899. Avoiding Gospel Drift

Welcome to The Daily Platform sponsored by Bob Jones University. Following the singing of a hymn by the student body, Dr. Sam Horn, Dean of the BJU Seminary, begins a series entitled, Our Great Salvation. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation. Oh, my soul, praise Him, for He is the God of salvation. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of salvation.

Praise to the Lord, who with morals is somehow making, 20th government, loving, united and saving. Thou art in grief, thou art in poverty, really, spreading His wisdom to shape me. Praise to the Lord, the Lamb of Heaven, singing out for all our kin.

That we forever adore Him. Beginning this morning and throughout the course of the semester, we are going to have in our doctrinal series the theme entitled, Our Great Salvation. And our desire is to do what I think Martin Lloyd-Jones said in his book on the assurance of salvation. He said, all of our anxieties and troubles, all of our uncertainties and hesitations, and so much of our unhappiness in our spiritual lives is to be traced simply to the fact that we do not realize what has been provided for us in our great salvation. Our desire this semester is to unfold from the scripture the glorious truths of our salvation so that we bask in it, so that we glory in it, and so that we are changed through it and by it. This morning, Dr. Sam Horn will come and lead us in our first message. As we go through this series, I hope this morning will be a challenge to you as we consider our great salvation.

All right, I'd like to ask you to take your Bible this morning to the book of Hebrews chapter 2. While you're turning there, I have been looking forward to this semester's doctrinal series dealing with the theology of soteriology. I was very, very impacted by our doctrinal theme last semester.

And as we were going through that theme and listening to the messages, I kept thinking to myself, how are we ever going to top this? And I think the only topic that could really top what we heard last semester is a semester-long look at the unfolding display that God has given to us in his word of a multifaceted gem that you and I know as the gospel. And so that's what we want to do this semester.

We'll be looking at 11 different aspects of that jewel. And as you saw on the screen a moment ago, there's a path leading up to the lighthouse. And we're going to consider this semester a journey on that path. And we'll be making stops along the way.

And you can see on the screen above me and in front of you the different places where we're going to park this semester and unfold this theme and make sure that we comprehend it and understand it and know how to fit it to our life, know how to apply it. I think that most of us have heard the gospel very early on in our life. In fact, I think that most of you heard the gospel repeatedly before you were 12 years of age. How many of you became a Christian before you were 12 years of age?

All right, hold your hands up. All right, that looks like the very vast majority of you. I think most of us would say that we were introduced to Christ by a trusted person in our life. Maybe it was our dad or our mom. Maybe it was a pastor or a youth pastor. Maybe it was somebody that worked with us at the Christian school we went to. Or maybe it was a camp counselor that we spent a week with over a summer. But we probably were introduced to the gospel by a trusted person in our life.

And then I think we would all find to be true in our lives what I know is true in mine. I am very familiar with the gospel. I grew up in a Christian home. I heard the gospel repeatedly from parents who not only taught it to us, they actually lived it out in our home. And I think that would be true for most of us here. So, given the obvious familiarity that all of us have with the gospel and given the length of time that we have embraced the gospel and our familiarity with it as individual people and collectively as a group, why should we take an entire semester of chapels on a theological theme that is this familiar to us?

I think that's a fair question. And I think the writer of Hebrews gives us a very good answer. So I want you to look at the text that I've called to your attention in Hebrews chapter 2.

And I want to read that text to you this morning. The writer of Hebrews says this, Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and the implication is that it was, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, and it did, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

And the implication is we won't. Which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Now I want you to notice as you look at these three verses we've read together that whoever the readers are, they are obviously very, very familiar with the gospel that the writer is describing for them. And they have obviously heard it from trusted sources.

And they have even experienced it and tasted it for themselves. And the writers point to them as this, even as familiar with the gospel as they were, and even as experienced as they were in it, they needed to pay close attention to the gospel lest they drift. Lest they drift away from keeping the gospel as the central focus of their life.

And I would submit to you that none of us is immune to this danger. The writer of Hebrews is saying to us as much as to the readers, we cannot afford to drift away from the gospel. And the answer to this danger that he brings up in the first three verses of chapter 2 doesn't really come until you get to the first verse of chapter 3.

What is the answer to gospel drift? And it is here in verse 1 of chapter 3. Wherefore, holy brethren, he's talking to believers, partakers of the heavenly calling, and then he says this, consider, give careful, focused attention to something. Give intentional, regular thought to the apostle and high priest of our profession. In other words, of our gospel, of the faith we have received, you give careful attention and regular attention to the apostle and high priest of that confession, Jesus Christ.

And that's really what we want to do this semester. And so as we start our series this morning, we want to ask a very simple question. How can I avoid the danger that the writer of Hebrews is talking about? How can I avoid gospel drift in my life? And I think this morning as we look at our topic, I would suggest very simply and very basically three answers to three questions that will help us to avoid gospel drift in our life. These are not profound questions. These are not theologically deep questions, although there is deep theology behind all of them. These are just some basic questions that you and I need to begin with as we think about our journey through the semester, as we pick up this gem that is the gospel, and as we start looking at all of the facets.

And so the first question is this. What exactly is the gospel? How should I think about the gospel? What is the gospel? And there are many, many answers to that, and there are many, many ways to sum up in such a brief time as we have this morning and answer to a question like that.

Let me tell you how I want to do it this morning. I want to describe the gospel to you as a transfixing story. I want to describe the gospel to you as a transfixing story. Now all of us love stories, especially compelling ones, stories that draw us in, they keep our attention, they hold us on the edge of our seat, and they make us long for the next chapter or for the next episode in the story, and they wow us with a finish we never saw coming. I don't know about you, but when I think about my home over the last 20 years, there are two children that grew up in our home, and so stories were a big part of our life. And I think probably you grew up with stories as well.

Most of you know what to do on Christmas break. You go home and you turn on Netflix and you binge on your favorite story. In our home, stories like psych were a common part of our life. We grew up with Sean and Gus, and so did many of you.

My son chalked up his seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh grade year following Patrick Jane in Mentalist. In fact, he cried when the series ended. He got me hooked on a little show called White Collar. How many of you have ever watched White Collar?

I finally saw the end of White Collar this Christmas, and I cried. My favorite of all of them was a program called Monk. How many of you know the story Monk? Maybe all of you have an uncle like Monk or a grandfather like Monk. My kids say they have a dad like Monk.

I don't believe that. This Christmas, I was introduced to a new series called Designated Survivor. Thank you for that shout out. You see what I mean? It's a compelling story.

It draws you in to the point that you shout out inadvertently in a crowd of over a thousand people. Now I haven't got into that series yet. I am saving it for spring break. You guys have a whole plan for spring break.

My plan for spring break, Designated Survivor. So don't tell me anything about the series. Now the reason I bring that up is because how you feel about things like that is how the Gospel writers intend for you to think and feel about the story of the Gospel. It is a story that transfixes us. It captures us with the immensity of what God is doing. When you start unfolding that story, it confounds us with the complexity of what God has accomplished in bringing forth his plan to redeem a people. It amazes us when we think about the simplicity of the offer that God makes to anybody regardless of age or creed or deed. And it profoundly satisfies every longing and every desire as this story becomes our very own story.

And what's best about it is that it never ends. You could say this. You could say that the Gospel is a story for the ages in which God works through Jesus Christ.

Think about that. To provide salvation for sinners and strength for believers by reconciling all things in heaven and on earth to himself for his glory. No wonder Jonah in your Old Testament from the very bottom of the ocean as he cried out to the Lord, recognize something about this story. And he said it this way, salvation is of the Lord. When no one else can and when no one else wants to, God can save.

It is a transfixing story. And when you and I regularly review it and when we hold on to it and when we embrace it, we will never drift. So one of the ways to avoid Gospel drift is by answering the question, what is the Gospel? Here's the second way that we can avoid Gospel drift. We can answer this question. How does a person obtain the salvation the Gospel offers?

How do we embrace it? How do we make it our very own story? And there are three very basic theological answers to this.

Let me give them to you quickly and then let me connect the dots between them. We embrace the story. We make it our very own by means of Spirit-generated faith. That's what Paul was talking about in Titus 3.5 when he says, and you know the verse, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and then catch this next part, by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. So we make the story our own by means of Spirit-generated faith that is accompanied, secondly, by God-enabled repentance. It's not just that we have this life-giving faith or life-producing faith, this living faith. We have that faith and it's accompanied by God-enabled repentance. This is Paul's point in 1 Thessalonians 1, 9 through 10 when he says to them, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven.

You turned. That term in the Old Testament is typically the word that is used for the idea of repentance. And Paul is saying to the Thessalonians, you repented of your old life and you turned from it. You turned to God from idols and you have committed yourself to him and you are waiting, you are serving him as you anticipate the coming of his Son from heaven.

The one that he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come. So it's accompanied by God-enabled repentance and it results in a grace-energized progressive holiness of life. I mean these are basic realities to the Gospel story. It results in a grace-energized progressive holiness of life. Paul says it this way in Titus 2, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

We could take these three points and we could summarize it in a very familiar statement that many, many of you have memorized if you've ever been to the wilds and you've ever been in the CIT program. God is on a mission to redeem and restore fallen people to the likeness of his Son for the praise of his glory. And this is how he does it. Here's where it starts.

It starts by means of a spirit-generated faith, a living faith in the person of Jesus alone and in the work that he has done on the cross alone. I mean think of it this way, think of the idea of the stock market. I mean just think of that idea in your mind and ask yourself, now do I believe in the reality of the stock market? And the answer is yes, we do.

We have evidence of it, we see it, people talk about it all the time, it's always on the news. And then think about a particular stock on that exchange. And then think about doing more than just putting a little bit of your money in it. Think about doing a little more than just putting even a big chunk of money in it. Think about taking everything that you own. Think about leveraging everything that you could possibly leverage so that you have it all in one big pile and there's nothing left and you put it all on that one stock. And that's a very poor example of what the kind of living faith is, that somehow the Spirit of God renews us and energizes us and wakens us and helps us to see the truth that Jesus Christ really is who he says he is and he is the only hope for heaven and we take everything and we put it on him.

There is no backup plan, there is no way to recover if we're wrong. We take every ounce of belief and direct it completely and exclusively to the person of Jesus Christ and to the work that he has done. I would suggest to you that unless the Holy Spirit energizes and generates that kind of faith, you do not have the ability to do that on your own.

You are wired to hedge your bets. In fact, that wiring is why even after we have entrusted our souls to Jesus, we keep worrying about whether or not we've done enough. There is a hidden legalist in every one of us that the gospel is designed to root out and expose. And it starts like this, I have to take everything I am, I have to take everything I believe and I have to rest it all on one plan, the gospel. And that is a company, this living faith is accompanied by God-enabled repentance that helps me to turn from all of my idols and live entirely in the direction of the true and living God. And it enables me to live in eager anticipation so that I'm living all of my days and in all of my ways in eager anticipation for the coming of his son from heaven. You know what the gospel does? The gospel grows grace in me so that I think like Jesus thinks. I value what Jesus values and I respond to life like he responds. This is the gospel. Now at this point you might say this, and I think it would be a fair objection, I've already done all of this. I mean this is supposed to be a series on the gospel and what you just talked about, over-generated faith, God-enabled repentance, grace energized, holiness, I've done that. My question to you is this, are you still doing?

So what do you mean? The gospel is for sinners, all of them. Even after they have become saints, the gospel is as important to you now, more so than it ever was before you embraced it. And so the question this morning is, how does a person obtain the salvation the gospel offers? And the answer to that is by faith.

And you have to keep believing. When you got up this morning, are you still believing the gospel? When you get up tomorrow morning, will you still be believing the gospel? Are you still pointed to God?

Have you still continued to turn away from your idols? Are you still embracing and longing and living for the coming of his son from heaven? That is what the gospel is for believers.

It is ongoing belief. It is ongoing repentance. It is ongoing growth in grace-driven holiness.

And that brings us to the final thing, and that is this. I can avoid gospel drift in my life by answering the question, what is the gospel? And by reviewing the answer to the question, how did I obtain the salvation it offers? But finally, what are the gospel's implications for my life? How should I feel about the gospel? And there are many implications that we could point out.

Let me just give you three as we close. Number one, the gospel has given us new life and true freedom. The gospel has given us new life and true freedom because it meets our deepest needs and it satisfies our deepest desires. That's what Jesus meant when John recorded in chapter 10 verse 10, I am come that they might have life. Jesus came so you could have life. And not just the theology of life, but the full experience of it.

I think sometimes we think about eternal life as something that we're going to get when we finally get to heaven, but Jesus is saying you actually have it now. And it satisfies your deepest longings and your deepest needs. It gives you what money cannot purchase.

It gives you what pleasure cannot provide. It grants what human power cannot obtain or retain. So we have been given new life and true freedom. Secondly, we have been granted by the gospel a new security in our relationship with God and others.

So rest in this. Romans chapter 5 verses 1 and 2, Paul said, being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God and therefore we can have peace with others. We can have peace in our circumstances.

We can be at peace in our own soul with our own self. So rest in it and don't drift from the gospel. And then finally, we have been given true significance and purpose for our earthly life by the gospel. Romans 12, 1 and 2, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.

And then he goes on with this incredible idea that you take your life and you present it over and over as a daily sacrifice that is alive using your members, using your body to advance God's name in reasonable worship to him. So live for it. So how do we walk away from a series like this and from a sermon like this? You know, when you think about the gospel, it's the story of the people who deserve nothing but inherit everything. We deserve nothing and we inherit everything.

And people like that should feel like this. There should be stunned amazement in our heart. There should be unbridled, joy-filled gratitude that flows out of our heart. We should be overwhelmed by this and there should be passionate, eager engagement in this.

This is something that we ought to devote our life and even our death to. It's an ageless story. It's God's story and it's your story. Let's celebrate it and let's thank him for it. Father, thank you for such a story. We would never have believed it had you not told us. Lord, we want to receive it, we want to embrace it, and we want to hold fast to it. In Jesus' name, Amen. I'm Steve Pettit, President of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. If you're looking for a regionally accredited Christian liberal arts university, I invite you to visit our campus and see how God is working in the lives of our students. For more information about Bob Jones University, visit www.bju.edu or call 800-252-6363.