Christianity 101 - Salvation

All right, well, if you're sticking around for Bible study,

you can turn your Bible to Acts chapter 4 and verse 12.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

In our series of Christianity one O 1, we've been looking at

these core fundamentals of the faith.

And I would say today is perhaps the most important of all of the

things that we've seen so far because today is the day that

has eternal consequence, decisions that affect more than

just a lifetime. So our subject today is

salvation. How is man made right with God?

We have seen so far that there is a God.

In week one we dealt with theism.

After that, we saw that Jesus is God in the flesh and he gave his

life a ransom for sinners. And then last week we saw the

Bible is God's word that tells us all the things that we need

to know. And today we will see how man

can be right with God or reconciled to him.

So let's ask the question first. If you're taking notes, what is

salvation? This is kind of a church word.

You probably don't use this at work or in school.

I've been salvationed. It's kind of a churchy word, but

it comes from the Latin salvare, which is to save, or the Greek

word sotiria again, which is to save.

And that's where I had you turn in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12

Acts 4 · chapter mention

in your Bible where it says neither is there salvation in

any other. There is none other name under

heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

But that is the word that is the subject of our study today.

And that word there is that same Greek word, soteria.

And if you study the Bible and study theology, we call the

study of salvation soteriology, soteriology.

So if you ever see that word, that's what it means, the study

of salvation. Most of the time though, in

Christianity, we're going to use the word saved.

That's probably a word that you're familiar with if you've

been around for a long time. Saved.

A person can be saved from a burning house.

In that sense, it isn't spiritual at all.

It's just saving someone from danger.

Money can be saved up. Hopefully you've got that

figured out to save money in your bank account.

So in that sense, it can be stored up and prepared or kept

safe somewhere. But today, what we're going to

see in Christianity is what the Bible means by being saved has

more to do with your soul. So I gave you this definition to

keep safe or rescue from harm or danger.

So that's going to be our definition for today and we're

going to apply that to the soul, as Peter says in first Peter 19,

receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your

souls. So the soul, quite simply,

without getting into a Bible study on what a soul is, the

soul is the part of you that's you.

Does that make sense? You are more than your body.

It's your thoughts and ideas. It's your personality, your

experiences, your care, emotions, your will.

It's the person inside of your body that's your soul.

And that part of you is going to live forever.

And that part of you, as we'll see today, is in danger, hence

the need for salvation or rescue.

So let's ask next, why do we need to be saved?

I like, maybe I feel like I'm not in any danger.

Doesn't seem like the building's going to collapse on me.

Or even perhaps in a spiritual sense, maybe we feel like not

that bad. I mean, I wasn't partying like

Ethan, not that I'm sure I did worse things than Ethan by the

way, but I'm not compared to other people.

I mean, I'm, I'm fine. It's, I'm not that bad.

But I want to give you 2 reasons today why we need to be saved.

First is because we're sinners. This is such a fundamental basic

in the Christian faith, but we can't miss it because unlike

other religions, Christianity does not assume that everyone is

good. And many, especially eastern

religions, it's quite the opposite.

They think that we are good and then we choose bad or we have

the potential for both. Kind of like Star Wars maybe.

But biblical Christianity is different because the Bible says

we are born bad, like bad to the bone.

It's it's inherent in our flesh and in our nature.

We have this sin problem that is passed down to us.

It's why we mess up and do things we shouldn't do.

It's it's built in, it's hardwired.

The book of Ecclesiastes, it says there is not a just man

upon the earth that do with good and sinneth not.

I'm sure you're great. We like you, but you're not

perfect and neither am I. And with that, sin brings a

consequence. It always brings death.

So the Bible says in Romans, the wages of sin, what we earn,

that's your wage. Like minimum wage.

It's like a lot of different now than whenever I used to work for

minimum wage. I think back in the day for me,

I didn't plan to say this, but when I was 16, I worked at

Wendy's when you actually had to flip hamburgers back in the day,

and I made 5:15 for minimum wage and just got raised up to 5

bucks an hour. And I thought that was pretty

good. That wouldn't work for Oregon

for sure. But the wage is what we earn.

It's what we get for our effort. And the Bible says what we earn

because of our sin is death. And we will face a physical

death. All humans will die, but there

is also something of greater consequence than death, as we

will see today. But let me first reveal to you

that this sin nature puts us in a state that the Bible describes

in several different ways. So let's look at the spiritual

state of unsaved man. The Bible says that before we're

saved, we're spiritually dead, blind, lost.

Ephesians says we're without hope in this world, that we're

in darkness, that there's no good in US.

And perhaps even worse, at the bottom it says that Satan is our

father. This is our condition prior to

being rescued or being saved. So I've got this down in your

notes for you. All people on the planet are in

this condition until they are saved.

I know that might be hard to believe, but this is basic

Christianity. Your parents, your best friends,

everyone you see on TV or on your phone or in person, every

single person is in the condition that we just saw until

something changes for them. So if sin wasn't bad enough, the

next one is perhaps even worse reasons why we need to be saved.

It is because God is good. Unfortunately for us, God is a

good God and he is a judge. And because He created all

things and gave life to all things, His breath literally

animates all life. He requires us to steward it.

And the Bible says that the God of the Bible is just and right.

Deuteronomy 32 just and right is He.

I got a question for you. What kind of judge would let bad

people go free? Is that the people that we would

elect and choose and appoint to say we want you to protect us,

execute the law, do the right thing?

Would you want them to get up there behind the gavel and

perhaps favour somebody because of race, gender, religion,

preference or bribe? Would that not be corruption in

an earthly sense? Doesn't that make us want to

revolt whenever we see that sort of thing happen?

Well, the God of the Bible says in Genesis, shall not the judge

of all the earth do right? He will always execute just

judgement. What is right?

There is no corruption in him as Job said.

Doth God pervert judgement or why?

Doth the Almighty pervert justice?

Or doth the Almighty pervert justice?

I mean those words that pervert us to distort or to work.

Does he distort judgement? Is he making bad decisions?

Is he favoring some people over others?

Are some people getting by free? So how about for you?

If God rightly judged you, what makes you think that you would

get a pass? Well, I'll make it in because

you know. So it's this way in your notes.

If you stood before God today, why would he let you into

heaven? This is the situation.

This is what we need to be saved, Why we need to be saved?

Because it's appointed unto men, ones to die.

And death isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person

standing before a just judge without being saved.

It's going to be far worse. So let's talk next about what we

are saved from. We talked about why we need to

be saved. What is this?

What do I have to fear, really? I'm sure God's punishment will

be fine it, you know, it all works out in the end.

But there are two things that perhaps we aren't accounting for

if we're thinking that way. First is the wrath of God.

Modern culture wants to paint God and Jesus into a light of

loving and accepting in the sense that there is no judgement

or justice. But the God of the Bible does

not take sin as lightly as we do.

We often are tempted. We're weak and vulnerable.

We do things we shouldn't do. But how about this?

How do you feel about injustice? Like, what do you feel like

whenever evil things happen? For example, how do you feel

when people are sold into sexual slavery?

How do you feel when children are abused?

How do you feel when innocent lives are killed?

How do you feel when authorities misuse their power?

How do you feel when someone does you wrong?

Does it not elicit a response in us that says we need justice and

that proves that you are made in the very image of God, that you

want justice? The Bible says in Psalm Chapter

Psalms 7 · chapter mention

7 that God is angry with the wicked every day.

He doesn't like sin. Although he permits us to do

things in our free will, it angers him.

If you read the book of Genesis, you'll see that he wiped out the

whole planet because it angered him, how distorted the planet

had become. So the New Testament says it

this way. In the book of Romans, the wrath

of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness.

Wrath is even one step beyond anger.

You do not want to experience wrath.

And because I know you're not convinced, Colossians says for

which things sake? The wrath of God cometh on the

children of disobedience. The wrath of God cometh on the

children of disobedience. And I know what you're thinking.

Well, I'm not a children of disobedience.

That's not me. I'm not that bad really.

Well, let's just listen to Jesus and John 336 Jesus says he that

believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that

believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God

abideth on him. See, God's wrath isn't for a

particular sin or a level of sin.

Jesus said that if you do not accept the Son, which is the way

to be saved, then the only other option is to experience God's

wrath. And if God's wrath isn't bad

enough, what we need to be saved from is also eternity in hell.

I know you're thinking I came to church, we got good news in this

church. Why on earth are we going to get

into this subject right now? But you know what?

All of your Bible is important. Jesus talked about hell quite a

bit. And there is a modern stir today

of people that want to make the Bible say things that it it's

just clearly there for us. The idea of hell is no doubt

hard to deal with. To think about eternal conscious

torment, it seems kind of cruel. But this is no different from

the judge situation that we talked about a moment ago.

What should we do with hardened criminals?

Should they continue to freely walk the streets?

If you've harmed, maimed, damaged people repeatedly, do we

not say we have a place for you or you can't do that anymore?

Especially for those who would not repent or change at some

point, the punishment for evil doers can be so great to where

we would say you're going to be there for life or we're going to

end your life. Do we not do that in the justice

system? Why does God not get to do that?

The Book of Revelation, we see this harrowing event called the

Great White Throne. This is there is no salvation in

this moment. This is only a judgement for the

lost. It says the sea gave up the dead

which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which

were in them, and they were judged every man according to

their works. And death and hell were cast

into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was

cast into the lake of fire. Do you mean to tell me you

actually believe in hell? Yeah, it's in the Bible.

Now there are inventions like purgatory as an invention of the

Catholic Church. Dante's Inferno is a story, but

Hell is definitely real. What does it look like?

We can imagine we've seen things on TV and in other places.

Maybe if you're a bad kid like me and you've seen South Park,

you know that Satan comes out to play.

And maybe you've seen Little Nicky with Adam Sandler and he's

playing the air guitar and hell, it's not quite maybe like TV

makes it out to be. So let me help you with what a

biblical description of Hell is. What is hell like?

Well, there's more, but for us today, hell is a place where

condemned souls go. It is a place of constant fire.

It is a place of torment and darkness.

It's a place where fallen angels go.

It is an everlasting punishment with no escape.

And Hell isn't even the worst. Eventually Hell is cast into a

lake of fire, as it says in Revelation 21.

The fearful and unbelieving and abominable and all these

horrible people right shall have their part in the lake which

burneth with fire and brimstone. This is the second death.

See, there's something worse than a physical death.

The the death that comes after that is eternal conscious

torment. And maybe you're just struggling

to process this. What that I'm what I'm telling

you is true. Well, let's listen to Jesus just

for a moment. Jesus says, Enter ye in at the

Strait gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that

leadeth to destruction. And many there be which go in

there at but straight is the gate, and narrow is the way

which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

According to Jesus, many will experience destruction and few

will find life. That means that at least 50% or

more of the population will perish in hell.

I mean, that's sobering, isn't it?

That's not what we want, by the way.

We're not the judges. We don't get to determine who

goes to heaven and hell. This is not on us.

And it is not God's will that this would happen either.

The Bible tells us that God will have all men to be saved and to

come to the knowledge of the truth.

It is His desire. He has made a way, as we're

going to see in a moment. He loved us before we ever loved

him. He died for the possibility of

the world to be reconciled to Him.

But he gives man a choice. And when man will not repent and

turn and believe in faith? They can't go to heaven.

That's a place of perfection, A holiness, man.

It's going to be a praise party all the time.

It's going to be awesome. God's not going to drag them

kicking and screaming into a place where they don't want to

be. There's only one other place for

them. But let's move on now to how we

are saved. So how do we get out of this

problem? How can I be rescued from

eternal damnation? Well, as sinners, we cannot fix

this problem on our own. We cannot self rescue if you

will. We do not have the capacity for

that in the book of Isaiah. The Bible tells us that our

righteousness, the things that we would do to be right, it's

filthy rags. We can't do anything that would

clean ourselves up enough because all of our efforts are

still dirty in comparison to a holy God.

We cannot do enough. Proverbs says, Who can say I

have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin.

Can you say that? I can't say that.

The filthy rag illustration I think really sells it.

Would you take a not just a rag, a filthy rag?

Would you take a gross rag? And would you, like, wash your

dishes with something like that? Yeah, I think I'll eat off of

what I'm going to use like that. No, I don't.

I wouldn't do that. How about something like this?

You just say there's like hair and stuff on that, you know?

Yeah, let's let's take something white and let's clean our white

clothes with a with a rag like that.

I mean, some of us, if you're weak stomach, you might even get

a little nauseous messing with filthy rags.

See, it's not that man can do no good.

It's that man can do no good to satisfy God.

There's not enough that you can do to atone.

The sin is in your nature. You will continue to fail.

You will blow it. You're never going to be

perfect. Therefore there must be another

way. It cannot be self rescue.

So I want to pause it to you today.

I have a quote from an article from a pretty safe website

called Got Questions. If you I have Bible questions, I

recommend starting with the people in your life that are

from this church that you know. We love to open the Bible with

you, but this subject is called penal substitutionary atonement.

It is the way for us to be right.

Let's read this together. It says in the simplest possible

terms, the biblical doctrine of penal substitution holds that

Jesus's sacrifice on the cross takes the place of the

punishment we ought to suffer for our sins.

As a result, God's justice is satisfied and those who accept

Christ can be forgiven and reconciled to God.

Does that not sound like basic Christianity?

One O 1? It absolutely is.

It's just summarizing a whole bunch of verses for you.

Someone else died for you and your place.

Peter says it like this. One of my favourites, that

Christ also hath suffered for us, the just, for the unjust,

that he might bring us to God and praise the Lord.

We are the unjust on the other side of the judges gavel, the

guilty ones, with the sinful nature in the wrath of God

abiding upon us. And if you could imagine that

courtroom before the gavel comes down for the sentence that

somebody enters the courtroom and says, hold on, I'll take

their punishment. Can I be in their place and let

them go free? That is what Jesus did.

The just one, a civilian who's done no error will say I will go

replace the criminal and take his punishment so he can be

free. That's what Jesus did for you.

The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 5 that God made him

Jesus to be sin for us. Jesus literally became sin.

He took it upon himself who knew no sin.

He is that Lamb of God that we might be made the righteousness

of God in him. I mean, this verse is just the

best exchange on the planet. There's no better deal than this

right here. The perfect one took everything

you've ever done wrong upon himself and gave you the

righteousness of God and said you're forgiven, you're clean,

you're pure. There is no better deal than

that. Romans calls it a propitiation

whom God talking about Jesus, whom God had set forth to be a

propitiation through faith in his blood.

Now I know that you're not using propitiation every day in your

regular life either. So it means to appease to atone

or to make favorable. God was satisfied through the

blood of Christ. It appeased His wrath.

He is no longer angry with those that have had the blood applied

to their life through faith. And this is always how it has

been. A blood sacrifice has always

been necessary. We see this in the Bible.

There are other places we could look at as well.

But Adam and Eve, when they first sinned in the garden in

Genesis 3, they attempted to cover themselves and it did not

work. But God made a way for them.

He killed an animal and covered them with the skins of the

animal. His covering is what they

needed. Cain and Abel if you're

familiar. The two brothers.

One killed the other out of jealousy.

Presumably 1 sacrifice was acceptable and one was not.

The animal sacrifice is what's acceptable.

Abraham and Isaac. God called Abraham to offer his

son Isaac as a sacrifice, but there was a ram and the thicket

that was offered in his place. The Passover In Exodus chapter

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

12, God said that he would kill every first born, but if the

blood of the lamb was applied to the doorpost of the house, then

God would pass over that house and no death would happen there

because the blood would cover it.

If you read Isaiah 53, you see also that the Messiah Jesus

would be our Passover, our sin offering.

So get this down in your notes. The thing that saves you is

believing what Christ has done. Essentially, if you're on the

other side of the judge's gavel and they say why should we not

give you the death sentence, your answer would be to point to

Jesus. It's not what I've done, it's

what He has done, as Ephesians says.

And that not of yourselves, right?

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of

yourselves. Christians rely 100% on the

substitute that Christ's death, burial and resurrection appeased

the wrath of God and forgave me of all of my sin.

And if if that's not it, I got nothing.

I cannot produce enough good things.

I cannot deny my sinful nature enough.

It's all because of Jesus. So if you're wondering, am I

saved? Or perhaps you want to talk to a

friend about Jesus and you wonder, are they saved?

I think this question is helpful.

Why would God let you into heaven?

Christians will say because Jesus died on the cross to

forgive my sins. But a non Christian will always

say well I've been a good person, I haven't done anything

really that bad. That is the answer of a lost

man. They do not understand that

Christ was their sacrifice. Maybe they're saved and they

don't fully understand the gospel and you can show them

from the scriptures, but a Christian will always say

because of Jesus I got nothing else.

But let's look next number 5, we're almost done at when we are

saved. So let's let's review briefly

first. We need to be saved because

we're sinners. God is good and that is a

problem for us. But Jesus paid for our sin and

that's the good news. But when does that apply?

You see, in Christianity, the cross is not universally

applied, forcefully applied to all humans.

To be saved, there is something you must do.

Although your works cannot save you, there is one thing that you

can do that will save you. It will rescue you from danger.

It was framed in a question in Acts chapter 16.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

There's a man who saw enough. He knew God was true.

He knew God's apostles were the real deal.

And he said, what must I do to be saved?

And the answer is quite simple. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and thou shalt be saved. Now, I know this is basic,

fundamental Christianity, but we cannot miss this.

It's so easy to fight and argue about all kinds of other things,

or to want people to do better or be better, and to totally

miss. What must I do to be saved?

Our answer always ought to be Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and thou shalt be saved. You know, this is this is John.

Is it good? OK so the thing that you must do

to be saved is to believe on Jesus.

Ethan said this and Oh my goodness turn me down a tad.

It must have been weak battery power.

Ethan quoted this verse in his testimony.

Romans 10/9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord

Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised him from

the dead, thou shalt be saved. We don't have to jump through a

whole bunch of hoops. We don't even have to be

baptized. You don't have to do anything

except for place faith in the substitute.

You can't self rescue. You simply need to accept God's

rescue. Romans 10/13 Whosoever shall

call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

That is a promise from this book to you.

You don't have to even believe me for it.

Believe the book. You have the word of God that

you will be saved. So maybe you wonder, what does

it look like to call on the name of the Lord and be saved?

Is there special magic words? Is there a way?

Do I have to be on my knees? Well, it doesn't say, but I

think it could be something like this.

And if you never prayed this, you can pray this tonight.

God, I know that I'm a Sinner. I believe Jesus died and rose

again for me. I believe that He is the only

way. I want to make him my Lord.

Please save me and forgive me and help me follow you.

That is a simple prayer of faith.

It doesn't have to be those words, but something like that

is recognizing I need rescue, recognizing the substitute and

calling on Him to save you. But I know most of you have done

that. So let's ask our final question.

What happens next? What's after salvation when we

choose to put our faith in Christ, the the Bible says that

something supernatural happens to us.

We are saved in that moment, spiritually, we are changed.

And I had a big list of things that was going to overwhelm the

screen and I took away of all the truths from this book that

are true of you once you accept Jesus as the Lord.

But I simplified them for you tonight just for a few things.

I call this the unchangeable change because salvation is not

reversible. If you are born again, if you

have believed on Jesus Christ, what happens?

It sticks forever. You are rescued and here's just

a few things. Your sin has been paid for.

You're no longer trying to make up or atone or do better to

please God. It's satisfied on the cross.

Colossians says you've seen this in Bible study in whom we have

redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Secondly, you have peace with God.

Although at times we may feel like God is angry with me,

Romans tells us that we're justified by faith and we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, not because of our

actions through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is not angry with you. He loves you.

He calls you his son or daughter, His daughter.

You are in his family. And lastly, for tonight, you

have the Holy Spirit. The Bible says after that you

believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

The Holy Spirit is not a thing that comes later.

It's not some weird spooky event.

It it's, it doesn't even have to seem miraculous.

It happens at the moment that you put your faith in Jesus, you

are born again and you are sealed.

You're given God's Spirit. You either have the Spirit or

you do not. He is always with you.

He will never leave you or forsake you.

He bears witness that you are God's child.

So I wanted to leave you with something encouraging at the end

because I know some of tonight was difficult.

But as we conclude our time, I just want to ask you a few

questions. What are we going to pray for as

we come before the Lord tonight? Have you had that time in your

life that you chose to accept the rescue that God offered to

His Son? Can you share like Ethan did, a

time that God changed you? If you've been saved, are you

able to get that to other people?

This is the best news on the planet.

We can live forever and have peace with God.

That's why it's called the good news.

The good news though, comes with some bad news.

So maybe we need some sobriety to think about our lost friends

and family, people who will meet the end that we saw tonight.

If we do not beg God for Him to intercede in their lives, it is

His will that we would be saved. And Jesus taught us, if we pray

anything according to His will, He will hear it.

So tonight, if you are saved and you aren't sure what to pray,

would you pray for the lost in your life?

Maybe it's a cousin, brother, mother, sister, whoever.

Maybe it's a person at work, people that you love.

Would you ask God for an open door?

I had this earlier today. I walked by a guy in my office

building. I don't know who's working on

Sunday morning, but, you know, we're in there together.

And I just prayed God, would you just give me an open door?

This guy's a really an introvert dude.

And he said, hey, man, how are you doing?

He began a conversation with me and I was like, all right, let's

go. And we got closer to the gospel.

We aren't quite there yet, but sometimes we just need to pray

for God to open a door or give us a time to have that kind of

conversation with somebody. So as we wrap up, I want to give

us a moment to pray. That's the way we'll end.

And then Jay will come up and we'll have another song.

So let's pray.