly. We call it intentional sin.
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It's cosmic treason, and that's why we need a Savior desperately.
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Romans 3 tells us that both the Gentiles and the Jews all are under sin.
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Romans 3, 9, we're all in the same boat receiving the just condemnation of God because of our sin, and only when the
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Apostle Paul is convinced we get that, that we are aware of how depraved we are, how we're not even having a desire to seek this
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God. No one seeks God. Romans 3, 11, there is literally no
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God seeker. We're in such deep weeds we cannot get out.
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In fact, the law wasn't given to make us righteous before God. The law was given to show us our guilt, to bring sin out into the open, and thankfully after Romans 3, 20, we have the word but, and that is the contrast.
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Once Paul is convinced we've got this, we've understood this, only then does he get to talk about the righteousness of God, which is the ability to stand before God right in his sight, declared right before him.
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And Romans 3, 21, right through into Romans 5, discusses the wonderful fullness of the gospel.
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And I'd say read Romans 3, read Romans 4, into chapter 5 there, and if I had time,
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Tony, I'd walk you through each verse, but we've got a limited time. But verse 1 of chapter 5 is a summary of what's gone before.
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That's true in any conversation. When you use the word therefore, you don't normally start a conversation with that word.
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You don't call someone and say, Harry, therefore. No, you've had some preceding words before you ever get to a therefore.
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On the basis of what I've declared, what is that? That according to Romans 3, 28, we are justified in the sight of God by faith apart from works, which is where we get the understanding of justification by faith alone.
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Paul makes that very clear in Romans 3, and then he gives evidence of it from two patriarchs of the
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Hebrews, Abraham, Exhibit A, David, Exhibit B, in saying, what
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I'm saying is not new. This is not a new gospel. This is the way everyone has come into the kingdom of God.
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Exhibit A is Abraham from Genesis 15, verse 6, which tells us Abraham believed
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God and it was counted to him, credited to him as righteousness. And I would say,
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Tony, on the cross, Jesus absorbed the wrath of God, the anger of God that is rightfully his as a holy
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God, looking at those who have violated willfully his laws, thrown his grace and mercy under the bus, and have not only violated
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God's commandment, but have done it as a treasonous act. And Jesus absorbed that.
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Isaiah 53 tells us, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way.
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Not everybody has committed murder. Not everyone has committed adultery. Not everyone has done vile and hostile things outwardly, but we've done it in our hearts and we've all done our own thing.
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And that is the nature of sin. It's a rebellion. It's a desire to say, I will do it my way.
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I'm not sure about Frank Sinatra's conversion. I don't know where he stands in the sight of God, but I do know this.
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He'll not be allowed to sing, I did it my way in the courts of heaven. That's not the way of the master.
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That is not the way of Christ. In fact, we are to turn from our way. Our way is that of rebellion.
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All we like sheep have gone astray. We've all turned to our own way. And the Lord has laid on him, the suffering servant, the iniquity, modern day word would be rebellion of us all.
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Talking of God's people, he was stricken for the transgression of my people, as Isaiah 53 goes on to say.
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So I would talk about the cross and how at the cross, Jesus had up to this point, lived an absolutely sinless life, a life of perfect obedience.
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And I would walk him through that concept of Jesus being this divine savior, the
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God man, the second person of the Trinity. And I would explain to him that although you do not find the word
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Trinity in the Bible, you don't actually find the word Bible in the
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Bible, but you do get the concept of the Trinity in the Bible.
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The fact is God is a triune God. He's one God, one in essence, three in person.
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And I would walk him through the scriptures on the Trinity. And I would say back to verse 1 of chapter 5, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. This is Paul summing up all that he said in Romans 1 through 4 and saying, therefore, we've been justified.
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And we can as Christians now, because of our faith in Christ, look back on our justification.
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Justification is not a feeling. It's a declaration by God in a courtroom.
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It's a courtroom word. And I would say, Tony, your feelings may come and go. They may be elevated or they may go low at different times and they may be up, they may be down.
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But justification is not based on your feelings about God or how you feel he feels about you.
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You can look back on your justification. We have been justified by faith.
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And the result now, present tense is we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the tenses. We have been, that's past tense. We have peace, that's present tense.
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We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. This peace, I would say, Tony, this peace is not a temporary ceasefire.
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You hear of peace breaking out in the Middle East in the headline on a Friday. And what they mean is they've agreed not to send any missiles the opponent's way, the enemy's way until after the weekend.
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That's basically what it means. Temporary ceasefire. That's not what's in view here. The peace is a settled, eternal peace.
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God has justified you. You've gone to the court, the court of God, and he has justified you.
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One of the things we give out in the visitors packs at the church is a little tract
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I wrote called The Trial. And here we see the indisputable evidence laid before the court of a man's guilt.
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He has grieved God, committed high treason against God. Satan is ruthless in displaying all the things the man has done in the sight of God, which are grievous, sins of commission, sins of omission.
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He's not only done the wrong thing, he's failed to do the right thing. Martin Luther was once asked, what is the greatest sin?
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And he went back to the greatest commandment. He said, if the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, the greatest sin is not to do that.
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And that is a sin of omission. And so the court has heard the testimony to show that guilt is the inevitable conclusion of the court, except that the
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Lord Jesus Christ walks up to the mic at the court and says, may
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I address your majesty, God the Father? And he would say this, righteous father, the case made by the prosecution is indeed true.
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I will not dispute the charges made. However, I will submit to this court two pieces of evidence in the defense of my client.
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Exhibit A, the passive obedience of Christ. Let the record show that on Calvary's cross, the sins of this one was transferred to me and I bore the full punishment demanded by your high and holy justice.
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I was wounded for his transgressions, bruised for his iniquities. The chastisement, the punishment that brought him peace was upon me and by my stripes he was healed.
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Exhibit B, the active obedience of Christ. Let the record show that I, the second person of the adorable trinity, became a man, was born of a virgin and lived a righteous life on earth, always pleasing you, righteous father.
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I lived the life you demanded in your high and holy law. Just as this one's sins were transferred to me on the cross and I suffered the penalty due to him and his place, so also all the acts of my righteous life were transferred to his account.
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For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, 2
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Corinthians 5, 21. Righteous father, if you'll check the record, you'll see that this man's sins have been paid in full and in fact the only record concerning this man now is that he lived my life, for my life was imputed, credited to his account legally and at your good pleasure.
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For it was decreed this should happen in the eternal counsel of the divine trinity before the foundation of the world.
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I go on and I write this, God the judge now addresses the court, having checked the eternal records and the validity of exhibits
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A and B, the case made by the defense is both true and satisfactory in this court for the purpose of dismissing all charges made against this man.
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Would the accused please stand in that my son has borne your punishment in full and has imputed his righteous life to your account.
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I declare you not guilty, but more than that righteous in the splendid righteousness of my son.
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I can do this because my wrath due to you was borne by my son.
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He has paid for your sins in full. You are justified in my sight, forever
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I am at peace with you. Your sins I will remember no more, for by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, you stand before me righteous.
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Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. I love the fact that justification is a courtroom word.
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It's not based on my feelings, how I feel today, how I feel tomorrow.
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It's based on what God has done for us in Christ. Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. I would then walk him through the rest of the text here, and I would go quickly to Romans 5, 6, which says that while we were still weak at the right time,
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Christ died for the ungodly. Do you qualify, Tony? Can you look at your life and say that you were in any way righteous, or were you like me, sinning every day in either word, thought, or deed?
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Christ came for the ungodly, those who are recognizing their sin before God.
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The fact is all of us are ungodly, but not everybody will recognize that. But Christ died for the ungodly.
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For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.
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But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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Since therefore, we've now been justified by his blood, that speaks of the death of Christ on our behalf.
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Much more shall we be saved by him, that's by Christ, from the wrath of God.
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And I would say, Tony, salvation includes the idea of being free from, rescued from, a purposeless life, from having a boring life, from having a life without meaning.
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But that's not the basic meaning of salvation. To be saved is to be rescued from an impending calamity.
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And the biggest, the most ultimate calamity is to approach God not being right in his sight.
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And that is the calamity Jesus saves us from, saving us from the anger and the wrath of God, a holy
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God's reaction, just and righteous reaction to sin. So in the cross, it was the love of God that sent the
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Son of God to atone for the sins of the people of God, so that we might be at peace with God.
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And it was actually God's idea. It was the Father's idea, John 3, 16.
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Tony, you may never have heard that verse before, but you need to hear it. God so loved the world.
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God loved the world in this way. God so loved the world that he gave, he gave his only
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Son, that's his Son Jesus, so that all who believe in him would in no way perish, but instead have everlasting life.
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John 3, 16 is in a nutshell what we read about here. God saves us from God.
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God saves us from experiencing the wrath and the anger of God. I would say, grasp hold of that idea, that concept that Christ is your everything, what
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God demanded, Christ now provides for us by his life for us and his death for us.
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And this same Jesus, born of a virgin, living a sinless life, died an atoning death, and then was raised from the dead on the third day.
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So many times churches, Christians, is a far too simplistic concept with the new convert and say, just believe
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Jesus died for you, believe that, admit you're a sinner, and confess him as Lord.
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Well, that's good as far as it goes, but they need to know more than that. In the book of Romans, Paul tells them, you submitted yourselves to a form of doctrine.
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There's some things that will take more than three minutes to share or three seconds to share regarding what the central truths of the
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Christian faith are. You need to know about Jesus being more than simply a prophet, more than just a true teacher.
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He is that, but he's more than that. He's the God man, fully God, fully man.
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Colossians 2, 9, in Christ dwells all the fullness of deity in bodily form.
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We need to establish the young convert in these truths. The early church came up with, in fact, it was a couple of centuries at least onwards from the apostles, but something called the
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Apostles Creed, and that was to put in place something that every
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Christian could very easily say, yes, I believe that. I believe that.
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I would accept that as my creed. It was not written by the twelve apostles, but by the early church.
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It's an early church document summarizing the faith somewhere between the year 200 and around 750
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AD. It's very hard to place the exact time, because it actually existed in various forms.
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I will just say to Tony, understand the Apostles Creed. Let me put that in your hands if at all possible.
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I believe in God the Father, almighty maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten
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Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried.
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He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the
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Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. That's the alive and the dead.
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I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in a holy catholic church. That word catholic simply means universal.
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There's only one church. Those that are his, not talking there of the Roman Catholic Church, which was a concept that arose four or five centuries on.
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I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the and the life everlasting.
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That little phrase, he descended into hell, was actually a phrase not found in the earliest texts of the creed.
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The word hell there in the original Greek creeds was
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Hades, and it was simply a reference, I believe, to the realm of the dead. It's a multifaceted word.
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In other words, it was the place the dead bodies go to, in other words, the grave, and then, basically, when we look at church history, it was
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Rufinus in his commentary upon the Apostles' Creed that simply added that phrase, and that was about 390 to around 404.
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We have that addition, but not really found in earlier manuscripts. But as wonderful as the
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Apostles' Creed is, and I would say get that into somebody's hands quickly as a good summary, of what we should believe, even that is not enough for establishing someone in the
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Christian faith. Why? There's actually no justification by faith alone in the
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Apostles' Creed. Any Roman Catholic could say yes to this creed if they are believing
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Roman doctrine. How many know that's not the gospel? The gospel has to also include not only who
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Jesus is, what he did on the cross, but also how someone is brought into right relationship with God.
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And for that, we have the book of Romans, which tells us we're justified by faith apart from works.
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It's not faith plus human merit, not grace plus what we bring to the table.
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It's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. I would establish this man in the gospel.
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I would establish him in the Holy Trinity. There's a book by Dr. James White, The Forgotten Trinity.
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If I had it in my briefcase, I'd put it in his hands. But I would walk him through the idea that the reason we believe in the
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Trinity is not because we're trying to hold on to a church tradition, but because although the
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Bible doesn't use that word, we can't find one single verse that explains the concept of the
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Trinity. It's really the work of finding out all that the Bible says about God.
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And when we look at the Bible, three things are exceedingly clear. One is there's only one
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God. The Jews know that. Deuteronomy makes it clear. The Lord is one.
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There's only one God who is eternal, immutable, that means unchangeable, and number two is that there are three eternal persons, each of whom are addressed as God in Scripture.
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The Father, oftentimes when you're reading of the word God, it's addressing God the
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Father, but Jesus Christ is also called God many, many different times.
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Both in the Old and the New Testament, this is affirmed. There are three eternal persons in what we now call the
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Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These persons are never identified with one another.
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They are carefully differentiated as distinct persons. The Father is not the
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Son. The Son is not the Father. The Son is not the Holy Spirit, nor is the
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Holy Spirit the Father. And we would say this then, there's one God, there are three eternal persons, and each of them are clearly identified as being full deity.
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That is, the Bible teaches the deity of the Father, the deity of Christ, and the deity of the
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Holy Spirit. And every cult has to choke on one of those three expressions, which is why they cannot embrace the doctrine of the
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Trinity. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarians, every kind of oneness,
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Pentecostal, they cannot affirm the doctrine of the Trinity properly understood.
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God exists eternally, eternally as three divine persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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Each person is fully God, and there's still only one God. It's mind -blowing, but if we could get a concept of God that could just be so easily understood, it wouldn't be really something worthy of worship.
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It's mysterious how God can be one in essence, but three in persons. We know from creation that God exists,
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Romans 1, and then we know from special revelation of Scripture how we are to approach
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God, what He has revealed about Himself, and we know from the Scripture how to be in right relationship with God through the proclamation of the gospel.
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Have you noticed how wonderful the sunsets are? We live in Arizona, and we see amazing sunsets.
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Sedona is a place of amazing beauty. I've been to the Grand Canyon a number of times, and Sedona multiple times.
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I think it's one of the most beautiful places on earth, but not everybody who sees the amazing nature there, or in Hawaii or elsewhere, are falling down getting converted because by the means of nature, we know enough to condemn us.
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We know there's a God. We see the beauty of creation. We see its spectacular display, but that's not enough, which is why
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Romans 10 tells us faith comes by the means of hearing.
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Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ, the message of Christ.
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People need to hear this gospel. Martin Lloyd -Jones said, preaching is the most important thing under the sun.
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Nothing is more important than to herald the gospel. Tim Keller said this, the gospel is not just the
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ABCs, but the A to Z of Christianity. I'm back in England, I would say the
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A to Z, but here in America, the A to Z, the gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we all make progress in the kingdom.
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Again, if I'm in England, we would say progress, but that's why I'm translating. Only a perfect righteousness,
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John Calvin said, can stand in the judgment, and the Christian can have such righteousness only outside himself and in the perfection of Christ.
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I would say to Tony, if you look inside, you will always see flaws, you'll always see blemishes, you'll always see things of which you can be ashamed, but if you look to Christ, you see perfection, perfect righteousness, and that is your standing before God, because God in the gospel gives you
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Christ. His life, his death, his resurrection counts now for you.
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The God of love sent the Son of God to endure the wrath of God for the people of God.
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God saves us from God, we're saved by God, from God, and for God.
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We're justified in his sight by simple faith in him. Justification is a key word.
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I'm sure if Martin Luther had any time with a new convert, the word justification would come up.
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It's a word that declares our standing before God, a declaration, not based on our inherent righteousness, but based on the work and the righteousness of Jesus Christ for us.
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Luther called justification by faith alone, sola fide, as it's called, the article upon which the church stands or falls, or the article upon which we have the standing or the falling church.
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One that embraces justification by faith alone is a true church, those who do not have or already are fallen as churches.
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He said this, the doctrine, talking of sola fide, justification by faith alone, is the head and the cornerstone.
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It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God, and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour.
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For no one who does not hold this article, or to use Paul's expression, this sound doctrine, is able to teach a right in the church or successfully to resist any adversary.
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This is the heel of the seed that opposes the old serpent and crushes its head. That is why
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Satan in turn cannot but persecute it. Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know
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God and is an idolater. You can have very sincere people who are sincerely deceived, and hear this, deceived people, deceive people.
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When the article has been taken away nothing remains but error, hypocrisy, godlessness, and idolatry.
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Although it may seem to be the height of truth, worship of God, holiness, etc., if the article of justification is lost, all
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Christian doctrine is lost at the same time. When the article of justification has fallen, this is a continual, another quote of Luther, everything has fallen, therefore it's necessary constantly to inculcate and impress it, as Moses says of his law, for it cannot be inculcated and urged enough or too much.
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Indeed even though we learn it well and hold to it, yet there is no one who apprehends it perfectly or believes it with a full affection and heart, so very trickish is our flesh, fighting as it does against the obedience of the spirit.
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So I'd say to Tony, read John's gospel, read the book of Romans often, go to other places too, but let those be the foundation.
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Understand who Jesus is, understand the gospel, and those books were written for that particular purpose.
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I would say Tony, time's marching on, you're off on a plane real soon. You need to understand something, the five solas of the
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Reformation, these were not just historical ideas, but this was a time when God restored the full truth of God to the people of God, and in five solas, five declarations, each with the
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Latin sola attached to it, which meant simply alone. If someone is singing by themselves, we say they're singing a solo.
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If someone is flying a plane by themselves, we're saying they're flying solo. So it is, the solas are the alones of the
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Bible, and the message of scripture is that justification to be declared right in the sight of God, Greek word dikaiosune means to be declared right in his sight, it is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone, and we know that on the basis of scripture alone, sola scriptura.
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At again, King's Church, we often write this, usually about once a month or so on the back of our bulletin.
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Here at King's Church, we affirm the five solas of the Protestant Reformation, the
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Latin word sola means alone, and each of these summarize the biblical gospel recovered and proclaimed at that time, sola scriptura, scripture alone.
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The Bible alone is the word of God, and I would say, Tony, don't believe something because you hear me say it, or some preacher say it, or someone you respect say it, check everything with the word of God.
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Only the word of God has the authority to bind the conscience, to say you must believe what this because this is
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God -breathed material. Nothing else out there is like it. All scripture is breathed out by God, and you cannot say that about any other human document.
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The Bible alone is the word of God. As such, it's the soul, hear that word soul, soul, written divine revelation, and alone has the authority to bind the conscience of the believer absolutely.
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Sola gratia, grace alone. Our salvation rests solely on the work of God's grace for us.
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Because of this, human boasting is not merely discouraged or kept to a minimum, but is excluded completely.
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Sola fide, faith alone. Justification is by faith alone. Faith is the sole ground of our acceptance with God, by which our sins are remitted and imputed, credited to Christ, and the merit of Christ's righteousness is imputed to us.
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Solus Christus, Christ alone. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only,
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He's the sole mediator through whose work we are redeemed. Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone belongs the glory, and we write this.
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Each sola is important, but the first four exist, really exist, to preserve the last one, namely the glory of God.
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By sola scriptura, we declare the glory of God's authority by noting that only
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His inspired word can command us absolutely. Sola fide, sola
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Christus, and sola gratia all exalt God's glory in salvation.
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God and God alone through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, saves His people from sin and death.
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Do you see that? It's because salvation is all the work of God that then all the glory can go to God for our salvation.
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I'd say now, Tony, understanding that, what is required of you? Three things from Scripture.
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Repentance. Repentance towards God. God, I'm sorry. I've done my own thing.
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I've gone my own way. I turn. I about face. I now go in a new direction. I change my mind.
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I was thinking my way was the right way. I repent. I turn. I come to you,
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God, and I believe in your Son. I trust in Him to save me. Just as when you have plumbing problems, you trust a plumber to come in and do a job for you.
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So we trust Christ to do the work of salvation, the saving of our souls.
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He is the Savior. He's not a part Savior, or He does a lot of the work and then just leaves some tools in our hands and say, you finish the job.
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He's the one who does the work completely. Salvation is of the Lord, the
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Scripture says. Repentance, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and then water baptism.
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Christ commands us to show our allegiance to Him by being identified with His life, death, burial, and resurrection in something called baptism.
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Then I would say, Tony, wherever you go, you need to find a local church. Make your decision about where you go to a church based not on how big it is, how small it is.
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I like this kind of a size of a church or that kind of size of a church. If you're there in the church on the day of Pentecost, you're already upset if 3 ,000 are in the church, if you want small church.
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That's in God's hands. Your assignment is to find a church that is biblical, that will handle the
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Word of God aright. Whether they have a choir, whether they have a youth ministry, whether they have this going on or that going on is not the main thing you should look for.
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The question to ask is, how does this local church handle the Word of God? Is the Word of God being rightly taught?
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It takes a church to raise a Christian, and I would say, Tony, find a local church.
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Perhaps God might even call you to start a church if there isn't one in your area. That's all in God's hands, but your assignment is to find a local church.
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It might be that it might be a long way for you to go to find a church that is biblical, but do everything you can to go there, each
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Lord's Day, every Sunday. Let it be the continual habit of your heart and life to be in church.
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The Reformers spoke of three marks of a true church. It wasn't the size of any orchestra or how neat and friendly people are.
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We can all say every Christian church should be a loving church, but it's hard to put that in tangible terms.
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How do we say that that's not a loving church? This one is. It can be a little fuzzy and hazy. The Reformers said three biblical marks of a church.
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The Word of God rightly preached. The gospel rightly preached. Secondly, the sacraments, baptism and the
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Lord's Supper, administered rightly in the church. The third one was church discipline.
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There had to be a membership and a discipline of those who would seek to devour the church.
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Otherwise, there's no protection for that nucleus of people, God's people. If a wolf can come in and wreak havoc, there's not really a place of protection for the people of God.
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And I'd say, Tony, you won't find a perfect church, and if you do, please don't join it. You'd ruin it.
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No. Find a church that has those things in place. Know certain things. Know those five solas.
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Know the difference between justification and another word, which is a big word, sanctification.
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Don't assume that your new convert knows that, that we're justified by faith and by faith alone, but sanctification is a lifelong process of us becoming more holy before God.
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And oftentimes, as we continue in our Christian faith, we're more and more aware of our discrepancies, of our failures than our successes.
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In fact, the light of the Holy Spirit shines a light so brightly the more we walk with him that we're more and more aware of our sin, our lack of true godly motivation at times.
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But hear this, never believe, never think that God is adjusting your justification by means of your sanctification.
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Our sanctification is the overflow of a right relationship with God because God has given us a new heart that wants the things of God.
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What follows Romans 5 is, of course, Romans 6, where the question is then asked, what then?
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If everything's by grace, can we just continue in sin that grace may abound? What's the answer?
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Well, not really. No, that's not what it says. Well, technically no. No. God forbid.
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Why? What is the appeal? Because you've got a new nature. How could we who die to sin live any longer in it?
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You've got a new nature now. But don't believe for a moment that you're on probation.
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Justification is not probation. It's a declaration of a once for all, past tense court case where you've been declared right in the sight of God.
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Don't believe for a moment that God is renegotiating your justification based on your sanctification.
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Having said that, Book of James chapter 2 and other places make it very clear that if we're truly justified, we have a new heart with new affections, and there should be evidence to show we are truly justified.
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Someone who has no time for God, no time for the people of God, has no desire to even find a local church, let alone be in it, it makes me question whether their regeneration, their new life has really been something that has happened.
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Have they received new life? Because a new heart wants what God wants of them.
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And God says, repent, believe, be baptized, and also find a local church.
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Not to try and be saved, but because you are saved and now have a new nature and you now love the people of God.
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In 1 John it says, one of the reasons we know we've passed from death to life is because we love the brethren.
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There's people that you wouldn't have hung out with before, but you now do because you now have a love for the people of God.
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These two things, justification and sanctification, they cannot be separated, but they can be distinguished.
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Let me explain that. If I separated your head from your body, it wouldn't do you much good, it would actually kill you, so I don't want to do that, but I can make a distinction between your head and your body.
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If I distinguish between the head and the body, I haven't done you any harm at all. Justification is not a separation, it's actually a distinction.
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A truly justified person has a to be like Christ, or else we have to question whether there's been a true conversion.
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God does not assess the degree of your sanctification to renegotiate your justification.
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Otherwise, grace isn't grace anymore, and otherwise Romans 5 .1
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wouldn't be true, and Ephesians 2 .8 and 9 wouldn't be true, which tells us it's by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one should boast.
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What is the place of works? Verse 10, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We're not saved by our works, we're saved for good works.
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God doesn't need your good works, your neighbor does, people around you do, and you doing them doesn't give you a better standing with God than the moment you express faith in Jesus Christ, but they are the result of a truly regenerated heart.
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There should be a struggle. Tony, if there's a struggle with sin, it's actually good news. Before you were converted, there wasn't a struggle, but Galatians 5 .1
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tells us the flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh, and there's this ongoing battle until either
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Jesus comes for us, or we go to be with him in death. This side of glory, there will be that struggle.
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Understand that. Understand that you need to find a local church, be a member there, give there, be generous in your giving.
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We could talk a lot about that, not just in the week you go to church, if you get there once a month, but sum it up, sum up what you're receiving and give proportionately.
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In the Old Testament, we had the principle of tithing. I believe it's a good starting principle for us in the
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New Testament to understand that that was at least God's description and command of what he desired of the people of God, and I don't believe we should be giving less in the
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New Testament. Now we've received grace upon grace upon grace in the New. Understand that God knows everything and God owns everything.
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Everything we have is the Lord, is the Lord's, from the Lord. Deuteronomy 8 .18,
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it's God who gives us the power to get wealth that he may establish his covenant, and our giving is an acknowledgement that everything we have is his.
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He's the source of it all. You might say, but I work for it. Yeah, but who gave you your brain? Who gave you your energy?
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God does. If I had just a few more minutes, I'd say understand God's sovereignty and salvation.
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God's been especially gracious to you. We call the doctrines of Reformed theology the doctrines of grace.
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There's this English acrostic TULIP, T -U -L -I -P, which stands for five doctrines, which
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I believe are biblical doctrines, not ethereal concepts for elite theologians, but the heart of our faith is the fact that we were dead in our transgressions and sins, and God in election does so unconditionally.
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As we read in Romans 9, the two twins there in the womb, one was called, one was brought and received greater mercy than the other, not because of works.
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We're explicitly told it's not on the basis of works. I would say neither foreseen works or works that they had done.
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They were both in the womb when the declaration was made, I've made this one mine rather than the other.
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I've called this one rather than the other. It's all an act of grace. Unconditional election is a biblical concept.
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Then there's this limited atonement, a better translation, not a better translation, a better word or phrase would be definite atonement.
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Christ came intentionally to save his people from their sins. He did that, he cried out, it is finished on the cross.
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He secured our redemption. He saved us by means of the cross, and then in time the
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Holy Spirit applies that redemption to God's people. We have the work of the Trinity in salvation.
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One of the reasons I believe it so strongly is because there's no fracturing of the Trinity in the salvation of God's people.
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It's not as if God elects some people, the son then dies for a different group or a group bigger than the father elected, saying,
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I love people more than you do, and the Holy Spirit only applying redemption to people who hear that gospel.
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No, it's the same people in view. The father elects them, the son dies for them, and the Holy Spirit applies the redemption of the
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Son of God to the people of God in perfect harmony. Understand that, and Tony, you're going to understand your
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Bible a lot more. Finally, this grace that opens up the heart causes our blindness to be dispensed because of the light of his truth.
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It comes as an act of God so that you now love what you see. If the unsaved, unregenerate heart sees
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God as he really is, he will hate him, not love him. But God takes out the heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh that we might know him.
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Summaring up the five words of the Tulip, it's the P, the perseverance, or better word would be preservation of the saints.
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The one who started that work, Tony and you, will complete it. I'm about to leave. I may never see you again, but I believe
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I'll see you in heaven. If God has genuinely dealt with your soul, you'll continue in the faith, not because you're so much holding on to God, but that he is holding on to you.
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He that began the good work in you, he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, Philippians 1, 6.
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I remember reading something by John Piper in recognizing these five doctrines, and he summed it up so well,
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I just want to read it as we close today. He wrote this, I believe I'm so spiritually corrupt and prideful and rebellious that I would never have come to faith in Jesus without God's merciful, sovereign victory over the last vestiges of my rebellion.
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I believe that God chose me to be his child before the foundation of the world on the basis of nothing in me, foreknown or otherwise.
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I believe Christ died as a substitute for sinners to provide a bona fide offer of salvation to all people, and that he had an invincible design in his death to obtain his chosen bride, namely the assembly of all believers whose names were eternally written in the book of Life of the
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Lamb that was slain. When I was dead in my trespasses and blind to the beauty of Christ, God made me alive, opened the eyes of my heart, granted me to believe, and united me to Jesus with all the benefits of forgiveness and justification and eternal life.
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And I am eternally secure, not mainly because of anything I did in the past, but decisively because God is faithful to complete the work he began, to sustain my faith and to keep me from apostasy and to hold me back from sin that leads to death.
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We're out of time, and I'd say, Tony, I'm about to board the plane. You're about to go in your direction.
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I'm praying for you that God would be especially close to you, read your Bible, understand the work of Christ for you.
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I would hug that man and I'd say, take this Bible, take this confession of faith and love the
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Lord with all your heart, and I believe I'll see you once again in glory because of Christ and because of Christ alone who saves us based on the
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Scripture alone by means of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and that's why all the glory goes to God alone.
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Thanks for being with me here on The Dividing Line. It's been a joy. Look to see you next time.
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Continue to pray for Dr. White and his ministry overseas. God bless you as you walk in the light of God's Word.