TO KNOW HIM IS TO LOVE HIM AND TO LOVE HIM IS TO OBEY HIM!!!
(15 means God uses to keep Believers in the faith)
I believe in the security of the Believer.
I don’t believe in the security of the unbeliever
Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” The gospel (good news) is only good news for those who hear it, believe it and keep believing it. The gospel is so absolutely and wonderfully gracious that we think it is incredible (which means unbelievable), but we must believe it and not lean on our own understanding which will believe it to be unbelievable. We must simply believe and keep believing this mind-boggling, unmerited, freely given gospel in order to be saved. Now, once we believe and keep believing in Jesus Christ, that He died on the cross on our behalf for our sins, that He is God; we confess and repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we will experience the manifestation of the New Covenant as our assurance of this salvation. The New Covenant promise depicted in Jeremiah 31:33,34, Jeremiah 32:37-42, Ezekiel 36:25-32 and Hebrews 8:8-13 will bring about a radical change within us because of what God has does in us, by our simply believing in God and His awesome gospel. God does it when we believe it; therefore, where is our boasting.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “8For by grace (God’s part) you have been saved through faith (man’s part); and that (salvation) not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Thank God that in Hebrews 13:8 it says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. God’s love, His character, His grace, His mercy, etc. are absolutely perfect in every way and never change. So, if we truly know and believe that God (who saves us by grace) is absolutely perfect and can not be improved upon; and that Jesus (who is the author and perfecter of faith, and it is through faith which we are saved) is also absolutely perfect and can not be improve upon, then what is our part in salvation? We must simply believe and keep believing in the author and perfecter of faith, Jesus Christ, where our only hope can be found.
Remember, in Matthew 19:26 Jesus said, “With men this (salvation) is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Remember, that it is grace that saves us, and that faith is only the means or channel by which this grace can have its perfect way within our hearts.
Remember, it is not faith that saves us, but that we will not be saved without this faith being exercised by our trust in Jesus Christ!!!
How are we to exercise the faith through which we are saved?
Examine Hebrews 12:2,3 which says, “2Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” We must intimately know the Author and perfecter of faith. We must diligently seek to know more of the character of Jesus Christ and all His attributes in order to have confidence that He is trustworthy. Our faith must be in Jesus Christ alone as our only means and channel of salvation because in John 14:6 it says, “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” Our salvation by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ will bring us from death in sin to life in Christ, darkness in sin to light in Christ and ultimately save us from the fury of fire in hell to awesome light of heaven where God reigns.
We are all created with a void in our hearts that only Jesus Christ can fill completely to give us the love and peace that we all long for. We may chase after love and peace all of our lives with great diligence and persistence, but we will never find it. However, if we simply die to ourselves (our sinful ways) and live for Christ; this love and peace will be ours. We must not seek for the love and peace, but we must simply surrender to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ where this abundant and everlasting love and peace reside. Only then, will we have the love and peace we have all been longing for. Oh, how simple this sounds; but oh, how true it is. Jesus is the answer for any and all of our problems if only we will believe in Him and receive Him as our Lord and Savior. If you come to Jesus, He will never reject you. Some Scriptures that help understand God’s love for us are: Philippians 4:6-9, 1 Timothy 1:14, 1 Timothy 2:3-6, John 14:6, John 14:1 and Matthew 6:33,34
List of the 15 means God uses to keep us (Believers) in the faith:
(Simple list of Scriptures pertaining to each means)
1. Advocacy of Christ Hebrews 4:10-16; Hebrews 9:11; 1 Peter 4,5; 1 John 2:1-3
2. Intercession of Christ Romans 8:34-39
3. Prayers of Jesus John 17:15
4. Prayers of Christians Psalm 106:33; James 5:14:20
5. Ministry of Angels Hebrews 1:14
6. Word of God Hebrews 2:1; Ephesians 6:17
7. Holy Spirit John 16:13
8. Love of Christ Romans 5:5; 2 Corinthians 5:14; John 4:19
9. Grace of God Hebrews 4:16
10. Christian Encouragement Hebrews 10:23-25
11. Chastisement of Christ Hebrews 12:4-11; Revelation 3:19
12. Chastisement of the Church 1 Corinthians 5:5; Matthew 18:17; 2 Corinthians 2:6-8
13. Ministry of Preachers 2 Timothy 4:2-5; 1 Timothy 5:20; Acts 11:23,24; Acts 13:43; Acts 14:22; Hebrews 2:1; 2 Peter 1:10,11
14. Warnings Hebrews 6:4-6; Galatians 5:4; Revelation 21:7,8; Revelation 22:18,19; Hebrews 3:12-14
15. Sin unto Death 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Corinthians 11:30-32; James 5:14-20; 1 Corinthians 3:15-17
GRACE
GOD’S
REDEMPTIVE
ADVOCATE
COMPLETELY
EMPOWERS
Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.”
In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Then Paul said, “Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
1 Corinthians 15:10; 1Corinthians 10:13
I am going to read a few words by Charles Finney, a great evangelist, regarding the New Covenant Promise.
The gospel (dispensation) is not itself the New Covenant but simply the means of it. The New Covenant, as I have fully shown in my past lectures, consists in the writing of the law in the heart. This is done by the Spirit through the instrumentality of the gospel.
The design of this lecture is merely to guard against the impression that the moral law only is to be regarded as the Old Covenant, as in quoting passages in my former lectures to show what the Old Covenant was I confined myself, if I mistake not, to those that spoke of the Ten Commandments as constituting that covenant, without particularly noticing the other parts of the covenant. This I did because my main design in those lectures was to dwell upon that part of the Old Covenant which was to be written by the New Covenant in the heart.
Nothing is more important than that the church should have just and comprehensive views of the covenant dealing of God with his people. It cannot be too distinctly understood that the Adamic covenant, or covenant of works, is still binding as a rule of duty, but is not the condition of salvation. Also that all the covenants of God with the church have had for their grand object the bringing of man into a state of complete conformity to the law, under which man was originally placed and under which he must be placed to all eternity.
With respect to this New Covenant, I remark in a word that the promise of it has been due for more than nineteen hundred years. And I would solemnly ask, shall it lie in your Bibles till they rot and your souls sink down to hell before you lay hold on the salvation from sin which it promises?
In response to this last paragraph; the only part of man that would take offense to this would be the flesh which is not willing to be obedient to Christ and is at enmity with the Spirit.
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?
Romans 7:14 says, “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh sold into bondage to sin.”
THE AMAZING GRACE OF GOD
SECURES THE TRUE BELIEVER
(We must never lose sight of the simplicity of the
gospel and the fullness of the New Covenant Promise)
Before I begin this sermon I want Candy to share a few words that really ministered to me and will tie in to what I am going to speak on today.
My whole point in this sermon is that we are all truly saved by the grace of God as depicted in Ephesians 2:8. This salvation will overcome the guilt, the power and the penalty of sin which is spiritual death and eventually hell for the unbeliever. The grace of God is unmerited favor, a gift and can not under any circumstances be earned by the good works of man. However, we are saved by grace through faith (and we know from Hebrews 12:2 that Jesus is the Author and Perfecter of faith). Now, we must remember and never forget that grace can not be earned, but our faith in Jesus Christ (in the gospel) is merely the channel or means by which that free gift is received (not earned). We must believe and continue to believe in Jesus Christ by accepting Him as our Lord and Savior as a condition of our salvation. I strongly believe in the security of the Believer. However, I do not believe in the security of the unbeliever.
These next few Scriptures I am going to read will greatly discourage and should greatly discourage the one who is trusting or having faith in his own abilities, his own efforts, his own good works and even his own faith that which he thinks is earning his salvation. However, if we endure these seemingly hard and discouraging Scriptures I will show you the New Covenant Promise which will be the evidence and the manifestation in the true Believer of the gospel. This gospel and New Covenant Promise is what God does for us who truly believe. This is so truly amazing that it is almost unbelievable and incredible, but yet we must believe it to be received.
In Matthew 1:21 it says that Jesus came to save His people from their sins (not in their sins).
In John 8:31,32 Jesus said, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
In John 8:34-36 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
We must keep in mind Matthew 19:26 when Jesus responded to the question by His disciples, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus said, “With men this (salvation) is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Million dollars/100 snipers (Partial Truth story)
In John 6:28,29 the people said to Jesus, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Our faith must never waiver from the Person of Jesus Christ and the Person of God by whose grace we are saved (Promisor of the New Covenant to the Believer) and the Person of the Holy Spirit who helps to keep us in the faith. Remember, when we are truly saved by grace through faith; we are not working for our salvation, but merely working out our salvation by continuing to believe in Jesus Christ who is our Savior.
Philippians 1:6 says, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:8,9 says, “…that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”
In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul said it well, “By the grace of God I am what I am and His grace toward me did not prove vain. But I labored even more than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God with me.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation may provide the way of escape also that you may be able to endure it.” Proverbs 3:5,6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.”