The Five Pillars of Salvation | Part 2

Will our works get you to God's of salvation stands upon which the temple of truth rests. What's the first one? The supreme wisdom of God. What's the second?

The sovereign will of God. What's the third? The seeking word of God.

Now what's the fourth one? And friend, here's the good part. The saving work of God.

Continue to read. Them he also called and whom he called, them he also justified. That's the saving work of God. When he calls a man by the gospel and that man answers the gospel call, then that man is justified.

Now what is justification? Well, it is God's act whereby he declares those who have trusted in Christ to be as righteous as Jesus Christ himself is righteous. And when God sees me, he sees that righteousness, he sees Jesus Christ. You say that's arrogance.

No, it's not. It's Bible. I am in Christ and therefore he cannot see my sins. He sees the righteousness of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. A Sunday school teacher asked a little girl, is there anything God cannot do?

And the little girl sweetly said, yes, there's one thing God cannot do. God cannot see my sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. But I want to tell you there, friend, this thing called justification is more than just pardon.

It is promotion. It is not just simply that he forgives our sins. He does far more than forgive our sins. He doesn't just acquit us.

He makes us righteous in his sight. You see, no court of law could ever justify anybody. No human court. I mean, if you go to human court and the grand jury has indicted you and you go through trial, they can do one of two things. I mean, on the one hand, they could say you've been acquitted.

What does that mean? It means they couldn't prove you were guilty. They didn't justify you. They just couldn't prove you were guilty. So you're acquitted. Now maybe you weren't guilty, but the court can't justify you. It either says you were guilty or you're not guilty. If they couldn't find you guilty, they acquit you. Like a man who stole a watch and the judge said, you're acquitted.

He says, does that mean I have to give the watch back? The courts sometimes are wrong. Or if you're found guilty, the court may pardon you or the governor may pardon you or the president may pardon you. But whether they acquit you or whether they pardon you or whether they punish you, they cannot justify you. Only God can justify. Only God can take someone who is guilty and take that guilty person, that sinful person, and give to that person righteousness. Only God can do that. That's what the Bible calls justification. This is the saving work of God. So many people think of being saved as merely getting their sins forgiven, but friend, that's only part of it. Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. God sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ in every one of His blood-bought children. Hallelujah. That is wonderful.

Now why? How can God do such a thing? What is the basis of our justification?

Look in Romans chapter 3 and verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. Now look at that word, propitiation. That's a big word. Hard to pronounce, hard to spell. What does it mean? You better learn what it means.

It means satisfaction. Now God is a holy God. And because God is a holy God, God's anger and God's justice burn against sin. God is sworn by all that He is that sin will be punished. Sin must be paid for. Sin must be satisfied. There must be a satisfactory payment for sin. And so God said, if I punish man for his sin, if I gain satisfaction that way, man will die and go to hell and I love him. But on the other hand, if I don't punish man for sin, my righteousness will never be propitiated.

My justice will never be satisfied. I will no longer be a holy God because I am sworn by my holiness to punish sin. So God says to Himself, how can I on the one hand have that sin paid for and on the other hand let the sinner go to heaven? God said, I will become a substitute. I will take human flesh.

I will go down to earth. I will take the sin of mankind upon myself and in agony and blood I will pay for that sin and I will become a satisfaction for sin, a propitiation for sin, a righteous judgment and substitute for sin. And so look at it again, dear friend. This is the way it happens here in Romans chapter 3. The Bible makes it so sweetly plain, so gloriously plain in verse 25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now God never overlooks sin. God is still just when He justifies me because that sin has been propitiated. That sin has been satisfied.

That sin has been paid in full and when Jesus died on the cross and bowed his head and said, It is finished, tetelestai, that is a Greek word that means paid in full. And therefore God is both just and the justifier of the man who believes in Jesus Christ. Do you understand that? Isn't that wonderful? That is the gospel.

Now how does this justification be applied to me? How do I lay hold of it? We know what it is. God makes us righteous. We know how it comes. Christ died that we might have it. But how do we lay hold of it?

Thank God we don't have to guess. Look again if you will in Romans 3 verse 24, being justified freely by His grace. You know what grace is? Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It's what causes God to love us while we were yet sinners.

As the Bible says in Romans 5 verse 8, God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Being justified by His grace, I want to remind you again the three words you need never forget the meaning of. One is justice, the other is mercy, and the other is grace.

Are you ready? What is justice? Justice is God giving us what we deserve. That is if we get justice, we'll die and go to hell.

Don't ever ask for justice because our sins deserve hell. Grace is God giving us what we deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what we deserve.

Thank God for that. But grace is God giving us what we don't deserve. Do you understand it? Grace is where God in His love says, you don't deserve this. It's not by works of righteousness that you've done, but I am going to make you righteous. It is by grace I'm going to impute this righteousness to you. I'm going to lay this righteousness on your account.

I'm going to make you as righteous in my sight and in my eyes as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is righteous. So it is by grace. But how do we get hold of that grace? Through faith.

Look in, if you will, in Romans chapter 4 verse 5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness.

How do you lay hold of it? By keeping the Ten Commandments, by being baptized, by studying your Bible, by praying, by living a godly life. All of these are fine, but they're all good works, but that's not the way you get it. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.

His faith is counted for righteousness. We're not against good works. You ought to do good works. You ought to read your Bible.

You ought to pray. You ought to keep the Ten Commandments. You ought to be baptized if you're a Christian, but these things don't save you. You know we're not against good works. We preach that a Christian ought to live a godly, righteous, separated, sanctified life. I cannot work my soul to save that work my Lord has done, but I'll work like any slave for the love of God's dear Son. Amen?

It's not by works. The Bible says to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness when a man receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. Then and then alone he's justified and has peace with God.

Look in Romans chapter 5 verse 1, therefore being justified by what? Faith, by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The moment any sin, soil sin, darkened sin, a ruined person bows his head and says, God, in repentance and faith I come to Jesus Christ.

I trust you, Jesus. That moment he's justified and he has peace with God, the war is over. Hallelujah. Now, friend, that is justification, that I am made as righteous in God's eyes as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Now what are the results of this?

I mean what difference is this going to make in my life? Well, let me show you something. Look in Romans chapter 4 and verse 5. We just read this. Let's read it again. But to him that worketh not, this is Romans 4-5, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Now here's the result of it. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Well, that's a great blessing, but wait a minute. Saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven.

Hey, that's wonderful. God forgives my sins, but wait a minute, there's more. And whose sins are covered. It's one thing if he forgives them, it's another thing if he buries them. Amen? Oh, that's great. He forgives them, and then not only does he forgive them, but he covers them. But wait a minute. The best is yet to come. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Now I just put a star by that to score it. Now, friend, that's not what Adrian says. That's what God says. That's what David said, the Holy Spirit said through David. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not, will not, will not impute sin. Now remember what sin is?

I mean what imputation is? God puts that on your account. Now I may not be righteous in and of myself, but God has imputed righteousness to me. I do fail, but God will not impute that to me. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. If God were to impute sin to me, when I fail, I'd be lost again. How much sin would it take to make me lost? Just one half of one sin. You see, I'm not going to heaven because I'm perfect. I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, and nobody's perfect, but blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, amen?

That is what justification is. And friend, if you understand this, if you understand how wonderful this is, that God just imputes the righteousness of Christ and God will not impute sin because we received in Christ, we have received Christ, then you'll understand how wonderful this salvation is. Now the fifth and final pillar of this great salvation that I want to mention today.

Remember what the first one is? The supreme wisdom of God. He foreknew us. The second, the sovereign will of God. When he foreknows that we'll receive Christ, he predetermines, predestines we're going to be like Jesus. What's the third one? The seeking call of Christ. He sends his word, the gospel, to call us to himself.

What's the fourth one? The saving work of Christ. When we believe on him, we are justified. He will not impute sin to us. He does impute righteousness without works.

It is the gift of God and it gives us peace with God. Now the fifth of these is the settled ways of God. The settled ways of God. I want you to see something that's very outstanding in Romans chapter 8 now again in verse 30. Look at it.

All right? For whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. The settled ways of God. Now you would expect him to say, them he also will glorify. But he doesn't say he will glorify us. He says, them he also glorified.

He put it in the past tense. That is, it's already done. It's already settled in the heart and the mind of God. Did you know you're looking at a man today who is already glorified in God's heart, in God's mind, in God's way because God deals in eternity. And so God doesn't see merely the present. God sees the future. And right now in the future God sees Adrian Rogers and he sees him glorified and he sees him like Christ and so God says he's glorified. I mean that's the settled ways of God. It is predetermined I'll be like Jesus.

All hell can't stop it. That's the reason I believe in the eternal security of the believer. I mean how could you be any more secure than being predestined to be like Jesus and already glorified, huh? That's not me. That's God. I'm just a friend.

This is black print on white paper. We are secure not because of our own righteousness. If it depended upon my work's righteousness, I'd lose it. There are people who think you can lose your salvation.

Well friend, whether or not you can lose it depends on how you got it. Now if you got it by works, then I could understand how you could lose it by works, right? I mean if you had to work in order to be saved, then if your works failed, then you're no longer saved. But friend, if you get it by grace, then you're kept by grace. You see you keep it the same way you got it.

Of course you can't get it by works and therefore you wouldn't have anything to lose. But those of us who've come in through the door of grace, we are in that category of persons that the Bible says God imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us and blessed is that man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. These people who think, well, you can lose your salvation, I say, well what would cause you to lose your salvation? Well sin.

I say, okay, how much? Friend, listen, if sin could cause you to lose your salvation, one half of one sin would do it because God demands perfection. Don't think that God will tolerate a little, but He won't tolerate a lot.

He won't tolerate any, not any. And if that sin were imputed to you, that is if sin could cause you to lose your salvation, then everybody in this room would be lost because is there anybody here who hasn't sinned? Well, if you stand up and say you haven't, you've just told another lie because God's word says if we say we've not sinned, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And so if you're depending upon your works to get you to heaven, the only way you're going to get there is to be absolutely, totally perfect. I've said it before, I'll say it again. I wouldn't trust the best 15 minutes I ever lived to get me to heaven, much less some I'd rather not discuss.

But the best I've ever lived. You see, I am counting on the fact that when I received Jesus Christ, God made me righteous, God justified me, God imputed the righteousness of Jesus Christ to me, and therefore in God's eyes I became righteous. Now that doesn't mean that you can sin and get away with it. If you sin as a Christian, God will carry you to the woodshed and beat the living daylights out of you. Whom the Lord loves, He chastens and scourges every son whom He receiveth. And the Bible says, If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.

That's what God's word says in Hebrews. That is, if you were my child and you living the way you're living, I would have whipped you a long time ago. And if I don't whip you, it's because I never fathered you. Had I fathered you, I would have chastised you.

You're not my child. No child of God because of eternal security can live any old way he wants. With an eternal security comes an eternal responsibility. And we are told how to live righteous in godly lives.

I want to tell you something, friend. Just because God may chastise us does not mean that we're lost. There's a difference between God's chastisement and God's judgment. If God were to impute that sin to me rather than just chastise me for it, if God were to put that on my account, then I'd be eternally lost. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Don't get the idea that sin can cause you to lose your salvation.

Now I want to say something else here. I don't want to lull those of you to sleep who've never been saved. I mean, some of you waltzed down the church aisle somewhere and shaking hands with a preacher and you think you're saved and you're living like the devil himself. It's going to be a sad day for you when you split hell wide open because you've never been saved. You go out, I've done enough so, when you go out and witness your knock on the door and an old man comes out there with a potbelly and a can of beer and he says, yeah, I used to go down to that church, ha ha ha, I guess you call me ha ha ha, an old backslider, ha ha ha ha. He's not a backslider, he's lost as a goat. No backslider says I'm just an old ha ha ha backslider. Man, if you know God, you've been saved, His Spirit has come into you, you're born of the Holy Spirit that God, the Holy Spirit in you is grieved when you sin.

You don't laugh about it and make fun about it. Sure, you may slip into sin, but I want to tell you the most miserable man on earth is not a lost man, he's a saved man out of fellowship with God. When God saves you, God puts into you His Spirit and you become a partaker of the divine nature and the Holy Spirit of God is grieved when you sin. And God will carry you to the woodshed when you sin, but you don't lose your salvation when you sin. He said, dear friend, we'd all be lost, every one of us, for who can say I've never sinned?

Who can say I don't fail someday, someway? Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Them that God justifies, those that He justifies, He glorifies and they're already glorified. It's already done.

Hallelujah, it's done. Somebody said, well, yeah, maybe your sin can't take you out of the hand of God, but Satan can. Pardon me, but that's foolish. Friend, if he could, he would.

That'd be reasonable. If Satan could take you out of the hand of God, why hasn't he done it yet? Hasn't he been nice to you? That'd be a strange doctrine, wouldn't it? You're going to heaven by the goodness of the devil. I mean, he just could, but he didn't.

The only reason he hasn't is because he can't. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

I and my Father are one. You see, He keeps us. And so God looks at me as already glorified. And friend, what has been settled in eternity can never be undone in time. The settled ways of God. What are the five pillars of salvation?

The supreme wisdom of God, the sovereign will of God, the seeking word of God, the saving work of God, the settled ways of God. We've got a wonderful salvation folks. And if you have questions about your salvation today, we'd love to help you come to a place of peace in your walk with Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio.

There you'll find resources and materials that can answer any questions you may have about your faith. Again go to lwf.org slash radio. Now if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, call us at 1-877-LIVE-GOD and mention the title, The Five Pillars of Salvation.

You can also go online to order at lwf.org slash radio. Or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. We cannot lose our salvation because it is not dependent upon us. It is held up by the five pillars of God's wisdom, will, word, and work. Though we may slip back into sin, our destiny is settled by his grace. Rejoice in that truth today and share it with someone else. And join us next time for more profound truth, simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener in Virginia wrote recently with a brief testimony that said this, Dr. Rogers' teaching has helped me to think more deeply about what I'm reading in the Bible.

I no longer skim or scan, I sink deep in the word. Thank you for your ministry. It's our privilege to share these messages and resources to help you as you grow in your faith and sink deeply into the word. As a way to thank you for your gift this month, we want to send you our Tapestry Faith and Forgiveness Journal. Adrienne Rogers said, your faith is the measure of your victory and success. In Dr. Rogers' five-step process for examining God's word, this journal walks you through the necessity of faith and the vitality of forgiveness. Request Tapestry Faith and Forgiveness when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio.