Why Do I Need to be Saved? | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Inglewood.

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

We are no longer in Acts for now.

You notice on the front of your worship guide, you'll see the

core training series that we're doing on Wednesday nights.

Had a great time. Appreciate the hundreds of folks

are showing up for that. Appreciate you all.

If you'll come back this Wednesday night, we're going to

continue to talk about some of the things that we must believe

in order to be a Christian, some of the things we must believe in

order to be saved. Some of those primary doctrines

heals worth dying on. We'll eventually get to some of

the more secondary and tertiary doctrines, but having a good

time, important stuff that we're studying together and appreciate

that. Appreciate so much those who

have been helping Teresa and I over the last several months and

moving the 14,000 times that we've had to move stuff.

And we are now residing and spending the night and

functionally operating in Nashville, NC.

So we appreciate that. Yeah, sure.

So the rule at the house is, is if you can come anytime, if you

want to eat hot, let us know. So otherwise just come on.

But and you might have to help unload some cardboard.

But anyway, so appreciate you being there.

Listen, a, a recent genetic study showed you'll like this,

that napping, napping can decrease brain aging by 2 1/2 to

6 1/2 years. And so I just want to thank you

for coming to my sermons. I told you they'd be good for

you. So appreciate you.

In this new sermon series, we're going to talk about several

important things. I'm going to ask a series of

very important foundational questions about the church and

about discipleship, about who we are as believers.

And so we need to be on the same page to best serve together in

unity. And so I just want to invite you

to come be the King's Bride for the next few weeks.

This is a introductory series that's going to lead us to our

fall teaching and series on the essentials of discipleship.

But between this and Wednesday night, this will become very

important as we lay some theological and ecclesiological

foundations. That may sound like big words,

but don't let that worry you. We're just talking about the

Bible. And so one of the things that we

need to think about today is we need to lay an ecclesiological

foundation, not by reciting some profound, some profound

treatise, but by sharing one of the most well known verses of

Scripture in the Bible. And my belt just gave way.

Isn't that impressive? So the only important part of

that is it holds the microphone on there.

So this was an old belt that I found in a box because we have

lots of boxes right now. We'll just see what happens

here. Are the lights still on?

All right, so here we go. I want to share this with you,

not by sharing some profound treatise, but by actually

sharing one of the most well known verses in all of the

Bible. In fact, in John 3A, Pharisee

named Nicodemus comes to Jesus and secretly he comes at night.

He wanted to ask about who Jesus really was and why Jesus had

really come, why he was there. And you may frankly be here this

morning seeking some of those same answers about Christ.

You may want to know who he really is and why he really

came. And so this morning will be

helpful to you. But for a lot of us, I'm going

to begin with a vital question that you might kind of consider

basic review. But I promise you, by the time

we're done this morning, I don't think you'll think that way.

I want to begin at the beginning of discipleship.

I want to begin at the beginning of of how we become a part of

the church. So I want to ask the question of

why do I need to be saved? That may seem like, well, you

may just think, take that for granted to think that's review.

But again, that's really not the truth because God won't answer

you and you may be here and you really need this because you're

not sure about your salvation and God will answer you if you

honestly seek him and and openly listen to what he has to say.

So Jesus revealed these answers to Nicodemus about himself in an

honest conversation about being born again.

He referred to the Old Testament.

He bridges the gap with this Jewish religious leader.

And then he shares verse 16. So let me pray for us as I begin

this sermon about John 316. It's interesting.

It's one of the most well known verses of all the Bible, but I

actually hear very few sermons about it.

And then we're going to go from some implications of John 316

into an area that I think will be very helpful to you.

So let me pray for us. Father, we thank you so much for

your love and your grace. We thank you, Father, for the

way that you work in our lives and you lead us.

And I just pray, Father, that you'll guide us as we look at

your word and we we think about Father, who we need to be in

order to be a believer, in order to be saved, in order, Father,

to truly be a Christian. We're so thankful for that

opportunity. In Christ's name, Amen.

All right, John 316 is called the little Gospel, the Bible in

one verse. And here we discover why we must

be saved, why we must believe in a king who's seeking after us.

John 316 and I'm in the ESV version.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that

whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal

life. Now, for Christians, that ought

to produce an Amen. For Christians that ought to

assure us and talk to us about what our salvation means.

But we're going to break this down word for word, frankly, and

I want to first of all talk about the source of salvation

for God so loved. See, salvation originates with

and originates from God's nature.

You understand that sentence? It's God's nature that produces

the opportunity for salvation. He creates, sustains, and saves

from his nature of love, right? And in this nature of love, and

in this passage, it is agape love.

You might know that word and agape.

Love is a decision. It's a direction of the will.

It's not some emotional reaction.

This is actually a determined act of the will to love no

matter what. It expects nothing.

It gives everything. Though.

Those things aren't deserved. It's really hard for human

beings to wrap their heads around agape.

It's hard for us in our sinful nature to understand agape.

We want self created definitions of justice and right, and we

expect to earn and get what we deserve.

And we want others to get what we believe they deserve

according to the definitions of deserve that we create.

Well, that's a problem. And that's an incorrect

beginning point, which leads us to some real false teaching

about salvation and the understanding of salvation.

See, our sin nature can't understand agape that comes from

God's love nature. You've got a battle of nature's

going on that we've got to understand.

But this incorrect beginning point leads to a multiple,

multiple errors in belief and also multiple errors in

judgment. I assure you, you need to be

very grateful. You do not get what you deserve.

So this willful choice by God to love unconditionally then

becomes the basis of what we call grace.

So it becomes this basis of grace and it's the initiator of

salvation. You could not and will never be

able to save yourself. So you, you cannot, you can

never do what is required to do for your salvation.

You can't create the opportunity in your sin nature by yourself.

See, so church is not enough. Goodness is not enough.

Even joining a Connect group, which you all should be doing by

now, is still not enough, right? We need someone else to save us,

because true salvation has a sole source.

So thankfully graciously, God wants us to know him and he

wants us to know his love for us.

But but who is us? That's a good important

question. Who for God?

So who did he love? Who?

Who are US? Who be it?

Who be us? So the second thing we need to

learn is the object of salvation.

Now stay with me for a few minutes and we're going to get

to something totally different because I want you to see this.

The the object of salvation is the world for God so loved the

world tone Cosmone. Now you need to understand that

this is literally the sum total of all the persons living on

this planet. It's not the planet itself, it's

the people on the planet, right? And so this is your neighbor,

this is your family. This are your friends.

This is folks in Taiwan, folks in Pittsburgh, everybody on the

planet. God loves us, all of us, even in

our wrecked state. Now that may seem fine to you.

That may seem wonderful to you. I hope it does.

You've got to understand there are people who theologically

disagree with what I just said. There are some people who

believe that God only loves the elect.

God only loves those he knows will be saved.

Well, I disagree with this. I disagree with this based upon

this verse and several other verses because there are

biblical passages that'll tell us that that's just not true.

When I taught at one of our seminaries, a different seminary

than Southeastern, I've taught and been in administration at

two of our seminaries. And when I was at Southern

Seminary, I used to have students and some of them would

believe this, that God only loves the elect and I'd have

them in class and they'd want to debate with me and argue with

me. Be careful about if you want to

do that because you might just get taken up on that option.

And I'd bring them to my office and I, without exaggeration,

before it's over, they're weeping on the floor of my

office, laying on the floor of my office, weeping audibly

because I could show them in Scripture that Jesus loves

sinners and that we must too. You cannot make this verse mean

something that it does not mean theologically or linguistically.

You can't twist the words around to mean something else.

So the next verse even reinforces his love for the

entire world. Verse 17 For God did not send

His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order

that the world might be saved through Him.

John also wrote in his epistles in first John chapter 2 verse 2.

1 John 2:2

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but

also for the sins of what? The whole world, the whole

world. Now listen, we all deserve

judgment and death because of our sin, right?

Anything and everything that we do that we say, that we think

that is contrary to God's word and will is sin and we have all

sinned. The Bible's clear about that.

Remember, you know, Romans 323. Many of you for all have sinned

and fall short of the glory of God.

But God, listen to me now in His nature of perfection and

holiness, which is also a part of His nature, part of His

nature's love, but part of His nature is perfection and

holiness. And in this aspect of His

nature, he cannot simply ignore sin and remain who He is.

If he ignores sin, he is no longer God.

It would violate His nature. So anybody who sends or asks

that question of how could a loving God send anyone to hell?

Well, he doesn't. You send yourself there.

You're making choices and you're sending yourself there, right?

And so sin must be punished. There must be a price that's

paid. We need to be saved, so we can't

pull that off by ourselves. We need someone else to do that

regardless of your current sin, regardless of your current

status. So God and his nature of love.

Now listen to this statement. God and His nature of love acts

to fulfill His nature of perfection and holiness.

You with me. He has to do that to be

consistent. So in Romans 5/8 it says, but

God shows his love for us and that why we were still sinners.

Christ died for us, but God. See, but God planned to love and

save from the very beginning. He always knew.

Your sin doesn't surprise him, your status doesn't.

You don't catch Him off guard, but you also can't escape His

plan. Listen, His plan's real simple.

Either you need to trust in Him and be saved for eternity or

you're going to perish in hell forever, in eternity.

Those are your options and there are no other options.

We need to be saved, and the world needs to know this, and we

have to tell them. So I'm going to be teaching

personal evangelism as clearly and as and as and as quickly as

I can in the fall. Need you to be there so we can

learn how to share this in the greatest ways.

So God's a source. We're the object.

John 316 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

So the third thing we've got to see is the gift of salvation He

gave. He gave his only Son.

God's intentional sacrifice was always the plan, a perfect,

complete, permanent, unrepeatable sacrifice by Jesus.

And it's incredibly costly. There's nothing flippant about

salvation. This was costly.

He gave his only son the word used here.

And John's the only one who uses this word in all the Bible.

He uses the word mono genes or mono genus, which means 1 gene.

Think about that mono gene, one-of-a-kind.

Jesus is absolutely unique. There is no one else like him.

In fact, in a few Wednesday nights from now, I'm going to be

teaching about why we must believe about what we must about

Jesus and why that matters. You need to know what you

understand about the Bible that's coming up, and you need

to know what you understand about Jesus.

Those are primaries. If we don't understand those two

things, we're not going to be able to deal with this world

apologetically. We're also not going to be

saved. And so he's the unique one.

He's the only one of his type. And John uses this word to

describe God the Son, Jesus to God the Father.

It's unique. One of the things you'll notice.

Now stick with me. I'm sorry being technical, but

stick with me for a second. Jesus in the entire Bible is

never called a Tecnon. That's the common word for a

child. Tecnon.

He is the Huios, the son. So we are Tecnon, Theo, we are

children of God. And it's a word that would be

used. Jesus is the hueyos theu.

He is the Son of God because he is God.

He is different. He's not like us.

He's totally unique. So we cannot give the gift of

salvation to ourselves. We must receive it.

We're not adequate for the sacrifice.

Somebody perfect had to be adequate.

And so the Bible says in Romans 5-6, while we were still weak at

the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

Now this is really important. This is one reason Christianity

is the only real truth, because it's the only belief system that

teaches this grace. God became man and this perfect

God, man lived a perfect life and made a perfect sacrifice for

you. And since Jesus does perfect

work, we rely upon his grace gift for salvation.

He came to die on the cross and rise again.

And that story is what we call good news.

We call it the gospel and by it you need to be saved.

The Hindus that you saw in this video are are in works

righteousness mode. They're somehow trying to

appease a fear based religion, Hinduism, and they're somehow

trying to appease these gods, millions of them at times in

order to earn some salvation or reincarnation or whatever their

hope is for next. John 316 for God so loved the

world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him.

See the fourth thing we've got to see is the opportunity for

salvation. We've got to recognize that

whoever believes, and I've shared this word with you

before, but you need to know a few of these words.

Piste Uwan is the verb for faith.

So in other words, you could translate the word believes in

all these passages. As faiths, He faiths, we have to

faith in Jesus. So faith is not just a

knowledge. It's more than knowledge.

Saving faith is more than that. It means to have complete

confidence in it means to fully rely upon it means to trust in

it means to cling to with your entire weight, with your entire

hope. Everything relies upon this

thing and the concept of lordships built in here.

You don't get to be that way with and think that Jesus is

just your Savior. He also has to be your Lord.

He has to be your boss. You have to live differently.

True faith is going to lead you to confession and repentance.

True faith changes. True faith transforms.

You need to be saved and we must faith in Christ's gift so that

we can since we don't know who will or will not be saved.

We also need to give everyone the opportunity to hear the

gospel because he's sacrificed for all, but not all will

believe. I know that because the Bible

tells us that. Since I don't know who will

believe, I need to share with everybody and let God pick out

the whosoever's. But finally, also recognize this

number 5. And here we go.

Buckle up, curl your toes in. I want to talk about the

assurance of salvation. I was told after the last

service it was the first time they'd ever actually heard a

sermon about this. Listen closely to this teaching.

This is an important doctrine. John 316 For God so loved the

world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him

should not perish, but have present tense eternal life.

Let me give you a literal translation of that last part.

May not be destroyed or killed eternally, but may have

spiritual life not limited by time.

The promise of saving faith is real.

You have eternal life if you've been saved.

That's present tense. In fact, what it means is you

have it and you keep on having it.

That's a key. So I need to share this

important doctrine with it because there is misled teaching

and poor interpretations of scripture surrounding it.

Now listen very carefully what I'm going to say as slowly as I

can. Some of you this morning or

listening online may disagree with me this morning and you

will even think you know why. Others are going to agree with

me and not even know why. So we all need this and I need

you to listen to me the whole thing before you start emailing

me, OK? Because there's going to be,

well, what about, well, what about well, just listen, easy.

Listen. Some use passages out of context

to teach that which is not biblical.

So please hear me when I teach you what the Bible actually

says. You need to be saved and you

need to know that you have eternal life.

Now other religious groups, as I've mentioned many times, they,

they have a hope. So I wish I pray.

I pray I can make it. There are groups within

Christendom, within what they call Christian life, and they

believe that. Some of you may come from a

tradition that believes you can lose your salvation.

Some of you may still be in that tradition.

There are churches all around us that would believe that.

But there's a problem with it. The truth that I'm about to

teach. You're going to separate

biblical Christianity from misled or false teaching.

First, a Christian can know for sure they are saved.

And secondly, a truly saved person cannot lose their

salvation. But what about?

But what about? But what about?

I know, I know all the passages. Don't throw Hebrew 6 at me.

It won't work for you. That's not what it says.

You got to understand, I don't throw revelation at me.

It's not what it says. I know all these passages.

So just listen for a minute before you say anything.

Focus. Listen to 1st John 5 for a few

minutes. I write these things to you who

believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that

you have eternal life. Now we can know this.

John couldn't write this under the inspiration of the Holy

Spirit if it wasn't true. So if we truly faith in Jesus,

we can truly know now why? I'm going to give you several

reasons. I'm going to draw you some

pictures. I'm going to help you

understand. So the first thing is salvation

is assured by its actual process.

This is key. We need to understand what

salvation really is and how salvation really takes place.

Because when there's uncertainty about how salvation occurs,

there's going to be confusion later on about how it can be

preserved. So some people believe, and we

got to dispel this. Some people believe that we can

earn and therefore deserve our salvation because we do more

good than bad. They're back on that holy scale

that I've talked about before. Let's be extremely clear.

As I've previously stated, no one earns or deserves salvation.

We don't do it on our own. We are all sinners and we've all

rebelled against God, and we have said we have done, we have

thought things that are contrary to His will and in His perfect

holiness. As I've said, in that nature of

God, God must punish sin. So we are lost sinners and we

deserve His punishment. So we are thus unable to achieve

His forgiveness on our own, and we're without hope by ourselves.

Someone sinless, someone perfect, had to pay the sin

price. We need to be saved, and we

totally rely upon God's grace for this.

Remember what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus in Ephesians 2

beginning verse 4. But God being rich in mercy,

because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we

were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with

Christ. By grace you have been saved.

Go on to verse 8. Very familiar passage for by

grace you have been saved through faith and this is not

your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a

result of works so that no one may boast.

Now listen, this is very important and and you need to

help your kids understand this and your neighbors understand

this. We don't have the power to save

ourselves, and this fact is a key to the security of your

salvation. If we don't have the power to

save ourselves, we also do not have the power to unsave

ourselves. It is simply not within our

realm of authority. That is not how salvation works.

Salvation works in a different way.

Salvation is based upon the atoning work of Jesus Christ,

and as stated earlier, salvation is a gift from God.

Very familiar verse Roman Romans 623.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is

eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am simply too limited in my sinful humanity, in my sin

nature, to be able to save or maintain salvation by or for

myself. So I am so thankful that that's

not how it works. God saves and helps me to

believe. You need to.

You need to be saved. If my good works can't save me,

then how can my bad works unsaved me?

It doesn't work that way. Where's the line?

If it does, where's the line? Over the years I've had

conversations with friends who believe you can, people from

other denominational groups or whatever.

So where's the line? Where is it?

Is it one sin? 2 sins?

Three sins in a row? Really bad sin?

Where's the line? And who defines that line?

And where in Scripture is that exact point defined over and

over again? Just think about it.

If this were the truth, isn't it interesting we received no

specific warning in Scripture about such a vital line?

The Bible's full of detailed information about how to become

and how to live as a child of God.

And if that process could be reversed, doesn't it make sense

that at least one writer would have gone into great detail

explaining how that took place? It's just not there.

And again, you might say, well, what about this passage?

What about that? I'm telling you, listen to me.

I don't have time to walk through all those this morning.

I don't. Well, if we can later, maybe.

But those used most often, and I think I know those, those used

most often to make the argument that you can fall away from

salvation are misinterpreted when the original context, when

the original audience and when the original language is

actually considered, they're just not true.

That's not that's they're being misinterpreted again.

Again, you might say, well, what about listen, let's move.

Salvation is simply not based on a holy scale where if the good

outweighs the bad. Now that's what other religions

teach, every other world religion teaches, and it's all

works righteousness. They work their way up to please

the divine. Somehow the biblical salvation

is neither attained nor maintained.

In this way our sin is forgiven and our debt is covered by

Christ. Listen to 2nd Corinthians

chapter 5. For our sake He made him to be

sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the

righteousness of God. When God the Father looks at

those who have been saved, he sees the work and righteousness

of the Son. His righteousness has literally

been deposited into our account and our sin into His account in

a miraculous transaction that cannot be reversed.

And this is one reason we can know, one reason that we can be

sure. Charles Stanley actually wrote a

very good book about this. I appreciate his work and he's

helped me think through this over the years.

Even it's he says this, if Christ came to seek and to save

that which was lost, and yet we can somehow become unsaved and

therefore undo what Christ came to do, would it not be wise for

God to take us on to heaven the moment we are saved in order to

ensure we make it? Isn't it unnecessarily risky to

force us to stay here? So salvation is assured by its

process, but you're going to like this part even better.

Salvation is assured by our position after salvation.

See the very I want you to see the very clear image of

Scripture of how secure true salvation really is by

understanding your new position in Christ once you're saved by

him. This is so important.

John chapter 10, verse 28. I give them eternal life and

John 10:28

they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my

hand. My Father who has given them to

me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out

of the Father's hands. So I literally translated this

and from the Greek, let me, let me just read the literal

translation for you. And I keep on giving them abide

age, abiding life. And not never in Greek you can

have double negatives and not means it's really strong and not

never shall they be destroyed under the age and not anything

shall snatch them out of my hand.

My father who has given and that's written in attention,

which means it's a completed work.

It's already done. Who has given to me is greater

than all. And no one is powerful to snatch

out of the Father's hands. I want you to get this.

So I got a little Jesus here. Anybody need a little bit of

Jesus? Here we go.

We are placed after salvation in God the Father's hand and God

the Son's hand. He has a hold of us there and

it's a tight grip. God holds us in His hand.

We do not hold on to God and salvation.

He gives it and is holding on to it and continues to give us our

salvation. So this is not about my grip on

God. We are held in the tight grip of

the sons and the Father's hands. Now, now watch this because it

gets a lot better. We're also hidden and locked

into place. Colossians 3 For you have died,

and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

When Christ, who is your life appears, then you will also

appear with Him in glory. Now the, the, the, the verb

there is hidden is a completed action carrying the idea of a

lock. We are completely locked in with

Christ, but the biblical image is still not complete.

We are held, we are hidden, we are locked, and then we are

sealed into place and guaranteed by the last member of the

Trinity. Look at Ephesians, one in Him.

You also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of

your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the

promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance

until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

So we are sealed and guaranteed by God the Holy Spirit.

The word sealed means that we're marked.

It's like the signet ring going into the wax.

We're sealed for security. We're sealed for preservation.

When God seals us, He also makes us His own possession, which is

why in first Corinthians 6 it says you we were bought with a

price. So this seal is permanent and it

marks us. We are guaranteed of our

inheritance. Listen to 2nd Corinthians

chapter 1. And it is God who establishes us

with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also

put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a

guarantee. You cannot be saved unless you

have the Holy Spirit who indwells you at the moment of

salvation. That's not a guess.

I'm not waiting for that later on.

He comes at the moment of salvation.

Listen to Romans 8. You, however, are not in the

flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in

you. Anyone who does not have the

Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

And so we know we're really saved by the presence of the

Holy Spirit in our lives. He is a witness to the work of

Christ in US. Now I want you to listen to a

couple more things. Salvation is assured by its

process, by our position. And the third thing I want you

to see is salvation is assured by God's power.

Now think about it. No sin we ever commit surprises

God. He knew what we would commit it

before He even created us. Think about this, for which of

your sins did Jesus die on the cross?

All of them? For for for which sins were you

forgiven when you believed in him as Savior and Lord?

Right. The timing of your sins is

irrelevant since they were all in the future.

From the perspective of the cross.

Jesus died for all the sins I've ever committed, all the sins

I'll commit today, all the sins I'll commit tomorrow.

So if our salvation is not secure, how could Jesus say with

assurance about those to whom He had given eternal life in John

10, when he says, I give them eternal life and they will never

perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand, how could

He say they will never perish? It could be in the future.

I mean, would they never sin again?

Well, yeah, they'd sin again. We're all sinners.

Even as Christians we stumble and fall.

But even if one Christian or one person were to receive eternal

life and then somehow forfeit that through sin, they make

Jesus out to be a liar. How can salvation be the

solution for sin and then be taken away because of sin?

That's not the way it works. No sin we commit after salvation

is powerful enough to force open His hand, to unlock His lock, to

break His seal and undo His guarantee.

You got to understand this. True believers are held tightly

in the Father's hands, hidden and locked into place with the

Son, and sealed and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.

To break free from this position and power of salvation is to

claim that you are more powerful than the Triune God, and that's

just not right. How dare anyone assume such

authority to unsave? But what about?

What about? But what about?

What about? But what about?

So the last I want to talk about this salvation must result in

godly discipleship. So we're not simply free to sin

and do whatever we desire because we're safe and secure.

Genuine salvation is a life changing experience.

It's not spiritual perfection. We don't attain that here.

But it is a desire and an intentionality to be intimate

with God and not disobedient. So we must mourn over.

We must die to our sin. Paul talks about this in Romans

6. He says, what shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means. How can we who died to stand

still live in it? So sin must not have dominion

over us any longer. So let me help you with this.

This will be important. This probably the part you

remember. So wake up from the nap.

This will be good. This is what you might help

somebody out there with, or even somebody, maybe yourself, maybe

somebody in your family. I want you to understand the

difference between fellowship and relationship.

These are very different things. My fellowship with God and my

relationship with God are not the same thing.

I might lose my fellowship with God when I sin, but I can't lose

my relationship with him. I I my, my fellowship might be a

roller coaster at times, but the other is a certainty.

I I cannot change the fact. For example, my kids are going

to come over today for some belated birthday stuff and a

couple of the grandkids we're going to play in cardboard and

paper. And I cannot change the fact

that my children have been born and neither can they, right?

They're, they're already born. They can't change that.

And even if they deny me and they don't, we, we love each

other. But even if, even if my son were

to grow up and deny me, even if he was to move away as far away

as he could, change his name, have nothing to do with me, deny

he ever knew me, deny he's my child, deny everything about me,

turn his back completely on us. He's still my son.

He can't change the fact that he was born my son.

So even if they deny me, it doesn't change anything.

We have kids in Oklahoma. We don't have much fellowship

with them, which is unfortunate, but we still have a

relationship. So we cannot change the

relationship into which we are born.

And when we are saved, we are born again into a new

relationship, into his adoption. Listen to Romans 8, for you did

not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,

but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we

cry. ABBA, Father, the Spirit Himself

bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, or

Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God and Father of

our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every

spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He

chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we

should be holy and blameless before Him in love.

He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus

Christ according to the purpose of His will.

Why would God choose, before the foundation of the world, to

adopt someone He knew He'd have to unadopt?

If we say we can lose salvation, we are saying God does not have

the power to hold and to keep his own.

Now I know the practical problem.

I get it. The practical problem is, is

that we have all seen those who claim to be Christians, all

those who claim to be saved and then habitually live like

they're not. They claim Christ and then don't

live for him. That leaves us with just a few

options. One of them is is they were

never truly saved. Now I'm not the judge of this,

but either they were never truly saved in the 1st place or they

were and they've turned their back on the fellowship that they

have with God and they're habitually living as if they are

not saved. And so we've got to be careful

because if they're acting like they do not believe, they act

like they're not saved. What a miserable place to be.

Both of those situations are miserable.

One is I'm lost and I don't have the Holy Spirit.

The other one is I have the Holy Spirit but I'm acting like I

don't. Now listen, I've got a relative

like this and I know when she was saved seemed as real as any

salvation I've ever seen. Again, I'm not the judge.

I don't know, but I but I've never met a more miserable human

being than this relative of mine.

And I believe with all my heart they got the Holy Spirit living

in them, the Holy Spirit just convicting and convicting and

convicting and pulling and convicting the whole time.

And they're just in this inner war constantly with what's going

on inside of them. What a miserable place to be.

We've got to love these people and help them.

Now, none of us are perfect. We're all going to struggle.

We're all going to stumble. I mean, even Paul in Romans 7,

he says, well, I do not understand my own actions for I,

I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

But friends, it's a dangerous thing to hang on to sin after

God's grace has been extended to you.

And we're not going to grow if we're not sensitive to sin.

We can't claim Christ and then also live for the world.

It's not going to work that way. We must be a changed people.

We need to be saved. We need salvation.

But when I do stumble and when I do sin as a saved person, I

don't have to get saved again. I can just go to God's word and

it says in first John one, if we say we have no sin, we deceive

ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us

our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is written to Christians. There is no optional

discipleship in the Bible that doesn't.

It doesn't work. We're saved to become part of

His bride so that we can be used in His mission.

But the carnal, sinful lifestyles of some people that

we know have made this doctrine very difficult to embrace at

times. And the lack of church

discipline, frankly, how seriously the church takes our

walk with God and our sin and an insufficient understanding of

sin and salvation. Add to this, so many people

believe about Jesus, but they don't trust in Jesus and they

think they're Christians. I mentioned that last week.

And some are going to cry, Lord, Lord, and he's going to deny

him. So even being a church attender

or perhaps even a church member doesn't necessarily mean you're

saved. First, John chapter 2 says that

John 2 · chapter mention

this. He calls that out.

He says they went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us,

but they went out that it might be complained that they are.

They are not of us. This is an old problem, and I

hope you understand what salvation truly means.

So finally, listen to this. Salvation is also assured by

God's promise. Romans 8 Who shall separate us

from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress,

or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or dangerous sword?

And then go on to verse 37. Knowing all these things, we are

more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I'm sure that neither death in our life, nor angels, nor

rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor

height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be

able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Last time I checked, I'm part of

anything else in all creation, so not even I can separate

myself from the love of God. There's nothing I can do to make

God love me more than He already does, and there's nothing there

also nothing I can do to make God love me less than He already

does. It's an amazing thing.

Couple of short verses just to help you in John 524 it says

truly, truly. I say to you, whoever hears my

word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to

life. Or one of the simplest gospel

verses of all, John 647. Truly, truly, I say to you,

whoever believes has eternal life.

These are present tense, already done, already saved.

I already have eternal life. I'm already an eternal being.

It may be a weird, odd thing to say.

Wouldn't necessarily go out on the street corner and shout that

out, but but I'm an eternal being.

I'm just living the first part of it right here to help prepare

the bride for the groom and to help others join us in the

Kingdom. There was a song written about

this verse, second Timothy one it says, which is why I suffer

as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know

whom I have believed and I'm convinced that he is able to

guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

I am convinced He is guarding me and my eternity.

You need to be saved to enjoy His blessing, to enjoy His

presence in your life, to know true peace, to know true hope,

to know true joy, to know true love, to understand comfort, to

know purpose, and to have assurance.

You don't need to fear your salvation.

So do you know for sure whether you're truly saved?

And is there any reason to not be sure right now?

And you, you might be saying that one day you're going to

nail this down. Listen, friends, you don't know

about one day, but why not nail down right now?

Jesus paid the price for this to be possible.

And you need to believe that. You need to faith in that.

Teresa and I grew up in a little town called Tahlequah.

OK, Some of you've probably probably know that place well,

because of course, why wouldn't you?

And, and he's have a railroad that ran through town and there

was old depot that up on the hill and, and, and it's hilly

country, it's Ozark country. So, so there's this massive hill

in town that goes down a, a major Rd. crosses Main Street

and it's called Depot Hill, even though there's no train anymore.

And, and years ago there was a guy driving an 18 Wheeler and he

hit Depot Hill and his brakes went out.

And so he starts accelerating and accelerating.

I mean, he's flying through residential neighborhoods.

He has to fly through red lights across two or three streets that

are the main roads in town. And he he's avoiding everybody

along the way. And he thinks he's about to be

OK. But on the other side of the

main road, there's a City Park and and there's a Creek that

runs through there. And at the end of that, there's

a tee and a big wall. And he sees that wall come in.

So he thinks, I'm going to ditch this into the Creek.

That's the best thing to do. I'll put this truck right in the

Creek. I mean, he's probably doing 70

or 80 or more. You know, he's just rushing

through all this. But as he gets closer, he looks

down and their children playing in the Creek, and he knows he

can't put the truck there. And so he ends up slamming into

that wall and dying. Later.

He gave his life so that others might live.

Jesus died so we could become the Technon Theo, the children

of God. Wow.

When we don't deserve that, right?

Willing to give his life. I just wonder who needs to be

saved here this morning. These little Jesuses are funny.

We hand that to somebody who needs little Jesus today.

Some of you know these things. We had a bag full of them at the

house and Teresa was playing with our five year old

granddaughter and she'd hide them around the house.

And then Elsie loved to go find all the Jesuses, and she'd find

all the Jesus's and put them in a little red wagon.

And she was pulling that little red wagon around the house

shouting out who needs Jesus? Anybody need Jesus, Come get

Jesus. Who needs Jesus?

Who needs? To be sure, I appreciated the

woman who came in the first service to join us.

Who else needs to join us? Who else needs to be baptized?

Who needs to be saved? In just a moment, pastors will

be standing here. We have a Next Steps room right

over here. We invite you to just go.

You can go directly to the Next Steps room if you want.

There are people in there who love you.

They want to pray with you can have a private conversation with

folks trained and ready to help you, or you can come here and

pray at the steps. You can come and talk to one of

us. Whatever you need to do, you

need to be saved and you need to know it.

Father, thank you so much for your love and your grace.

Thank you, Father, that we don't have to wonder.

We don't have to question. We don't have to hope.

We can be sure, Father. We can be absolutely certain.

We can have no doubt. Father, I'm so thankful that as

I stand here this morning that I know beyond any shadow of a

doubt that if I were to die today, then I'll be with you

forever. That changes everything about

what I've got to do here now. So Father, I pray for those that

are here this day. There might be somebody who

doesn't know you, Father, and I pray right now Your Holy Spirit

would help them to understand the truth of the Gospel that

Jesus is real. He died for them.

He's he rose again. He's the only one who can save

them. Maybe there's somebody here and

they need to make a decision about church membership or

baptism. Maybe they just need prayer.

So whatever the need, whatever the burden, Father, I just pray

that you'll guide and you'll lead us right now, that we won't

rush through this, that we'll think carefully about what You

want us to do for you. We're so thankful for Your Word

and the fact that You want us to know You and to be sure in

Christ's name, Amen. Well, let's stand together.

We're going to sing. Worship team is going to lead

us. We'll be right here to visit

with you. But there are folks right there

in that room. They would love to visit with

you and pray with you. And you don't even have to come

to one of us. You can go straight there.

You can come kneel at the steps, or we'd be glad to visit with

you as well. You come right now as we sing

together. Thank you so much for listening

today, and I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.