Deliverance: From Error to the Truth, Part 1

The theology of deliverance and understanding of deliverance is a critical area of truth. And it becomes critical at the point of understanding who is a true Christian. And that is absolutely essential to the health and well-being and effectiveness of the church. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. According to some people today, a person can receive salvation without understanding or even believing the gospel. The consequences of that view? People are confused about what it means to be a Christian.

It's a serious issue. It's one that gripped John MacArthur enough to address it head-on, and the result? John's current series of lessons here on Grace to You, titled Delivered by God. And now follow along with John as he begins today's message by explaining why this topic of deliverance is so crucial for you and every Christian to understand. One of the great words in the Bible is the word deliverance, though it is not commonly used in the Christian vocabulary. Sad to say, rarely do you hear theologians talk about, rarely do you read theologians write about the truth of deliverance. And yet it is nonetheless a profoundly important term for understanding God's redemptive work. God is in the business of deliverance. And deliverance may be the best, it may be the most clarifying, and it may actually be the most comprehensive word to explain God's gracious and powerful work in our lives. We were prompted to this discussion by the fact that Jesus came with a ministry of deliverance.

And when we began to see that in the case of Jesus, it drew us into the greater theme of deliverance which covers really all of God's redemptive purpose. Now the theology of deliverance is not just some academic exercise, it is not merely a matter for theological discussion. The theology of deliverance is practical.

It is intensely practical and it is extremely necessary for all believers to understand because it is the theology of deliverance that defines what salvation really does in the believer. A person who is a true Christian has been delivered from certain realities. True salvation, we could say, is deliverance. It is the dramatic rescue of the sinner from all of the elements of life that threaten to destroy and damn him. In fact, deliverance defines what it means to be a Christian.

There are the undelivered and the delivered. We are the delivered. In Romans 11 26, Paul writes, the deliverer will come and he will remove ungodliness and he will take away sin. The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, is there identified as the deliverer. In fact, every time in the Bible you see the word save, saved, salvation, or Savior, you can translate it with some form of the word deliver.

Essentially it means the same thing. But deliver communicates well to us because we understand in the English the meaning of deliverance. The theology of deliverance and understanding of deliverance is a critical area of truth. And it becomes critical at the point of understanding who is a true Christian. And that is absolutely essential to the health and well-being and effectiveness of the church. If the church blurs the line between Christians and non-Christians, it then invites the enemy into the camp, totally distorts its own identity and allows Satan to gain a foothold.

It is a matter of being content or even inviting the tares to be sown among the wheat. And yet that is exactly what is happening in evangelicalism today. The evangelical church is inviting non-Christians in and then redefining them as Christians. The greatest failure of professing Christianity in this day and for this century past has been the failure to distinguish between true Christians and false. And it's worse now than it's ever been.

It's been going on all through this century and it's now worse than it's ever been. The true church is the society of the delivered. And we have to keep that distinction very clear because the Lord wants a pure church. He wants a chaste bride.

He wants a bride without blemish and without spot. The church must be made up of true believers and it must be clear who is a real Christian and who is not so that we protect the church from the encroachment of Satan and also so that we protect the lost from being deceived. Not only when we allow non-Christians to be defined as Christians do we pollute the church, but we also aid and abet the deception of Satan and people live as though they were Christians when in fact they are not. There are a number of categories in which we have to understand the nature of deliverance. Being a true Christian is being delivered and it's being delivered from several very important realities. The first one is the one I want to talk to you about, is true Christians have been delivered from error to truth...from error to truth. Now this is not an easy message for me to preach to you for a number of reasons. One, I have too much material in my head, too much to try to sort out so that it takes a tremendous amount of effort mentally and confidence in the Spirit of God to help the filtering process. Secondly, you're going to have to think with me because there are going to be some subtleties as well as some not so subtle things that you're going to need to have to comprehend as we go through.

But this is very, very important. Nothing is worse than a person thinking they're a Christian when they're not. Nothing is more deadly to the impact of the church than embracing non-Christians as if they were Christians. So we're dealing with an issue that is at the very center of what the church really is and it applies in all the lives of folks who come near the church. So the first thing we want to know about the doctrine of deliverance, or the theology of deliverance, is that true Christians have been delivered from error to truth. Turn with me in your Bible to Colossians chapter 1 and let's start there and we're going to try to go through this as rapidly as we can and I will have to leave some things out. But in Colossians chapter 1, I think we can get a good start. Here is a passage that expresses the great miracle of deliverance. And verse 13 is the notable verse. Verse 13, Colossians 1, 13, for He...that is the Father mentioned in verse 12, to whom we give thanks...He, the Father, delivered us, rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son.

Back in verse 12, Paul says, we therefore give Him thanks because He has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Now here you have that very familiar biblical contrast between darkness and light. We have been delivered out of the domain of darkness.

We have been delivered into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, as the Greek literally says, which is a Kingdom made up of saints in light. Darkness is synonymous with ignorance. Darkness is synonymous with error. Light is synonymous with truth. We have been taken out of error, out of darkness and delivered into a Kingdom of light ruled by the beloved Son of God, Jesus Christ.

That's the first category of deliverance. True Christians understand the truth. They have come from darkness to light. They have come from error to truth. Psalm 119, 130, the entrance of Thy Word gives light. Thy Word we read in Psalm 119, 105, is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. That is the first great area of deliverance, out of the darkness of error into the bright light of truth. The Apostle Paul when he was commissioned to preach, according to Acts 26, 18, was sent to sinners to open their eyes that they might turn from darkness to light so that darkness and light are really symbols or metaphors of error and truth.

And notice, please, in verse 13 that truth is synonymous with Jesus Christ. We are delivered from the domain of darkness which is the Kingdom of Satan into the Kingdom of His beloved Son and He is the light of the world. Jesus said, I am the light of the world and whoever comes to me will never walk in darkness.

The light is synonymous with Jesus Christ. It is synonymous with entering into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. So the first thing that is true about the delivered, the true Christians, is that they do not believe error because they have come to the light.

They have come to the truth. To borrow the language of Ephesians chapter 6, they are engaged in a battle against the spiritual forces of darkness but they are triumphant because they have put on the armor of God and the first piece of armor is the belt or the girdle of truth. A Christian is someone then who understands the truth, who has been delivered from Satan's lies to God's truth. To be saved, according to 1 Timothy 2, 4, to be saved is to come to the knowledge of the truth. Being saved is not some kind of mystical, cryptic, some kind of inexplicable feeling. Being saved is to come to the knowledge of the truth. Luke tells us in the book of Acts that when the gospel was preached on the Day of Pentecost, three thousand people believed and they continued in the Apostles' doctrine.

They started there and they continued there. A true Christian is a person who has been deposited, rescued out of ignorance and deposited in the realm of truth. They came into the realm of truth and they continue in the realm of truth. To be saved is to come to the knowledge of the truth.

A Christian is someone who understands the truth, who believes the truth, who embraces the truth, who loves the truth and who submits to the truth. And, you know, it amazes me that there are so many people in evangelicalism today, leaders in evangelicalism, pastors and writers who believe a person can be a Christian without ever being delivered from error to truth. I'm reading today that there are those saying that there are people in countries and obscure places and tribes and hidden back waters of the world who have never had a Bible and never hear the truth of Jesus Christ who are going to be saved because God is going to be gracious and kind to them and they're going to be saved even though they've never heard the truth.

Well that is a lie. If, according to Romans 1, they live up to the light they have and if they see the Creator in the creation and through reason, and according to Romans 2, follow their conscience back to a lawgiver, if they live up to the light they have, Christ who is the light that lights every man that comes into the world, John 9 says, God will reveal more light to them and they'll come to a greater light because God will give them a greater light but no one will ever be saved who doesn't come to the knowledge of the truth. They're saying today that you don't have to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Call all the missionaries home. Stop proclaiming the gospel to every creature even though Jesus told us to do that. But the Bible tells us that when you're delivered, you're delivered out of error into truth and you come literally into a paradigm, a realm, a domain, a kingdom of light. In the words of John 6 45, all believers are taught by God. They possess an enlightenment which sets apart the teaching of God from all the teaching of men. True believers understand the truth as opposed to error. They have received by regeneration a new nature and that new nature has a capacity for the truth. That new nature has an affinity for the truth. That new nature has a devotion to the truth.

It has a love for the truth. We have an anointing, 1 John 2 27, from God and it abides in us, he says, so that we don't need anybody to teach us. We don't need a human teacher to explain the world to us.

We don't need some human approach to life philosophically. We don't need some religion invented by men or devils because we have been delivered out of darkness into light. We live in a realm of truth. Listen, we have been given, according to John 14 17, the Spirit of truth who has taken up residence in us and we understand the truth. And it is that truth that saves.

So that 1 Timothy 2 4 is the sum of it all. You have been saved, meaning you have come to the knowledge of the truth. You've believed it. You've assented to it. You've embraced it.

You love it and you submit to it. John 8, Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall...what?...set you free. The search is over. You're out of the darkness. You're no longer wandering around blind and dark because you've been liberated, you've been set free. The truth has made you free. And let me tell you something, folks, the only thing that will ever set the sinner free is the truth. Until the sinner comes to the truth, he's locked in darkness. Ephesians 5 8, Paul explained it this way, I love this, once you were darkness, now you are light in the Lord.

Does that say it? Once you were darkness, now you are light in the Lord. Simply stated, being saved demands coming to believe wholeheartedly the truth that saves. And if you don't believe the truth that saves, you can't be saved.

You have to believe the delivering truth to be delivered. A woman once wrote to me and she said she thought Christianity was fine, but frankly she was into Zen. And she liked to listen to Christian radio, she says, because, quote, the music smoothed out her karma. But she said, I interrupted that karma because I am too narrow-minded and too narrow-minded toward other religions.

So she wrote to encourage me to be more broad-minded. And she said, here's a quote, God doesn't care what you believe, as long as you believe. God doesn't care what you believe, she says, as long as you're sincere. She went on to say, all religions lead ultimately to the same reality, it doesn't matter which road you take.

That's pretty reflective of our generation, isn't it? That's a popular and pervasive lie that doesn't matter what you believe as long as you believe something and as long as you're sincere because everybody's going to get to the same end anyway. That's not what Matthew 7 records that Jesus said. He said, the gate is wide and the way is broad, that's the religious road that most people are on, and it leads to destruction. And in Proverbs 14, 12 it says, there's a way which seems right to a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death.

Now I understand it's politically correct to have this kind of latitude. I understand it's politically correct to not say your religion is right and your faith is right and you believe right and everybody else is wrong. That doesn't fly today, does it, in a post-modern world disinterested in truth. The great goal of post-modernism is that everybody is accepted no matter what it is that they believe and they certainly have a right to believe that. And who are you to come along and say, you have the truth, we all know there is no such thing as real truth, it's only a matter of preference, whatever makes you feel better is fine for you to believe, but don't tell me it's the truth and everything other than that is error.

That's not popular. Well that kind of indiscriminate view of truth or a view of non-truth is so pervasive that it is literally infecting evangelicalism. And people are now saying that there are folks, as I said earlier, all over the world, tucked off in little corners who never will know the truth and God will take them to heaven anyway. It is the nature of a fallen man. It is the nature of the undelivered to believe lies.

It is not the nature of the delivered. We have been delivered out of the lies into the...what?...the truth. We have been rescued from that. Turn to 2 Corinthians 10, I have to show you this passage. I've referred to it before. It is pertinent to this discussion, 2 Corinthians chapter 10.

I'm really going to have to hurry here. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 4, Paul says...well verse 3, he says, we are war...making war. We can't make war in the flesh, that is with human weapons, human ingenuity, human cleverness, human thoughts, theories, ideas, techniques, marketing, whatever. We can't fight this battle with human weapons. Verse 4, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, they're not human, he means, but mighty unto God, divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

He says, look, we're in a spiritual war, the spiritual war that we're in is a formidable thing. We're attacking these great fortifications. We're attacking these massive fortresses.

And the picture is of some huge granite fort. And he says, we've got to go in and destroy them. We've got to have pretty powerful weapons.

We can't go in there with all our little clever ideas. We've got to destroy those fortresses. What are those fortresses? Verse 5, here's what they are. Verse 4 ends the destruction of fortresses. Verse 5 begins, we are destroying speculations, the N.A.S.

says. Imaginations, some other version say. This is defining the fortresses. These great fortifications, these great prisons are nothing other than speculations.

They are logismos is the Greek word. It means ideas, ideologies. Ideologies.

What kind of ideologies? Follow verse 5. Every lofty idea raised up against the knowledge of God. Any unbiblical idea, anything contrary to the truth of God, we have to destroy.

Why? So verse 5, we can take every thought captive to Christ. In other words, the world is full of people imprisoned in ideological systems, in lies, in error, in darkness, in blindness. And our responsibility is to go and smash those ideologies down in order that we can set the prisoners free because those fortresses become their prisons and eventually their tombs.

This is a tremendous responsibility. Every lofty thing, that's a proud intellectual thing, a complex system or whatever. Any idea, idea philosophy, religion, theology, psychology, whatever, any idea that is contrary to the knowledge of God must be assaulted or those people will die captive to that lie. What we want to do is smash those ideologies and bring everybody's thinking captive to Christ.

We want them to think the way God thinks, to have the mind of Christ, to see the truth and know the truth and love the truth. Now how do you smash that? Well, it's very simple. What is the one thing that destroys error? Truth. That's why you have to preach the truth. People say, well, you know, your preaching is so dogmatic.

I'm just trying to preach the truth. It's the only thing that destroys error and if we don't bring the truth and they don't come from darkness to light, they don't come from error to truth, they don't get delivered and they die in their sins and their perishing. The first thing that is true of a Christian is a Christian, a true Christian, not one who says he's a Christian.

A true Christian is somebody who has come from error to truth. Satan doesn't care what people believe. He doesn't care how sincerely they believe it as long as what they believe is wrong.

Do you get that? It's important. He doesn't care what they believe. He sponsors all kinds of religions. He sponsors every religion on the face of the earth that isn't true. He's behind them all. He's got enough diversity for everybody. He's provided an absolutely irresistible smorgasbord.

There's somewhere for everybody to plug in. He doesn't care what they believe. And frankly, he is really into sincerity. He doesn't care what you believe or how sincerely you believe it as long as what you believe is wrong because wrong damns right saves. That's why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and nobody comes to the Father...what?...by Me. There isn't salvation in any other. And anybody who doesn't hold to the truth is damned.

Galatians chapter 1, look at it, verse 6. He talks about a different gospel. Somebody's coming along and preaching a different gospel. Well, listen, there isn't a different gospel. Gospel means good news. There's only one good news, all the rest is bad.

They may say it's good, but it's bad. So He says it's a different gospel, verse 7, which is really not another. There isn't any other good news than the true gospel in Christ. There isn't another gospel.

That's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He has titled our current study on grace to you, Delivered by God. Well, John, that was a great reminder today about how God delivers sinners from error into the knowledge of the truth.

And this is not just theoretical stuff. It results in a real change that you can see as God transforms us and shapes us and conforms us to the image of Christ. And John, you've got a letter there that is just one example of how God is changing lives and working through grace to you supporters in order to do it. Yeah, we believe the Word of God is alive and powerful.

We believe it is transforming because that is its claim and that claim has been validated through all of redemptive history. And this is just one other wonderful testimony to that truth. The letter begins, Dear John and grace to you. I don't know that there are words that can accurately describe how much your ministry means to me. God has used you in my life in such a profound way. With the social turmoil that started in 2020, I found myself seeking God's truth to understand what was going on and how to respond as a Christian. I came across a YouTube video of your preaching and bringing a biblical perspective to all that was happening.

And from that point on I was hooked. I then heard one of your question and answer sessions in which you mentioned the MacArthur Study Bible and I decided to get a copy. I began to study God's Word and could not get enough of it. That MacArthur Study Bible is my most cherished possession.

My husband and kids then got me the entire set of your New Testament commentaries for my birthday. The more I have learned God's truth, the more I desire to soak up every aspect of His Word that I possibly can. And she goes on, For the first time, I really understand God's Word and the clarity it has brought to my life is amazing.

I have truly been transformed. I volunteer at a pregnancy center and I am able to share the gospel accurately with those I come in contact with because of all I have learned from you. As tears of gratitude roll down my face, I want you and everyone that makes this ministry possible to know that you are a gift from God to me and I will be eternally thankful. You are a constant reminder of how much God loves His people.

God knew that we needed preachers to boldly speak His truth and give instruction to Christians living in this time of so much deception and evil. Thank you for unleashing God's truth one verse at a time. And she signs her name, Kristi. Wow, thank you, Kristi. That is so encouraging to all of us here at Grace to You. And when Kristi says that everyone that makes this ministry possible is a gift from God, she's also talking about faithful friends like you who are listening to me right now because you pray for us. And the Bible says the effectual prayer of a righteous man is very productive.

It's powerful. So your faithful prayers are part of the work of God that bring the blessing to the lives of those transformed like Kristi. Not only your prayer but your support. We thank you so much for sustaining our ministry through the years so that folks like Kristi can benefit. So thank you for making it possible for us to be sustained in the work that we're doing.

Yes, that's right, friend. And if, like Kristi, you look to this ministry for consistent and clear teaching, let us know. Your letters are a real encouragement to John and to our staff.

Also, keep in mind what John said. You can help people get the spiritual nourishment they crave by partnering with us. To express your support, contact us today. To send a donation by regular mail, write to Grace To You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Or you can make a donation at our website, gty.org. Or call us during business hours weekdays from 730 a.m. to 4 o'clock p.m. Pacific Time at 855 GRACE.

And let us know how John's verse-by-verse teaching has strengthened your faith and increased your devotion to Christ. You can do that by emailing us at letters at gty.org. That's letters at gty.org. You can also write to us at P.O.

Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. And remember, there are thousands of free resources available at the website. gty.org. If you're looking to grow in your love for God and His Word, if you're wondering what Scripture says about how to be a better parent, or you want to know how to interpret a particular passage, you are sure to find a sermon or a blog article or a devotional that will meet your spiritual need. Our website again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here tomorrow when John looks at how you can protect yourself from believing and teaching a false gospel. Join us right here tomorrow for another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.