Real Salvation | Part 1

Do you have real salvation? If you don't have the Bible kind.

Welcome to Love Word Finding featuring the dynamic teaching of pastor and author Adrian Rogers. These days we have many churches full of empty people who've never really been saved. Pastor Rogers said they have culture, but they don't have Calvary. They have ritual, but they don't have reality.

They have form, but they don't have force and they have religion, but they don't have righteousness. Here's real salvation, which is outlined in 1 John 3. If you have your Bible, turn there now as Adrian Rogers begins part one of real salvation.

You know the devil's a great counterfeiter, and he had just as soon sent you to hell from the pew as from the gutter. As a matter of fact, I think he'd rather have you to have a form of religion, but not to have genuine and real salvation. And I believe the curse is that we have many churches that are filled with baptized pagans.

A full church of empty people. People who've never really been saved. Oh, they have culture, but they don't have Calvary. They have ritual, but they don't have reality.

They have form, but they don't have force. They have religion, but they don't have righteousness. Now that's what we're going to be talking about today is real salvation. Now beginning here in chapter 3, verse 4, whosoever comitteth sin transgresseth also the law. For sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he, that is Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins. And in him, that is in Jesus, is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you.

Now just underscore that. Let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he, Jesus, is righteous. He that comitteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.

For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Now I say that many people are deceived because they have a gross misunderstanding of what true salvation is. We're going to take this passage of scripture and break it up in three equal divisions today, and we're going to see first of all the rebellion, the rebellion that proves our sinfulness.

Now sometimes we sit in churches, well dressed and with a benign smile on our face, but God looks down into our hearts and God sees the rebellion that is there. Now look if you will, verse 4, and whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the law. Now there are many definitions of sin in the Bible, but this is perhaps the clearest and the best.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth the law. Sin is breaking God's law. Now the Bible says in Romans 14, verse 23, Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. That's a good definition of sin. Or the Bible says in James 4, verse 17, Wherefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not to him it is sin. And then in 1 John, chapter 5 and verse 17, All unrighteousness is sin. Those are definitions of sin, but this one is the clearest and the most concise. Sin is the transgression of the law. Let me just put it another way, sin is lawlessness.

That's what sin is. You see, God made everything. God created the whole universe. And God built into this universe laws, physical laws and moral laws.

And the whole universe works according to the fixed laws of God. Why did God give law? Because He wanted order.

We use the term today, what? Law and order. Because without law, there is no order. And without law, rather than having a cosmos, you have chaos. And so God made everything. God made the stars to move in their orbits. God made the tides to ebb and flow.

God made your body to work according to certain principles. These are built into nature and they're built into the moral system of things. Materially and morally, there are laws. Now often we talk about the laws of nature. There are no laws of nature. They are God's laws that nature obeys. Do you understand that? You know, we have a generation of people today talking about Mother Earth. What we need to talk about is Father God.

You know, now no longer do we have Easter, we have Earth Day, so we can go out and worship dirt. Listen, the whole universe works according to law. There's the law of gravity. You get up in a ten story building and you step out the window. You're not going to break the law of gravity, you're going to demonstrate it. Isn't that right? You're going to be broken on it.

Now you may think you're doing well for a while, you pass each window, you say, it's okay so far, it's okay so far, it's okay so far. But friend, there is in God's laws, laws for those who transgress God's laws. And so in the physical universe, there are laws.

You don't break the law of gravity, you're broken on it. And in the moral universe, there are laws. We have the Ten Commandments. You don't really break the Ten Commandments, you're broken on the Ten Commandments. When you transgress God's Ten Commandments, then you're a sinner. Sin is what? Sin is the transgression of the law.

It makes you an outlaw. You say, well why did God give us these old laws? It'd be a whole lot better if we didn't have all these laws. God is some cruel, vengeful deity up there in heaven making all these rules to make us squirm like a worm in hot ashes trying to keep them.

No. No, the laws are for your welfare. If we didn't have the law of gravity here, we'd have to pull you down off the ceiling. And morally, law is for your welfare. Every time God says, thou shalt not, He's saying, don't hurt yourself. Every time God says, thou shalt, God is saying, help yourself to happiness.

God doesn't need anything, He has everything. God made these laws for us. But sin is the transgression of the law. And when we transgress, we break God's law and we break God's heart because God loves us. Now, there is a lawless spirit in all of us. Now, sometimes we can hide that lawless spirit. There's some people who, they are rebels.

We look at these people and they have open defiance and, you know, crime and rape and murder and hatred and violence. We call those kind of people outlaws. But all of us are outlaws because the Bible says sin is the transgression of the law. And the Bible says all have sinned, so that means all of us have transgressed God's laws. There's not a person here who would say, I've never broken God's ten commandments. Now, sometimes we are very smug and we are very sophisticated in the way that we live and we have sins of the spirit, but they're just as bad in God's sight. They may not have the same repercussions, but sin is sin. Sin is the transgression of the law. Now, don't tell me about all the laws that you haven't broken.

We're going to talk about the ones that you have broken. Now, we've tried to do everything about this lawlessness and this rebellion that's in the world. We tried education. Do you think that you're going to change men's hearts by education?

Nazi Germany was educated. Somebody said, you take an ignorant man, he'll steal a watermelon off a boxcar. Give him an education, he'll steal the railroad.

He becomes a clever devil. Education is not the answer. We tried psychology. We think that perhaps we can train people or analyze them, but we still have a flood of lawlessness. We've tried legislation. We've tried the police force. We've tried prisons. Prisons today have just become a swamp of discontent and hatred where the mosquitoes of crime breed all the more. And when we let people out of prison, they go right back to their crime because the problem is in the heart.

You can restrain a man outwardly, but he's still a rebel in his heart. A mother had a son who was disobeying, and so she made the son go in the closet for a while. She thought that would be good punishment, so she put him in the closet and shut the closet door.

It was real quiet in there for a long time. She got a little concerned. She said, Johnny, what are you doing in there?

He said, I spit on your shoes, I spit on your dress, I spit on your coat, and I'm waiting for more spit. Lawlessness is in the heart. And what we need to do is to take the policeman off the street corner and put the policeman in the heart. So the very first thing I want you to see is the rebellion that proves our sinfulness.

Verse 4, whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Now, you may think that this transgression is just some little innocent peccadillo. And you may think, well, yeah, I haven't sinned so much. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever taken anything ever that didn't belong to you?

Whether it was a nickel off your mother's dresser, a toy out of your neighbor's yard, you stole an answer in school when you cheated on somebody else's, looked on somebody else's paper, or whether you robbed a bank, how many of you have ever in your life one time taken something that didn't belong to you? All right, now I want to ask you another question. How many of you have ever told a lie at least one time? I don't care whether it's a white lie, black lie, or technicolor.

It makes no difference. We have a congregation today of liars and thieves. Now, that's funny. You know why that's funny? Because we say, oh, yeah, took a nickel, told a fib, see? You see, what we don't realize is that what we do is not the problem, it is what we are that is the problem. A man is not a liar because he tells lies. He tells lies because he's a liar. A man is not a thief because he steals.

He steals because he's a thief. The problem is in the human heart. Now, we may be very sophisticated, very smug about it, but I want to tell you, my precious friend, if you only knew the sin that lurks in the human heart. The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Yours, madam.

Yours, sir. Sin is the transgression of the law, and so first of all, you see the rebellion that proves our sinfulness. Number two, I want you to see in contrast to that the righteousness that proclaims our sonship, and we know that he, Jesus, was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Now, if we are in Christ, if we're saved, the Bible says we are not going to sin. That's what God's Word says. Now, we have a lot of people who say they're saved. We have a lot of people who say they're on the way to heaven, but there's been no change in their life. None at all.

That's the reason I call them baptized pagans. There's no change. Listen to me. The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. All things have become new. If your religion has not changed your life, you better change your religion.

You do not have the Bible kind. Now, we have today sort of an easy believism where people say, oh, do you believe in Jesus? Yes. You believe he died for your sins?

Yes. Well, then you're saved. No, you're not. The devil also believes and trembles. You are saved when you bow the knee to Jesus Christ, when you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. Yes, that's an act of faith, but, friend, it is a change, and, again, if the religion has not changed your life, you don't have the Bible kind.

Now, I want to be very clear here. You're not saved by reforming your life. Our Lord never tells us to clean up, and therefore he'll save us.

That's backward. We come to Jesus just as we are, but, friend, Jesus did not come to save us in our sin. He came to save us from our sin. He came to save us from our sin. Look, if you will, in verse 5, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins. In him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. What he's saying is that if we belong to him, we're going to be like him. Look, if you will, in verse 7.

Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Now, that's the righteousness that proclaims our salvation. If you're not righteous, you're not saved. You see, the very word Christian, you know what the word Christian means? It means Christ-like, and in Christ there's no sin. Now, you can't be Christ-like and live a life of sin.

Now, look, if you will, in verse 6, and let's just slow down here. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Now, look at the word abide. The word abide means to be at home with, to dwell with. If I were to say, come abide at my house, that would be live in my house.

Dwell with me, be at home right here. It speaks of union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the reason that many people are still living in sin, their names are on church rolls, is they've met creeds, but they've not met Christ. They've met codes, but they've not met Christ. They've met causes, but they've not met Christ.

They have met churches, but they've not met Christ. When we abide in him, it says we sin not. Now, that brings a real problem, because all of us know that we as Christians fail.

Look at verse 6 now, and I want you to slow down and pay a lot of attention with me now. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. Now, this is not talking about sinless perfection. There's nobody sinlessly perfect. If you study the Bible, and you look at the lives of the saints, you're going to find out that they sinned. You're going to find out, for example, that Abraham lied about his wife, that Moses lost his temper, that Peter denied the Lord, that David was unfaithful. You're going to find out that the saints in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible shows their faults and their failures, and yet this passage of Scripture says that if we abide in him, we will not sin.

Now, I don't want to be too technical, but listen very carefully. This in the Greek language is the present continuous tense, the present tense, and what does it mean? It simply means this, that if you're a Christian, you do not make sin your lifestyle. That's what it means. One translation gives it this way. When a man abides in him, he does not make sin his practice. Another translation, he does not have a sinning lifestyle. The New American Standard says whosoever is born of God does not practice sin. All of these things mean the same thing.

I looked it up in a number of translations. One says does not habitually sin. Another says he does not live in sin. Now, it doesn't mean that you cannot slip and fall.

It does not mean that you cannot make some mistake. If it meant that, then John has lost his mind because John, who wrote this, said in 1 John 1, verse 10, if we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And then he says if we abide in him, we'll not sin.

You know that John, whatever, is a reasonable person. No, what he is saying is this, that when you give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a change, a radical, dramatic change. And now because you're saved, because you have the nature of God in you, and we're going to see more about that later on, your life is changed. You do not habitually practice sin. I think I can clear it up even more if you'll look in 1 John 2, verse 1 and look at it for just a moment. My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not, all right?

But now watch the next verse. And if any man sin, we, believers, have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous. That is, God's desire for us is that we don't sin. If we do slip and fall, Jesus Christ is there.

Advocate's just a fancy word for lawyer. We have someone who's going to plead our case before heaven. Now look in chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, and this is really going to help us right now. And hereby do we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Do you think John had been in a testimony meeting sometime and heard somebody say, I know him? And John says, liar. I know your lifestyle.

You don't know him because you're not keeping his commandments. Now the word keep is a navigational word. It's a word that sailors use. Back in that day they didn't have radar. They did not have global positioning satellites.

They did not have NORAD and all of these things that keep ships on track as they would cross the sea. They would steer by the stars. Those stars up there are fixed in heaven just like God's laws are fixed. And so those sailors would put their eyes upon the stars and they would steer by the stars. And you know what they call steering by the stars? Keeping the stars.

Keeping the stars. That is, this is the course that I'm keeping. I am sailing by those stars up there that are fixed in heaven. That's what I sail by.

That is my course. Now the Bible says if we know him, we're going to keep his commandments. We're going to steer by God's stars, as it were. We're going to keep his word.

That doesn't mean that a sailor could not get blown off course. That doesn't mean in a time of distraction he might mis-turn the wheel. But it does mean that he has a guide for his life.

He has a direction that he's going. He has a fixed standard that he's living by. Do you?

Do you? You see, friend, God sent me here to tell you that if you do not care for God's commandments, that if you're living your willy-nilly life, doing as you please, not caring about God's commandments, not steering by God's stars, if you are habitually practicing sin, you don't know him. You're not saved. And John says, hey, don't let anybody deceive you. The problem is today, folks, we have a lot of folks who have joined churches who have never met Jesus.

I mean, they have never really been saved. And so what he is saying is there is the rebellion that proves our sinfulness. There is the righteousness that proclaims our sonship like father, like son.

And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. But maybe today you have questions about who Jesus is or what he means to you, how to begin a relationship with God through Christ. Go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio.

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