Keep sharing good news without ads.
Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
Ordo Solutis
I will make you a blessing, so count the stars if you can.
You will be a great nation, we'll give you this land.
I will bring you back, you will be lost and alone,
If there is nothing on earth that could take you away.
Once I gather you under my wings, I will bring you all back.
Though you've wandered like strangers to the ends of the earth,
I will send you a savior, I will finish my work.
You have no other shepherd, you have no other.
Green pastures are waiting, and dying once more.
My children, you will no longer roam, lost and alone.
We will mourn with tears, but don't fear.
My brother or my daughter or sons of Abraham will wash you with water.
Though your sins were like scarlet, they'll be whiter than snow.
I have always been with you. We pray for the peace, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
For the sake of our brothers and friends, we now say shalom be within you.
We pray for the peace, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
For the sake of the house of the Lord, we seek your good, we seek your good.
For the sake of the house of the Lord, we seek your good. So let the guardian of Israel arise, may his chariots of fire fill the skies.
To protect you from every evil and keep your light, we cry out.
So let the guardian of Israel arise, may his chariots of fire fill the skies.
For the sake of our brothers and friends, we say shalom.
We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It can come before the throne of God and beseech him and seek after him.
We know he is the answer. There's so much wicked and there's so much evil in the world and things that are happening to God's chosen people.
Our response, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Proverbs 10 .22
says, the blessings of the Lord makes rich. We seek after the
Lord to turn down with his face onto his people. Peace will come through him.
Satan has a way of making people seek after the things they desire, the things they would want.
If you're not following God's will, you're following down a path that will not follow God's will.
And we're seeing that in so many, so many ways right now. But God gives desires that honor him.
We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We as God's people can respond to the world and what's going on in many different ways.
We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We have the Holy Spirit, let's choose
God. Let's cry even as the song, the singer said, may the guardian of Israel arise.
We pray for the peace of Jerusalem. I have a few announcements
I would like to make. There's going on today, just started, the first of a series that's being taught during the second service.
It's another class. This is called the Foundations of Christianity. Drew Deegan and some of the other guys helping him will be going through a series of topics that are intended for men, for women, for adults, for children.
It's intended for those who are new in their faith and would like to find out more about what's going on. It's intended for those who are more mature in their faith that would like to reaffirm what they already know or even to support
Drew and those who are in the class. It's a wide open class. It's not something you had to sign up for.
It's not something you have to make. But as many as you could make, it's an opportunity. Topics like what is salvation, what is discipleship, what is worship, what is the
Trinity, who is the Holy Spirit, what are my gifts, the basics of Christianity, the foundations.
I encourage you to consider that. Come to first service, then you can go to the class during second service.
We also would like you to come back this evening at 6 o 'clock. We have our time of prayer. We have a group that get together to pray for the church, the needs of the church, our own needs.
Join with us at 6 o 'clock here in the church for our time of prayer. Please come back tomorrow at 7 o 'clock for our congregational meeting.
There's going to be some exciting topics, some important topics, some good communication that we'll be able to make, understanding what's going on, where we're going, new members, all of these topics.
Please, if you're a member, please be here. And if you're not a member but you're interested in our church, please be here and be partaking in what we have to do.
We're looking ahead towards the end of November to have a Thanksgiving fellowship dinner, but we're going to need people that are ready to step forward and help lead in certain of the aspects of it, somebody that would coordinate the food, somebody that would coordinate the setup, perhaps advertisement stuff.
If you're interested in the dinner, you would like to help out, please contact Pastor Jeff, myself, one of the board members, so that we can work on the plans in advance for that.
But let's turn to prayer. Lord God, we turn to you as our
Lord. The things of the world pull us and entice us.
We turn to you as our Lord, as the source of all good, as our provider, as our protector.
Lord, we know through you we receive blessings that never fail. Through your Holy Spirit, we experience a life that has true meaning.
And when the choices of life come, we desire you, O Lord. We pray for those who are facing choices, even right now.
Do they follow God and know they'll be opposed by the world, but eventually be blessed? Or do they follow the world, the easy path for today, but there will be judgment at the end?
We pray, Lord, that people that are being pushed to make choices will choose God, choose the right way, because God does give us strength.
He does bless. He makes us rich. Lord, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
Lord, we pray that you would protect your children at this time of trial. We pray,
Lord, you would oppose and hold back those who would stand against Israel. Give us wisdom,
Father, and courage to speak out and to stand for your chosen people.
May the guardian of Israel arise. This morning, Lord, we pray for our pastor,
Jeff, and give him the words to speak as he speaks truth out of the Scripture and open our hearts to hear, to understand, to grow.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I cry, but it won't be my last day
When I look in His eyes, I know that I did okay
My Lord, what shall I sing
Him for now? A song full of praise from a mouth full of doubt
I lift up my face and I sing out loud
With all my mistakes, I still make
Him proud He paid it all for me, carried that cross for me
On that rugged walk, He knew what
He had to do Opened His arms up wide, invited the world inside With one final breath,
He conquered death for me and for you
My Lord, where would You want me to go?
Just across town or a place where I don't know a soul
Just tell me where and I'll hit the road
With no time to spare and no heavy load
He paid it all for me, carried that cross for you
With one final breath,
I tremble in Your holy presence
Glory, glory in Your sanctuary
Splendor and majesty, Lord, before You All I adore is
You All the earth will declare that Your love is everywhere
The fields will exult, the seas resound
Hear the trees' joyful cry, praising
You and so will I A new song
I'll sing, Lord, I will glorify and bless
Your holy name Father, into Your courts
I will enter Maker of heaven and earth,
Your holy Glorify and bless
Your holy name You are holy,
Lord, and the whole earth is filled with Your glory You are worthy of our praise
Holy, You alone are holy
Matchless in Your glory
No one is like You, worthy
You alone are worthy
We adore You only
Holy God Now to the
King on the throne, who was and is to come And to the
Lamb who was slain, be all glory Now to the
Lamb who was slain, be all glory Holy, You alone are holy
Holy God How great
You are and how awesome You are Lord, You are holy
Holy is the Lord, God Almighty The earth is filled with Your glory
We stand and lift up our hands
The joy of the Lord is our strength
We bow down and worship
Him now How great, how awesome is
He And together we sing
Everyone sings
Holy is the Lord, God Almighty The earth is filled with His glory
The earth is filled with His glory
We stand and lift up our hands For the joy of the
Lord is our strength We bow down and worship
Everyone sings Holy is the
Lord, God Almighty The earth is filled with His glory
Holy, holy, holy
Lord God Almighty Early in the morning
Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy
Merciful and mighty
God in three persons
Blessed Trinity Let's sing that whole chorus one more time
Lord God Almighty Our song shall rise to Thee Holy, holy, holy
Blessed Trinity God in three persons
Blessed Trinity Amen. You may be seated.
Let's pray to our Holy God. Holy Father, as I stand before this people,
Lord, I recognize that I am but a man praying. I am dust of the earth praying to You.
I am a worm of the dust praying to You.
And yet I pray to the Holy God. Lord, I would be offended if people refused to listen to my prayer.
But who am I? You are God. Lord, as we open John 17 today to listen to Jesus pray,
I ask, Father, that You would give us a sense of the holiness of that moment.
The Lord prays in the holy place. And I ask now, Lord, that You would cause us to take off our shoes, metaphorically,
Lord, in the Holy of Holies. That we would take off our traditions and our assumptions and our distractions and be still and know that You are
God. Lord, as we open the word in John 17 today to hear the great high priest pray,
Lord, let us listen carefully and take every word that he says.
Thank You for Your word. Your word is truth. Sanctify us by Your truth. In Jesus' name. Amen. Liberalism cannot save the world.
Liberty, freedom, is a Christian virtue. It's what gave birth to the
United States of America because of the liberty that was taught by a
Christian people. But liberalism takes that freedom of choice of the individual and puts that at the center and actually above all.
It places freedom and liberty as the ultimate thing in the universe.
So, therefore, nobody can say that anybody's views are wrong. If you're a
Christian, you can hold your private view, but liberalism says you must admit that a Muslim has an equally valid view for them.
Now, the problem is that this liberalism, which affirms the teaching of Islam, is naive and even deceitful.
Many will say that what happened by Hamas in Israel was not true
Islam. They will say that this is only radical or extreme
Islam. But the problem is as long as Muhammad stands as the prophet of Islam and you have the
Sunnah of the prophet, that is his example, you have the Hadith, which is the writing surrounding the
Quran, which flesh it out and give you the understanding that Muhammad intended, you have a problem.
Houston, we have a problem. Muhammad conquered
Medina. He stood against the Banu Aw people, and there was a Jewish tribe called the
Banu Qurayza. They're existing happily coexisting in Medina.
These are Jewish people who had settled in Saudi Arabia in Medina at the time of Muhammad and prior to him.
When this war broke out called the Battle of the Trench, they gave some aid to Muhammad.
They actually allowed equipment for the digging of trenches, but they refused to get in the war and fight with him against the
Banu Aw of Medina. After Muhammad, because he was a warlord, after he conquered by the sword, he then turned to the
Banu Qurayza, this tribe of over a thousand Jewish people. He asked a survivor from the
Banu Aw what he should do with the Banu Qurayza. And this man said that the men should die.
All of those boys who are pubescent and older, all of the men should die.
And Muhammad being a false prophet said, this is a word from the Lord. And so he summarily beheaded 600 men,
Jewish men. And he took the wives and the children for Islam.
And he added to his own wives from the Banu Qurayza, one of those he married himself, arguing with one of his friends over her, which would ultimately be his undoing because he was poisoned by a
Jewish woman. The truth about Islam is that Muhammad in his example was a warlord who killed by the edge of the sword.
Liberalism can never say that. Liberalism is forbidden from saying such a thing.
But the hope of the world is not the liberalization of the world because that is naive, that liberalism is dying, is causing the death of a society, while Islam has risen by 700 million people in the last 23 years.
As Islam grows and takes over Europe and parts of America, the naivety of the
West assumes that liberalism will just make everybody like the Christian, so -called
Christian West. It is falling. There is, however, a hope for the world before the coming of the
Lord. Nothing will solve the problem until Jesus sets his foot on the Mount of Olives and sets up a millennial kingdom.
But until that time, the church is a restrainer of evil in the world, influencing the cultures in which we live.
We are able to bring peace on Earth to some level. There is one hope for the
Middle East, and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Iran was probably the player behind the scenes that led to the destruction that happened on October 7th.
In Iran, you have a wicked Muslim regime. It is the most Muslim country on Earth in terms of the politics of its nation.
It is a Muslim nation. But the people don't even read the Quran in their own language.
They speak Farsi. The Quran is written in Arabic. And they don't even have an understanding, and they don't agree, in large part, with their leadership, this
Muslim state. They are held captive in the land in which they were born.
They are without hope and without God in the world. All they have is the dark deception of Islam hanging over their heads, but God.
In his power, he is able to save. God is a savior.
There's a young girl who grew up in Iran in the 90s.
And as a teenager in the early 2000s, her sister handed her a little book.
It was called His Name is Wonderful, 30 pages long. It was a gospel track.
And this girl, whose name was Miriam, opened the book and began to read. And as she read about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead, that he is the son of God in flesh, she says that as she read it, she somehow always knew that this was true.
It resonated in her heart so strongly that she said she strangely did not doubt a word of what she was reading.
And when she turned to that last page, 30, of His Name is Wonderful, she read the sinner's prayer, and from the depths of her heart, she prayed and received
Jesus Christ as her savior. She moved out of Iran to Turkey.
Another young girl, same age, same place, Tehran, Iran. Her name was
Marzi. Marzi was hopelessly oppressed and depressed under the state of Islam because women are very much subjugated under the boot of the government.
And she hated that. She felt no love in Islam. And she began to pray and look at the stars and say,
God, if you're real, you have to show yourself to me. Well, you know, he did. In a dream, because God is able to use dreams in His purposes.
In her dream, she saw a white horse come from heaven. And this white horse said to her, remember, it's a dream, get on my back.
And she got on the back of this white horse and rode along and went to a mosque. And as she got to the mosque, none of the people could see her on the white horse until suddenly all of their eyes were opened and they all looked at her and their faces became gnarled and contorted and distorted and angry.
And they wanted to kill her. An angry mob wanting to kill this little girl in her dream.
So she hugged the neck of this white horse and it ran off. And as this horse rescued her from Islam, she felt a kind of love that she had never experienced before.
She didn't know what it was, but she knew it was something she had never felt. So much so that for the next two weeks after that, all she wanted to do was to die, to go to God, to feel that love.
But instead he sent the gospel. A Bible was given to her by a Christian friend.
And as she read and experienced some miracles in her life, she believed in Jesus Christ and moved to Turkey where she met
Miriam. Marzi and Miriam decided at that time, training, learning the gospel, learning the
Bible to go back to Tehran. When they got back to Tehran, these two girls put a map up in their apartment of the
Tehran neighborhoods. And they made a phone call to a pastor in London and said, we would like 20 ,000
Bibles in Farsi. And this
London pastor said, if you're willing to distribute Bibles in Tehran, our church will make that happen.
And so in a clandestine operation, remember when she called on the phone to ask him for these?
She couldn't even use her regular terminology. She said, actually, we need 20 ,000 loaves of bread.
She knew that the government might have her phones tapped. She couldn't say Bibles. And she smuggled them in.
This Bible smuggler, then with her friend, put 140 Bibles in the two backpacks,
Miriam and Marzi. They walked the streets of Tehran in the evening and at night, and they quietly slipped
Bibles into mailboxes. By the year 2009, they had distributed 20 ,000
Bibles. A Christian friend of theirs was part of the parliament in Iran.
And they had an emergency meeting. The meeting was to address the situation that some gigantic Christian organization is putting
Bibles in the mailboxes of Iranians. Little did they know it was two girls with two backpacks.
God's power to get his gospel where he will send it. They were arrested eventually because they had also started a church.
They were never found out for those 20 ,000. But their apartment was raided and found with Jesus films and Bibles, and they were thrown in Evin prison, held for nine months.
They were never tortured, although that threat was given to them over and over again, until international pressure mounted, and they were released, and they came to America.
They now move about telling this story, which you can watch online. Easy to find. Marzi, Miriam, Iranian Bible smuggling.
Just Google it. You can watch it yourself. I have a question for you.
Where did those 20 ,000 Bibles go? And whose will determined which
Iranian would get that bread? Whose will is sovereign in salvation?
We are going to go deep today. Not because I have an agenda, but because our great high priest is praying, and we better listen.
John 17, verses 6 to 10. Before I read it, just a reminder of where we've been.
As we come into John 17, Jesus begins to pray. Prior to this, he is addressing his disciples and teaching them.
Now he is addressing God. I will say, this is the Lord's Prayer.
How many of you thought that the Lord's Prayer was found in Matthew chapter 6? Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, our
Father who art in heaven, etc., etc., is not the
Lord's Prayer, because Jesus cannot pray that prayer. Jesus can never pray, forgive us our sins, or me my sins, because Jesus never sinned.
That was the Lord's Prayer in the sense that he was teaching or modeling prayer to the disciples.
And conversely, you and I can never pray the way Jesus does in John 17.
Because he prays, glorify me with the glory I had with you, Father, before the world was created.
This is his prayer. We are standing on holy ground. We are listening to the
King of Kings, the Lord of Glory, the Son of God, the
Great High Priest, praying to his Father. And we must humble ourselves and take off our shoes, and be still and listen.
John 17, 6 -10. I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you.
For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me.
I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.
All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.
I'd like to introduce a term to you this morning. It is ordo salutis. I'll give you a little
Latin so you can impress your friends. Ordo salutis. Now, I don't say it for knowledge sake or sounding intelligent, but I say the term ordo salutis, and I've entitled the sermon
Ordo Salutis because this term goes back to the beginning of the Reformation and has been the
Reformation doctrine all along. It simply means order of salvation.
Order of salvation. God's order as we consider the application of salvation to a person like you or like me.
Jesus, in his great high priestly prayer here, gives us that order, and if there is no other reason given, if I can't make this relevant, if I can't tell you and explain to you why this matters, the only thing you need to know is that Jesus found it to be important for us to hear because he recorded this prayer.
Not only did he pray it in front of the disciples, but he inspired John some 60 years later when writing the
Gospel of John to record it for our sake. Jesus wanted you to hear him pray these words.
They need to make sense to you. Just because he said it. If for no other reason, the great high priest wants to distinguish these things in our minds and order our minds with regard to salvation.
It's his agenda. So look at verse 6. The first point, election precedes calling.
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
Let's stay on that first phrase, verse 6a, and think about the meaning of these words.
I have manifested your name. To manifest his name means revelation, declaration.
It is calling. When Jesus appeared to Matthew at the tax collector booth and manifested the name of the father, he called him come follow me.
He did the same for Peter, James and John and Andrew and all of the disciples. It is the calling of a people to believe in him.
But notice the manifesting is of his glory. These are men and women who saw miracles.
In the case of the particular prayer here, it refers only to the 11, but he manifested his name to many people during the course of his ministry, and it's recorded for us as well.
So manifesting his name is the calling to believe in him.
Through the words and works of Jesus, when he opened blind eyes, he's manifesting the glory of God in the sun.
When he taught all the doctrines that he revealed, when he made the claims,
I am the light of the world. I am the bread of life. I am the living water. I am the good shepherd. I am the gate for the sheep.
I am the way, the truth, the life. I am the resurrection and the life. Before Abraham was born, I am.
He is manifesting who he is. And when he declares what he intends to do, his cross work, he is manifesting his glory.
That we are going to call the calling. Now look in the text, which comes first, calling or election?
I have manifested your name. Does it say to all people indiscriminately?
No, it says to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
This is a doctrine that we call election, that there is a people given from the father to the son.
The people whom the father gave to the son are the very ones who will receive this manifestation of his glory.
They will see it. Miriam will have a dream of a white horse and someone will give her a
Bible. She'll be called not just outwardly by seeing it with her eyes, inwardly she will see because she was given before she was called.
Do you see that in the text? I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.
So this people given to the son is antecedent. It's prior to the calling, the manifesting or the display of his name.
It's in the text. It is also the consistent testimony of the New Testament. In Acts 13, 48, it is those who were appointed to eternal life who believed
Paul's preaching, not the other way around. In Acts 18, 10, in the
Thessalonian situation, Paul is encouraged to hear that God has many people appointed for eternal life who will listen to him.
He has the people before the listening and the calling takes place.
Acts 18, 10. It is the clear teaching of Ephesians 1 verses 4 to 11 that he has elected a people for the praise of his glorious grace.
It is the teaching of Romans 8, 28 to 30. Some people say this election is not unto salvation.
It is only for conformity if you're already a believer, but you've got the order upside down because 2
Thessalonians 2, 13 says he has elected you for salvation or in some translations to be saved.
The consistent testimony of scripture is that God has an elect people that the father gives to the son.
And according to Jesus here in the high priest, let's go back to John 17, 6. According to Jesus, this election precedes calling.
That means it comes before a person being called in the order of salvation.
Amen. Second, there's something before election for knowledge or predestination.
1 Peter 1, 2 fills out the meaning of 1 Peter 1, 1 in which the elect exiles of the dispersion that Peter addresses are elect according to the foreknowledge of the one who calls.
So the election is according to foreknowledge. Foreknowledge here is before election.
What is this foreknowledge? Some late theologians introduced the idea that this foreknowledge is nothing but God looking down the corridor of history to see who will believe in him.
And then learning that information, God then chooses the people that would choose him.
That of course is Arminianism, Wesleyanism. It's a late introduction into church history.
But listen, the term foreknowledge does not mean that God learns by looking ahead in history.
In fact, it can't mean that. 1 Peter 1, 2 does say elect according to foreknowledge, but 1
Peter 1, 20 says that the son was foreknown. That can't mean that God looked ahead to learn something about the son's decision.
He was the eternal son before the creation of the world. This term foreknowledge is used five times.
In Acts 2, 23, the foreknowledge of God is paired with the definite plan of God.
Definite plan, Acts 2, 23. So foreknowledge refers to him knowing all things and having things planned ahead of time.
Foreknowledge is a knowledge that God has of you before he made you.
It's a knowledge of a person that he makes and predestines according to the language of Ephesians 1, 5.
I'm going to prove it to you in one more place and then we'll get back to John 17. Turn with me to Romans 11, 2.
Again, there is a tradition that foreknowledge is the means by which
God elects because God looks down the corridor of history to see who would believe in him.
So that puts faith ahead of election. But look at Romans 11, 2.
One of the uses of foreknowledge in the New Testament. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
Do you not know that the Scripture says of Elijah how he appeals to God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets.
They have demolished your altars and I alone am left and they seek my life.
Israel was the chosen people of God according to foreknowledge. He knew them as he knew
Jacob and he knew Esau. One to be the elect son, Romans 9.
The other not. Jacob I loved, Esau I hated. Foreknowledge here is
God's knowledge of his chosen people who they are and everything about them.
He knows you personally, personally, intimately before he made you. But notice it cannot be just foreknowing some decision because the very point of Romans 11, 2 is that they don't put their faith in him.
They're foreknown despite the fact that they reject every prophet sent to them. Elijah complains about it and rightly so.
And he appeals to God against Israel. These are the foreknown children who do not have faith.
He foreknew them ethnically as his chosen people and he still does to this day.
Regardless of faith, in Israel today, there are the ethnic chosen people.
His Israel, the Israel that he created from Abraham's seed.
So this is ethnic Israel discussed in Romans 9 to 11 as we see here in Romans 11, 2.
There is a chosen people from Jews including the
Apostle Paul who wrote these words and all of the apostles except for Judas who was predestined according to Zechariah 12, 11, 12 and 13 to be the son of perdition.
There are those chosen from Israel and chosen from among the Gentiles. Most of you are
Gentiles but you were chosen and foreknown before the foundation of the world. So now we'll move more quickly back to John 17.
Having set that up, we can see how everything unfolds in the order of salvation. When it says in verse 6, the first sentence,
I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me. That means calling is to the elect.
Election comes first and then calling. Notice the next phrase, yours they were, and you gave them to me.
Yours they were, the foreknowledge of God, the predestination of God. They belong to you as God in your eternal plan and you elected them and gave them to me.
Do you see Jesus saying that? It's right there in the text, the second phrase, yours they were, that's before and then what comes after that?
That election, the giving of this people, the children that he has given to the son.
And notice what comes after that. The keeping of the word, which implies that the word goes forth, that's the calling.
And the result is they will keep it. It's not dependent on them, although they're active in it, they're willful in it.
It's God who will ensure that this happens. Their perseverance, keeping the word.
So far we have established then that the first piece in the order of salvation is predestination and then comes election and then comes calling and somewhere down here is perseverance underneath calling because they're gonna keep his word.
Now notice in verse seven. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you.
This word would be sanctification. It is coming to know and understand that everything we have comes from God.
Growth and knowledge as they become like him. This only comes after they receive the word because if you look at verse eight,
I have given them the words that you gave me. And church, this is why
Miriam and Marzie were passing out Bibles. I take for granted to the fact that when
I grew up in my house, there had to have been two dozen Bibles laying around.
I had a couple, my brothers each had a couple, my parents had a bunch just laying around all over the house just Bibles.
Our house was flooded with Bibles and I would read them and I had little
Bible memory books This is the word of God.
Look at verse eight. I have given them the words. That has to come in the order of salvation unless someone preaches how will they believe?
But follow the order. They have received them. So here we have faith come to know in truth that I came from you and look at this synonym for faith at the end of verse eight.
They have believed. That's faith.
Now if you notice in verse eight, the sentence begins with the word for. For grounds the thought that follows.
It is the grounding I should say of what was already said. Look at verse seven. They know that everything that you have given me is from you.
For I have given them the words and they have believed. They understood the truth.
That is to say that faith is the starting point. Faith is the groundwork that leads to that keeping, the persevering, the knowing everything is given from the father, the sanctification.
So now we can say something more. Now we can put these pieces together.
Predestination for knowledge is the first in our text. Then comes election, the giving of this people to the son.
Then comes the calling where the word goes out and God inwardly calls them.
The next thing in the order of salvation according to verse eight is faith. And from that flows the keeping of the word, perseverance, sanctification, knowing everything that God has given.
And lastly, you glad we're almost done? It's a lot of big words. But these are just theological words that describe the concept that Jesus is saying.
And that's why it's important that we know them. Look at verse 10. All mine are yours and yours are mine.
This is the elect. What belongs and given to the son is still the father's because they're one.
But notice the last step in the order of salvation. And I am glorified in them.
John Laskin, the associate pastor here, has taken to calling the
Bible and the central theme of the Bible the glory story. Because last week we talked about how the first five verses of Jesus's high priestly prayer sets the glory of God as the canopy.
It is the roof. It's the end point, the most important thing in the
Bible. It's the theme of scripture, the glory of God. Here Jesus returns to that concept, but notice the words in them.
What's the point of your salvation? The glory of God. How is God glorified in you?
That he would save you from your sins, conform you into the likeness of the son, and one day glorify you.
That means that your sin nature, which now taints the image of God in you, your sin nature will one day be sloughed off in that final step of the order of your salvation.
You will no longer drag along that old dead dog of your sin nature that constantly rears its ugly head and causes you to sin.
But one day in the final step of the order of salvation, your sin nature itself will be left behind.
At the rapture of the church, the coming of the Lord, which if you look at the signs of the times, might be pretty soon, we will be caught up to meet him in the air and we will leave the body of flesh behind.
Our physical bodies actually will be translated or changed as we're caught up. We leave the sin nature behind.
Our bodies are glorified and so we will be with the Lord forever. This is deep stuff.
Some people will say, I don't like it. Alistair Begg calls it the soft pillow on which he lays his head.
To know the order of salvation is to rightly order your mind according to the scripture.
It's very important. This week, we were about to film a podcast in my office, so I thought, you know what?
My shelves in the background look kind of messy. So what I did is
I pulled all the books out of place and ordered them according to the different areas of theology, missions, demonology, whatever the different subjects were, and ordered my bookshelves.
And as I did that, I just felt better. I felt so good because everything was in its place and it was right and it was ordered.
Do you know that order is a reflection of God? God is not the author of confusion, but of peace and of a sound mind.
Disorder in our homes is frustrating. Outdoors, if everything is left on the lawn, the dad gets frustrated.
It's out of order. How much more your thoughts?
How ordered are you in how you think? And the most important area of your thought life is that which relates to God, your theology, thinking about God.
In the area of salvation, I'm teaching you this morning that this is the order. Guys, will you bring it up and we're closing with this.
The order of salvation as given by Jesus in his high priestly prayer is first, predestination, called also foreknowledge.
The second is election, the giving of a people to the sun before time, according to Ephesians 1, 4 to 6.
These are also in your notes. If you don't have the app, you can download it, Church Center, and the notes are there.
Third is calling, the gospel going out, the preaching of the word, and also the inward drawing, which is regeneration, which would change that heart of stone in order to believe.
So faith, faith is the fifth in the order of salvation. Repentance comes with that as two sides of the same coin, repenting because you now believe, you're turning away from the dead works to trust in Jesus Christ.
And with faith, according to Romans 3, 21 to 5, 21, justification is the means, is what comes from faith.
We are justified by faith, so justification before faith. After justification comes adoption,
John 1, 12, to those who believe he gives the right to be called children of God.
Faith has to be ahead of adoption in the order of salvation. And after adoption, we are conformed into the image of God, sanctified through the course of our lifetime.
We persevere, we keep the word. We won't fall away because he's actually keeping us.
And then finally, glorification. This is the ordo salutis.
Have you all heard of this before? Is this new theology? This is important theology.
It goes back to the founding of the Reformation. And earlier than that, Augustine and even
Paul himself, as we're quoting scripture. Listen, if we never looked at historical theology at all, if we only had the words of the great high priest, this is the order that he gives us.
It's right here. We just looked at each piece of it. So we don't need man. But in the grace of God, we have been entrusted with a heritage.
Church, you stand on the shoulders of giants. And too often, those standing on the shoulders of giants turn around and kick those giants in the face.
We stand on the shoulders of Martin Luther. And in 1517, he began the
Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church challenged that. I'm gonna spend about five or 10 minutes reviewing church history.
This is very important. It'll go fast. You might have to watch it later to really get it all. But when
Martin Luther taught this order of salvation, the Roman Catholic Church, who is represented by Desiderius Erasmus, wrote a book called
The Freedom of the Will. And Luther said, Erasmus, you alone have put your finger on the crucial spot, the hinge upon which the entire
Reformation turns. Luther wrote that in his reply, 1525,
The Bondage of the Will. And he upheld this order of salvation. The Roman Catholic Church emphasized liberty, libertarian free will, as the determiner of salvation.
Luther versus Erasmus was mirrored all throughout the Reformation. What was taught in Geneva is what
Tyndale brought to England, is what Knox brought to Scotland. And you're gonna be surprised by this. I never knew this growing up.
The first hundred years of the Reformation was completely in agreement with the
Ordo Salutis, as you see right there. Did you know that? 100 years of agreement.
The first introduction of disagreement in the Reformation came from Arminius in 1609.
And he was the one who said, actually, faith needs to be taken from position number five and put in position number one.
Because foreknowledge is of faith, and therefore faith is higher in the order of salvation.
Now, if you're a theologian, you think, oh, that's a big deal. If not, you're kind of yawning, like,
I don't know. What does that matter? It overturns the
Reformation teaching itself, as you see defined in the order of salvation.
Also in the 1600s, you had some more moderate versions In France, there was a teacher named
Moses Amaralt. The Amaraldian teaching, as he proposed, simply switched regeneration and faith, but allowed for a hypothetical universalism.
That is to say, he was a four -point Calvinist, or a three -and -a -half -point Calvinist. His teaching was fine.
It's not heretical. But it does change that order of salvation at one point, and that has become,
I think, a large view in Calvary chapels and EFCA churches, as you'll see.
That's the 1600s. In the 1700s, there is a country developing on the other side of the
Atlantic Ocean. Jonathan Edwards is the leading theologian. George Whitfield is the revival preacher.
Witherspoon is the Princeton theologian who signs the Declaration of Independence.
In the 1700s, this order of salvation and the political thought that came with it gave birth to the
United States of America. Meanwhile, in England, a man named
Wesley popularized the Arminian view. And wherever that Methodism went, it petered out into liberalism.
So if you look around Cornerstone Church, we hold this order of salvation as given in the
Reformation. So does Sovereign Grace Church, and so does Fellowship Alliance with Seth.
So does Grace Bible with Justin. And wherever this order of salvation is upheld, you see ordered thinking and conservatism associated with it.
But wherever Methodism has gone, it has petered out into liberalism. As you see the Methodist churches all around here, flying rainbow flags, completely disordered, in opposition to the kingdom of God.
The point being, when we hold strictly to the great high priest's prayer and his ordering of thoughts, that will carry out in the rest of our lives.
So England went Methodist, and that petered out, and the Reformation view revived with Spurgeon preaching, and George Mueller, that prayer warrior, praying for the orphans, and William Carey, the missionary.
Listen, where this Reformation view has gone, there has been power, there has been the great modern missions movement through William Carey, Spurgeon's preaching, by grace, this movement has revived in America in our day.
The Methodist camp meetings of the 1800s, the second great awakening, has petered out in liberalism as all the mainline churches followed suit and then died out.
There are a few conservative churches that hold to Arminianism, but not many left.
They're usually the independent fundamentalist Baptist churches, Arminian and yet conservative in politics.
In our day, God has raised up John MacArthur to teach the
Reformation order of salvation. He's raised up Vody Bokum, and Wayne Grudem, and Sam Storms, and Michael Stockland, to teach the order of salvation that was nothing other than the
Reformation itself according to Luther. And church, we need to hold to the scripture as given.
Order our theological thinking according to scripture as we order all areas of our life.
We need to be ordered in our thinking. Where there's disorder, things fall apart.
And we need those Reformation fires burning to bring us back to where it all began.
So I'm going to close in a word of prayer, and I want to say before I pray, the
Christian life is not encapsulated in scholasticism. In other words, just because you might be able to get every one of these points in order and have a really strong theology, that's not the end all and be all.
We address this when Jesus addresses it. As it comes up in the text.
But there are many people who have that right theology, but they don't have devotion. They don't have heart.
They don't have passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. When someone gets saved, they don't know all of these things.
They've never read the high priestly prayer. But some of them are out passing out tracks in Teron.
So this is not the end all and be all. This is a step of maturity. The ordering of our thoughts theologically.
Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for these words.
And Lord, I'm sure many of us confess that we have not even taken time to consider the meaning of these words.
But Jesus, you are the great high priest and we pray now that you would teach us the truth of what you say.
We thank you that we stand on the shoulders of giants like Luther and Knox and Tyndale and Mueller and Spurgeon and MacArthur.
We thank you for these men in the example and the fruit of where this reformation doctrine has gone.
We thank you for that. But most importantly Lord, we thank you for salvation.
Thank you Father that you chose us. It was nothing in us that put those
Bibles in our hands. You elected us. You called us by name.
I think of the good shepherd of John 10, 26 and 27. There are those who do not believe because they are not your sheep.
But your sheep hear your voice and they follow you. Thank you
God. Good shepherd, thank you for calling each of our names who believe in you.
Thank you God for opening our eyes and our ears and our hearts that we would not be willfully resistant to you.
Thank you for saving us. It is all you. We confess that we did not bring anything to the table.
No humility greater than anyone else. We were sinners dead in our trespasses and sins and you saved us.
You did this God. Thank you, thank you. We can never thank you enough. And now that we believe, we pray for progress and sanctification.
We pray that we would persevere to the end. We thank you that we will be glorified with you in heaven.
Reflecting the glory of Jesus Christ. And it's in his name we pray. Amen. Will you stand with me please?