Soteriology - Saved from What?

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Well, good evening everyone.
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I've been looking forward to this night for a long time, because tonight we begin a new section of our study of theology.
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And this has been a study that has been going on now for quite some time.
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We started what we call overview of theology and doctrine, really what it is, a systematic theology.
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We began this, well, I guess over a year ago.
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And we were looking at the different schools of theology, the different categories.
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Theology proper, the study of God and his nature.
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Christology, the study of Jesus Christ and his nature and his works.
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Pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit of God.
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We have looked at even the subject of angelology, which is the study of angels and demons.
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And our last category that we studied was the subject of hamartiology, which comes from the Greek word hamartia, which means sin.
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And so for several weeks we looked at the doctrine of sin.
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Now, if you were not a part of that study, that doesn't mean that you won't be able to enjoy this study, but I do encourage you, there are some parts of that study which are necessary to understand the doctrine of salvation.
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Because salvation, the word gospel, means good news.
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And as I have said many, many times, the context of the good news is always the bad news.
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And the bad news is sin.
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If we don't understand that sin binds us, if we don't understand that we are dead in trespasses and sins until such time as God grants us the gift of life, then we will not understand fully the doctrine of salvation.
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You'll notice on your handout that I've given you ten parts.
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Last one was six parts and it took longer than six because some of these are two-week studies.
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So I'm going to assume this is going to take us well into the summer and possibly beyond because this deserves it.
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I mean, we could talk about salvation until Jesus comes.
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There's really no reason to rush, but just so that you understand the outline, we're going to look at tonight.
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Tonight's title is Saved From What? You'll understand that in a moment.
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Then we're going to look at the definition of the atonement, the extent of the atonement.
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We're going to look at what's known as common and special grace.
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We're going to look at the golden chain of redemption.
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We're going to look at justification by faith alone.
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We're going to distinguish regeneration and faith.
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We're going to look at adoption and union with Christ.
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We're going to look at apostasy and eternal security.
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And finally, in part ten, we will look at the five points of Calvinism to round out the study.
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So that is the outline.
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And again, if you're all with me when it ends, you will probably take us about 15 weeks because I know there are at least three or four of these that are going to go two weeks.
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So we're going to begin tonight with the question, Saved From What? A very common question that evangelicals are known to ask when witnessing is simply the question, Are you saved? You ever had anybody ask you that? Have you ever had anyone just catch you off guard completely and say, Are you saved? Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul, in one of his lectures, told a funny story about how when he was teaching at Temple University, he was looking for some quiet time after lunch to be able to have a little bit of relaxation before he moved on to teach his next lecture.
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So he ate his lunch and he threw the trash away and put the tray away.
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And he was trying to hurry off away from the cacophony of sound that's often erupting in the lunchroom of a cafeteria.
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And as he's running out, he gets bombarded with a man who stops him right in the doorway and says, Are you saved? And he just couldn't, for a moment, just kind of lost his bearing.
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And he said, Saved from what? And he said, he said in his mind, he was thinking, Well, I'm obviously not saved from people who are disturbing my attempt to try to rest.
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He said, he said, Saved from what? And the guy said, got a little confused.
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You know, wasn't used to that kind of a response.
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And he and he kind of went on and and said, Well, you know, you know, Jesus, that's that was it.
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You know what I'm talking about? The guy got a little confused because when he asked, Are you saved? He had not really considered he was asking a question that assumes that people know what they're saved from.
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Do we know what we're saved from? Well, that's what tonight is about.
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Tonight we begin our study of Soteriology.
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Now that word is a little funky.
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The word Soteriology comes from the noun in Greek Soter and the verb Sotso.
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And those words simply mean to save that is the noun or that's the verb to save and saved as the noun in the Greek.
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So Soter and Sotso is where we get the word Soteriology.
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And this is the study of the doctrine of salvation.
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And through this course, we're going to look into several aspects of salvation, including atonement, redemption, reconciliation, adoption.
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But tonight, we're going to ask the most basic question, what does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to be saved? The Bible uses the word salvation in many different ways.
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And this is one of the reasons why the subject of salvation can be somewhat confusing for people.
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Because oftentimes people will take a word and they will apply its meaning across the board without allowing the context to nuance the meaning.
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For instance, when Peter is walking to Jesus on the water, you remember, Jesus walked to Peter and Peter said, Lord, let me come out to you.
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And Peter stepped off into the water.
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And as he began to walk, as he was looking at Jesus, he was fine.
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But as he looked down, he began to doubt and he began to fall in the water.
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And what did he say? Save me, Lord.
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Now at that moment, I don't think that Peter's context would mean that he's referring to his spiritual regeneration, salvation.
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I think at that point, he literally meant save me from drowning.
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And so we see right there is a contextual difference where we see save in a little different way than that man minute when he said to R.C.
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Sproul, are you saved? Likewise, there is a very obscure verse in 1 Timothy chapter two, where it says that women are saved in childbearing.
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And that has created a lot of confusion.
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Because number one, we know that women are not saved eternally simply because they have babies.
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That's not what causes a person to be saved.
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And so that's certainly not the context of the word salvation there.
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And likewise, we know that it doesn't mean that every woman is protected from harm and childbearing because some women have died in childbearing.
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So there's a there's another meaning in that.
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And I believe the meaning of 1 Timothy 2.12.
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While it's not an easy verse to understand, Paul is talking about the fact that women don't have the role of teaching in the body of Christ as pastors and elders.
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He says, let not a woman exercise authority over a man, but she is saved in childbearing.
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And somebody says, well, what does that mean? Well, it means that in giving birth, she does have a role of leadership.
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She does have a role of teaching.
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And the dignity, whatever dignity is lost and not being able to be a pastor is certainly maintained in being a mother.
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And there's a dignity in motherhood that is very powerful and very important.
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And so the word saved there has a completely different meaning than what Peter meant when he was in the water, and certainly with what the salvation of the soul is meant.
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So to begin to understand salvation, we need to understand that when we talk about it in this context, we are talking about it in the spiritual sense.
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We are talking about being saved in the spiritual sense.
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And we need to first understand why we need to be saved.
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And that was what the last several weeks was about.
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Hamartiology, the study of sin, was to teach us why we need to be saved.
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We are in a desperate condition.
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And salvation in that sense means it's saving us from that condition.
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Again, mentioning Dr.
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Sproul, one of my favorite teachers, he makes this interesting point.
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It's not so much that we are saved from sin, even though that is true.
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But actually what we are saved from is we are saved from the consequence of sin.
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What is the consequence of sin? That is a legitimate question.
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What is the consequence of sin? Hell.
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Okay.
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Hell is true, and I'm not...
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Well, I don't define hell as separation from God, so that's another conversation.
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Well, no, because in hell, you are separated from the goodness of God.
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You are separated from the grace of God.
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But God, the Bible says, I will make my...
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If I go up into heaven, you're there.
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I make my bed and shield, you're there.
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God is certainly present in hell as an active participant in the punishment.
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I mean, there's no sense in which God is anywhere.
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God is not.
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That is where God's wrath is displayed.
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And so the question then is what are...
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And I just gave the answer.
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What are we saved from? Wrath.
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We are saved from wrath.
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And this is not my opinion.
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This is just what Jesus taught us in John 3, verse 36.
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
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Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
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So hear that verse again.
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Whoever has the Son has life.
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Whoever believes in the Son has life.
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But whoever does not obey the Son...
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And by the way, there's an interesting contextual connection there because it does show us that there's something in belief that is also obedience.
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As it says, listen to it again.
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever does not obey the Son.
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So it's actually what we call a Hebrew parallelism.
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And the word that's being paralleled there is believe and obey.
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Right.
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And so he says, who does not obey the Son does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
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Sproul makes the point that in the end result, what we actually are being saved from, and if this offends you, you can take it up with Sproul.
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He died last year or so, or actually a few years ago now.
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But if this offends you, just know that I do agree with this.
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In the end result, what we're actually being saved from is God himself.
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Listen to this verse, 1 Thessalonians 1 verses 9 and 10.
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For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
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What was the role that Jesus had to deliver us from the wrath to come? He said, if you're in me, you're safe.
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This was John 3.
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If you're in me, you're safe from the wrath.
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But if you're not in me, the wrath abides on you.
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Romans 1 tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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The wrath of God is being revealed.
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That's the present tense.
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How is the wrath of God being revealed against ungodliness and unrighteousness of men? Right now, people are dying.
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250,000 people die every day.
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That's an amazing amount of people.
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We don't realize it because we don't experience it in a real sense.
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But we see it.
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And what I'm saying is hundreds of thousands of people will die today and then tomorrow and the next day.
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And, of course, people are being born.
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And so what we are seeing is we're seeing the death.
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The wages of sin is death.
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And so we actually get to witness the reality of God's wrath working itself out every day.
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Death should be the greatest evangelist in the world.
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Because every time we see someone die, we should be reminded that we're going to face God one day.
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It is appointed unto every man once to die.
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And after this is judgment.
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Death should be the greatest evangelist.
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So what do we do? We hide our dead.
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We avoid funerals.
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We don't want to go.
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I do funerals all the time.
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You know what I've noticed? Attendance drops and drops and drops.
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Nobody wants to see the dead.
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Nobody wants to be around the dead.
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We hide the cemeteries behind big stone walls and big metal gates because we don't want to see the reality of what's going to happen.
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It's a reminder of the fact that we're all marching toward the same ultimate end, and that is death.
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Oh boy, aren't you so happy you came? But the reality is, death is an example and a reminder of the wrath of God which abides on all of us.
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In that sense, we are all going to experience the reality of death.
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But for the believer, death is simply the translation from one life to the next.
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We go from life to life, and the unbeliever goes from death to death because they're dead here spiritually.
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The Bible says you were dead in your trespasses and sins.
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They're dead here spiritually, and they go from this death to the next life, which is to them also death.
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And I don't mean death by the fact that they're unconscious.
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What I mean is it's just not life.
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Hell is not life.
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Hell is hell.
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Hell is the epitome of living miserably, but still living.
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So from whose wrath are we being delivered? It's not Satan's wrath, and it's not the wrath of men, but it is the wrath of God.
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And in that sense, when we say, are you saved? We can say that we, if we are saved, we are saved from God, by God, for God.
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Say it again.
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We are saved from God and his wrath, by God's grace, for God's glory.
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And thus salvation becomes all about him.
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Saved by his grace, saved from his wrath, saved for his glory.
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Now, when we talk about salvation, three important theological principles need to be understood, and I want to outline these for you tonight, because even though I'm just going to touch on them, I do believe these three fundamental aspects of salvation, if they are confused or misunderstood, will cause great confusion and consternation for the student of Scripture.
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And all of these need to be understood as being distinct but inseparable.
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Distinct but inseparable.
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You can't have one without having them all, but you do need to understand the distinction between them all.
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Okay, so we're going to look at three.
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The first is what we call justification, and I think this marker's about had it, so I'm going to switch.
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The first is justification.
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The second is sanctification, and what is the third one? Anybody want to guess? Huh? Oh, it's on the sheet.
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Well, okay.
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Well, why am I writing it then? It is glorification, but didn't I give you some blanks on the sheet? Oh, okay.
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Well, then I guess I can, yes, justification, sanctification, and glorification, but I didn't give you the answers yet, so let me give you the first answer.
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Justification is salvation from the penalty of sin.
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What is the penalty of sin? We just talked about it.
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Please don't be afraid to answer.
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What's the penalty of sin? The wrath of God.
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Thank you.
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Okay, so the only way that a person can be saved from the wrath of God is that he be righteous, and the reason for that is because God is a good judge, and he will not allow injustice to go without penalty.
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Therefore, when Adam sinned in the garden, a penalty was leveled against him, and he was an object of the wrath of God at that moment.
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He died spiritually, and the penalty was leveled against him and all of his children.
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We are dead spiritually when we come into this world because of Adam.
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Now, justification, this word, is God's declaration of righteousness upon a sinner.
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Now, I want you to hear this again, because this word is key.
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Declaration of righteousness.
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Now, later we're going to see how that declaration occurs.
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We're going to talk about grace and faith and all of those things, but for now, what I want you to understand is God does not make a person righteous.
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He declares a person righteous.
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You say, well, what is the difference? Well, I got saved when I was 19 years old.
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I remember it.
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I remember where I was.
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I remember being in my green pickup truck on Broward Road heading toward my then apartment at Island Point.
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I remember weeping, pulling off the side of the road, and I remember that moment very vividly, but I know this.
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Since that moment, I have not lived a perfectly righteous life.
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In fact, since that moment, I know that I have sinned against God greatly, and I have in my life demonstrated on more than one account that God did not make me righteous.
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So how is it that God can declare me to be righteous if I am not truly righteous? Is God a liar? And some people say, yes.
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The Catholics would say, God cannot say you are righteous unless you are righteous, and they do not believe in imputed righteousness.
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And I'll explain that word in a minute.
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They believe in something called infused righteousness, and the difference is this.
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They believe that through the process of penance and mass and going through the various sacraments of the church, you are infused with righteousness, and you will be righteous one day, and Lord willing, when you die, if you're not righteous, you'll go to purgatory, and you'll get to be purged more, and you'll one day, maybe it's 100 million years into the future, you'll be finally made righteous and able to be in the presence of God.
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That's being made righteous.
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Remember what happened during the Reformation? The men who were selling indulgences, what were the purpose of the selling of the indulgences? Because the church was giving the forgiveness, you can buy this piece of paper, and with this piece of paper, you can buy time off of purgatory.
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It was a piece of paper that you purchased that bought your sins for you, purchased your forgiveness.
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That's what Luther wrote the 95 Theses against, was against the selling of indulgences.
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It wasn't even about justification by faith alone.
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It was about indulgences.
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It was about the idea that you could buy salvation.
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Roman Catholicism has many faulty errors, but I think the greatest among them is that for you to go to heaven, God must make you righteous by infusion.
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The Reformers said, no, God does not infuse righteousness into you.
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God imputes righteous to you.
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Imputation means that He charges it to your account.
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If you had an empty bank account, and I were to take my money from my bank account, and I were to deposit that into your account, that would be an act of imputation.
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I would be taking something that you didn't have, and I would be putting it into your account.
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And thereby, I could declare that you're not broke anymore, because before you was broke, but I have imputed into your account, and now you are not broke.
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Might not be much, because I don't have much to give, but you wouldn't be broke.
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But we who are dead in trespasses and sins have no righteousness, and thereby, spiritually, we are broke.
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Christ has all righteousness, because He never sinned, not in thought, word, or deed.
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God takes the righteousness of Christ, and He imputes it into our account, and because of that, He can declare us righteous based on the righteousness of Christ.
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The Apostle Paul says this clearly, I stand having not a righteousness of my own, which comes from the law, but a righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
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Do we have a righteousness? Yes, but it's as Martin Luther called it, an alien righteousness.
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Alien, not like little green men, but alien, meaning it's from the outside.
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It doesn't come from within.
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It doesn't get created from inside.
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It gets charged from the outside, and thereby, we are justified by the righteousness of Christ.
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We are declared righteous.
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God is not a liar, because He's declaring us righteous based upon the work of Christ.
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Here is the verse, if you want the verse for this, so clearly explained in Romans 3, verses 21 to 26.
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In fact, I want you to see this one.
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So if you'll open your Bibles to Romans 3, verse 21, it says, But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
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For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation.
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By the way, a propitiation is something that satisfies wrath.
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That's what Christ did on the cross.
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He satisfied the wrath of God.
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God put Him forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.
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This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins.
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See, God didn't bring destruction on the whole world because of the sins of the past, because God was waiting for Christ to come so that He could justify sinners.
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He had passed over the former sins.
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He hadn't brought the justice that was deserved.
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He was waiting for Christ.
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And it says it was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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That verse 24, or 26 rather, that is one that really is good to memorize because it says this, God is just and the justifier.
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That means He is righteous and the one who makes righteous.
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You see, God is righteous.
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Remember what the Catholics said? Well, if He makes you righteous and you're really not, then He's a liar.
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No, He's still, He's still, He's not a liar.
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He's still righteous because He justifies you based on the work of Christ.
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Therefore, He's not a liar.
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He's taking from someone else's account and putting it into yours.
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Jesus Christ gives you the righteousness.
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This is why if you stood before God today, if you died today and God asked you, why should you be allowed into heaven? I hope that you would give no other answer than Jesus Christ and Him alone.
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Because if you say it's because I came to church, you say it's because I gave to the missionaries.
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If you say it's because I was a preacher or a Sunday school teacher or anything else, then you are holding on to your own righteousness.
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We are not to hold on to our own righteousness.
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To be justified is to be justified in the righteousness of Christ alone.
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So that is justification saved from the penalty of sin.
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Now, it doesn't end there, though, because the Bible talks about us having been saved, right? The Romans 5, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
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That's the past tense.
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Justification happens when we get saved.
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That's past tense.
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But then there is sanctification and sanctification is salvation from the power of sin.
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And as much as the work of salvation was a work done by the Son in His work on the cross, the work of sanctification is a work of the Spirit in us every single day as we walk by faith in the newness of life.
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Romans 8, verse 9, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
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If, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.
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If you are saved, and genuinely so, because some people believe they're saved and they're not.
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Amen.
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There are people who believe that they are saved.
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And a lot of them, it's because of what they've done.
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Oh, I have to be saved.
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Look at me.
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Think of the people in Matthew chapter 7.
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God, did we not do many mighty works in your name? And he said, Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.
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You may have named my name, but you didn't know me.
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And more importantly, I never knew you.
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Romans 8, 9 says anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ.
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Therefore, what does it mean to be saved? Well, we're saved from the penalty of sin.
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That's the work of Christ.
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But we're also saved from the power of sin because we have the Holy Spirit living with in us.
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The Holy Spirit sanctifies the person.
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Sanctified means to make holy, to set apart, to make different.
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I got to tell you, if you're a believer and your life hasn't changed, it really would have me question whether or not you've truly come into a saving relationship with Christ.
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Now, I'm not saying everyone's going to change in the exact same way and that everybody's going to be the same, because there are many primary colors in the Christian spectrum.
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And some people are just different in a good way.
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I'm not saying that you had to change and become like me, but I can tell you this.
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In 1999, when the Lord changed my life, he changed my desires.
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As Dr.
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Jerry Powers, my old professor, used to say, he gave me a new wanna.
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Because before he saved me, there were things I wanted, and now all I want to do is follow Christ.
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A new wanna, right? What I want to do is different than what I used to want to do.
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My life changed.
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Am I perfect? No, I've already admitted.
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No.
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Do I still have flesh that I battle with? We talked about that last week, right? That was our our last study in soteriology was Christians and sin.
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And do Christians sin? And the answer is yes.
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Why? Because we're battling the flesh.
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But the difference between the Christian and the unbeliever is the Christian is in a battle with the flesh, and the unbeliever is in a love affair with the flesh.
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The unbeliever wants to do what the flesh wants him to do.
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It's not a battle.
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It's an affair.
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The New Dictionary of Theology defines sanctification.
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It talks about it like this.
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Believers have been chosen and called for sanctification.
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It is God's will for them.
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First Thessalonians 4, 3.
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For without it, no one will see the Lord.
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Hebrews 12, 14.
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Thus, for the rest of their lives, they must no longer live by human passions, but by the will of God.
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First Peter 4, 2.
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Sanctification pertains to the soul and body, and it is expressed in doing good and in good works, which indeed are the goal of God's salvation for them.
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Think of Ephesians 2, my favorite verse.
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Ephesians 2, 8.
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For by grace are you saved through faith, and that is not of yourselves.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
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That's verse 8 and 9.
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But what does verse 10 say? For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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So what is sanctification? It is conforming us to what we should be in the life that we are now living.
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What are we predestined to, according to Romans 8? Predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
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So what is the goal of Christian living? Being conformed to the image of Christ.
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And therefore, I say sanctification is, a lot of people think it's a progress like this, like you start here and you go here, and that's the way it looks like in the Christian life.
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But as Brother Andy will probably agree with me, I think it's more like this.
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Kind of like one of the heart monitors, you know, we'll have great valleys and great mountaintops, and there'll be a moment in our life where we're feeling like a mountaintop experience and things are well, and then we're right back down in the valley and we're dealing with it.
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But there's this trajectory of being conformed to Christ.
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But certainly there are times and moments of great failure.
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And my only reason for pointing that out is this.
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That is not what saves you.
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And if you are dependent upon your sanctification for your salvation, for your justification, then you're misunderstanding.
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You know what I mean? Because sometimes I can tell you, I feel like I'm struggling.
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But when I'm struggling, that's when I have to hold ever more tightly to Christ.
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Because Christ doesn't struggle.
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Christ doesn't struggle to hold me.
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And I have to remember that my salvation is not me holding on to Him.
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It's Him holding on to me.
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Yes, sir.
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Work out your salvation.
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Is that the one you're thinking? Go ahead and read it for us, brother.
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Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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So he tells us, work out your salvation in the first verse.
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And then in the very next verse, he says, it's God working in you to even want to do this.
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So know that you're not alone in working out your salvation.
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And notice he doesn't say work for your salvation, because salvation is already accomplished.
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Working it out is the walk.
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It's not accomplishing it.
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It's walking it out.
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It's living it.
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And he says, do that in fear and trembling.
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Right.
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And we should fear sin.
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You know, Paul says, flee fornication.
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We should run away from sinful things.
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We should turn ourselves away from sinful things.
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Because those things are not helpful.
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Why should we enjoy the things for which Christ died? Why should we love the things that our Savior died for? All right.
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A good verse, and we don't have time to go through it, but we did talk about this last week and we give it to you.
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A good verse for this is Romans 6, 1 to 4.
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Paul asked the question, shall we continue to sin so that grace should abound? Certainly not.
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And he goes to talk about how we who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
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And so I encourage you to read Romans 6, 1 to 4, considering the fact that that's talking about walking out your salvation, working it out, living it.
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Lastly, and I do want to finish this tonight.
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So if you'll give me just a few more moments, I know we're a little over time.
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The last one is glorification and glorification is salvation from the presence of sin.
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This one's my favorite.
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The presence of sin.
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And why do I say it's my favorite? Because, beloved, I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I don't want to sin anymore.
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I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I'm not battling the flesh anymore.
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I can't imagine what it's going to be like when I don't have to worry about people hating me and I don't have to feel hatred for others.
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Because those are things I struggle with all the time.
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Dealing with my emotions, my doubts, and my fears.
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Probably the man in the Bible I am most attuned in my spirit with is the man who brought his son to Jesus.
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And Jesus, Jesus healed my son.
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And Jesus said, I can heal him if you believe.
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And he said, I believe, help my unbelief.
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This is a true statement.
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You preached a sermon on that years ago.
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I've never forgot it, brother, because it was such a good sermon and such a good thought when he said, I believe, help my unbelief.
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There's no more honest words from someone who's facing Jesus Christ, who knows that he is who he said he is, but still struggles.
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Help my unbelief.
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And one day, we won't have that struggle anymore.
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One day, we will see him face to face.
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One day, we will be in glory.
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And that's glorification.
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No more presence of sin.
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And if you want verses for that, I mean, they're all over.
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But probably the most precious one is Revelation 21, 1 to 4.
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I saw a new heaven and a new earth and for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea.
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And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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And a loud voice from the throne said, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
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He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.
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He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.
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Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for these former things have passed away.
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In heaven, there will not be separation from God.
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We will live in the presence of God, in the glory of God forever and ever.
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There will be no division.
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Can you imagine a world without sin? So here's our final thought.
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Justification refers to your standing with God.
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And that is accomplished by the work of Christ.
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Sanctification refers to your walk with God.
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And that is the work of the spirit within you.
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The Holy Spirit, not your spirit, but the Holy Spirit.
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And glorification refers to the presence of God.
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When in glory, we will be inseparably placed with him.
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You are justified if you are in Christ.
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You're being sanctified and you will be glorified.
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So that was a snapshot of what we're going to talk about for the next several weeks.
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We're going to dig even deeper into these things in the weeks to come.
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And I hope tonight was a blessing to you.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I pray that even now that you would write the eternal truths of your word on our heart, where I have erred, Lord, in any way that you would expunge that from our minds.
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And Lord, that we would walk in the light of truth.
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Thank you, Lord, for your word.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.