Election and Saving Faith #2

If you've got a Bible and you can open it and you can read it, then that's what you should do if you're confused. If you don't care enough to do that, then don't blame God that you're not saved. This is the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I'm Bill Wright, and we've come to the concluding installment of our series, Chosen by God, and a lesson titled Election and Saving Faith. Last time, Don began tackling the question, what must you do to be saved? He provided the answer. You must make a full heart commitment to Christ.

But what does that look like? What is the content of saving faith? We learned that taking responsibility for our guilt and sin is the first step. Today, Don will address the fear of the Lord, the dwelling upon our Redeemer, and the commitment of saving faith.

So turn again in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 1 as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word in the Truth Pulpit. What must you do to be saved? You take responsibility for your guilt.

That's what you must do. Second sub point here in the content of saving faith, you tremble at your separation from God. You tremble at your separation from God. We won't turn there, but Proverbs 1.7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Here's another way to evaluate whether you've gotten it about salvation or not. Do you know something about the fear of God? Do you realize that his holiness is a threat to your well-being? Have you ever understood that your guilt puts you in a position of condemnation and judgment that is a threat to you that has a sense of impending harm and doom upon you? Have you ever understood it that way? Have you ever feared God as someone who could bring harm to you because of your guilt?

Or are you just kind of a, okay, whatever? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A sinner who understands something about the holiness of God and the way that he is violated trembles and quakes and shakes in his boots at the reality of it.

Remember Isaiah 6? Lord, woe is me! I'm a man of sinful lips and I live among a people of sinful lips. Woe is me!

I'm undone! Your guilt separates you from God, and Paul expands on this later in the epistle. Look at chapter 2 verse 3.

We need the Spirit of God to shake us out of our complacency to realize that eternal matters are at stake when the Word of God is opened. Chapter 2 verse 3. Among them too we all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh. Notice the possessive pronoun again, first person, our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.

Woe! God's wrath is upon the guilt of my trespasses. And down in verse 12 of chapter 2, Paul says, looking back at the time before they were Christians, says, you remember this, you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That's the state of every unbeliever.

That is part of the content of saving faith and it's no superficial matter. The truth is sometimes hard to listen to it because it's so weighty. But you tremble at the fact, you fear the fact, you're afraid of the fact that you're in your trespasses and sins, that you're separated from God, that that means that you're in a condition of wrath and you start to realize I'm in trouble here.

This is bad! I need forgiveness because God is offended by me and I'm separated and I have no hope and I'm alone with no one to intercede from me before the wrath of a holy God. Do you know something about that kind of conviction and fear?

Has something like that ever descended upon your soul? If not, you have reason to question whether you've ever understood the gospel. And look, don't let your pride get in the way. Don't let your pride get in the way and say, Well, I've said for 10, 20, 30 years that I've understood this. Who cares about what your pride is?

Maybe you were wrong. The point is that you need to be right with God and saving faith recognizes and trembles at the reality of the separated condition of the sinner. You tremble at that. You see, what's the word salvation mean? It's a state of being saved, right? Saved means that you are in danger. Have you ever seen yourself in danger or is this just part of a good act that you put on? You see, to the true Christian, the element of true saving faith, you say, I'm saved, which is to say I was in great danger and couldn't save myself. You see, we've used the lingo for so long that it's become commonplace to us.

We've got to strip away the varnish of the commonplace and realize what these terms are saying. To be saved means there was danger and no superficial danger. My eternal soul was in threat of sinking into the depths of hell with no opportunity to be released from it.

When I tell you on a personal or public level, that's what I'm saying to you. My guilty, demented soul was in threat of eternal judgment from a righteous, holy God, and I deserved that and Christ saved me. That danger that I was in hanging, as Edward said, by the spiderweb thread is over. I have been delivered safe to the shores of God's kingdom. But oh, when I realized my danger, how I trembled and feared at it.

Do you know something about that? Or have you never seen God? Have you just seen God as something other than a threat? If there's not some manner in which God is a threat, we don't have anything to be saved from, do we? Somehow, God's a threat to sinners and they need to be saved.

Why is he a threat? It's because of their guilt, for which they are responsible, which separates them from God and puts them in the position of being a child of wrath. That's it. What must you do to be saved?

You've got to take these things seriously. Take responsibility for your guilt and realize that separation from God is of momentous consequence. Finally, content of saving faith.

You take responsibility for your guilt. You tremble at your separation from God. Thirdly, you think on the Redeemer.

You think on the Redeemer. Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 1. When your mind is properly informed about your guilt and the separation from God, then these words of Ephesians chapter 1 start to have greater significance to you.

They're no longer words on a page. They're the fountain of water to a man dying of thirst. Chapter 1 verse 7 says, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. Christ died to pay the price for sinners to be from sin, which is to say that Christ died to deliver us from this guilt that we've taken responsibility for, that somehow Christ died in order to take away the separation from God that this very passage speaks of. Somehow this work of Christ is the only possible answer to my spiritual dilemma. And Paul has said, remember we're saying, what does it mean that he says having also believed? How was it they entered into salvation? Well, here's Christ right at the core of it. In Christ we have redemption through His blood. In Christ we have the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace. You think on the Redeemer and you realize this means I could never have saved myself. I couldn't be good enough. There was no religion that was going to save me. I couldn't do the right things.

No. No, you step back. As it were, you look in the Scriptures and mentally you look back and you see that in the cross of Christ was your redemption, was your deliverance, was your salvation from this horrible guilt and separation that was there.

That violent death was for me. And here's the thing, we used to sing the song here, not by the works of my hands, not by the things that my hands have done, can I be saved, only in Christ. You realize that salvation had to come outside of yourself, that you are saved by the righteousness of someone else. You are saved by the act of someone else. You can't save yourself. You are utterly dependent upon what someone else did for the well-being of your eternity.

Christ as your substitute. Look over at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4. You see yourself on the receiving end of a great act of God that you could never have compelled him to do. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4.

Having just said that we're children of wrath, verse 4 says, God, but God, don't miss the contrast there, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace, by undeserved favor, by kindness that you couldn't have even asked for. You have been saved. And so, for your salvation, you've looked completely outside of yourself. You have not justified yourself.

You have not asserted your own goodness comparative to someone else or otherwise. Saving faith understands that Christ died as a substitute for me. He died in our place.

He acted on our behalf because we cannot save ourselves. That blood 2,000 years ago was for the benefit of my soul, not for any guilt of his own. You see in Christ. Maybe this will help tie it all together. You see in Christ the only possible way that your guilt could be removed from your account, the only possible way that you could be reconciled to a holy God.

Now watch this. Because you have trembled over the reality of your separation from God, the fear of the consequences of your sin and guilt are so great upon you that, watch this, the one who saved you from that threatened condition now is the one that you love more than anything or anyone else in the world. Because the value of what he did on your behalf at such great cost to himself is so precious. I no longer have to be afraid.

I no longer have that guilt on my account. That which crushed my conscience, that which frightened me because of the just desserts that my sin deserved, someone interceded on my behalf. And that someone was Christ. It was that Christ at the cross and he gathered all of this up and he took it on his shoulders and bore the stroke of God on him.

So that that stroke of God would not fall on me. And now I am eternally secure because of Christ. You think on the Redeemer, a lot of you have really good spouses in here.

A lot of you have family that you love and that's all really, really good and that's the way it should be. But God forbid, God forbid that we would love a spouse, a sibling, a child, a fiancée more than we love the Christ who alone had the capacity and the willingness to deliver us from so great apparel as death. When you understand the realities of the gospel and you're truly saved, Christ is the most precious thing in all the universe.

And there is nothing in second place, third place, fourth place, go all the way down to 10,000th place. You love Christ so much because he did what no one else could do and he did it out of love and kindness that he wanted to display to you. He loved you enough to do that. He showed grace and kindness to you when he could have judged you.

He said, no, I'll do it. I'll take the punishment so that you can go free. I want you to be a part of that redeemed humanity that is with me in heaven forever. And God orchestrated that and planned that and named you out for that before the foundation of the world. And as a result of that, you love him supremely. And that's clear in your mind that there is no competition for the final affection of your soul, none. That's the content of saving faith. I'm guilty.

I tremble at that. I see in Christ the redemption that God has brought. That's what you understand.

That's what's in your mind. Guilt, separation, and a savior. And still you're left with the question, what do you do with that?

What do you do with that? Well, that brings us to our second point, the commitment of saving faith. The commitment of saving faith. Paul describes the response which receives this work of Christ, which appropriates it, which makes it your own. Look at verse 13 with me again. We've seen from the context both before and after what the content of the message of truth is, what the gospel of salvation is. And Paul says, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. Here we just see that he's saying that you believed.

There wasn't a ritual that you went through. No one could, watch this, no one could convey that upon you through the laying on of hands. No one could give that to you through the power of their lips. No man can tell you that your sins are forgiven.

And those priests in various places throughout the centuries that have done that will face a particularly strict judgment from God. To irrigate to themselves the prerogative to forgive the sins of a man like them. You realize that it can't be from what somebody can give to you or someone can do for you.

You have to receive it internally. To believe, I'm going to give you different nuances of this word in what I'm about to say that you can find in all of the study helps. To believe is to be convinced. To believe is to be confident in. It means to trust, to be convinced about the content of the gospel that we just described.

I am convinced that that is true. So much so that I will stake my eternal destiny on it. To put your confidence in Christ alone. You abandon any sense of ability of your own to save yourself or any contribution that you might make. It means to trust Christ alone to deliver you from your sin.

It's more than mentally accepting certain factual statements. Watch this. To believe in Christ means that you turn to Him with your whole heart, with your whole man. You deny yourself and you submit to His authority and saving purpose in your life. To put your faith in Christ means that you receive Him. You welcome Him, and watch this, and you rest in Him. You receive Him and you rest in Him. You stop trying to do anything else to earn your salvation. You're mindful of the fact that you cannot contribute to the perfect righteousness of Christ. You can't make His work any better.

You can't improve on it with anything you do. And so you rest on Him alone and your final trust is in Him. What we've seen here today is this. The sovereignty of God renders the sinner helpless to save himself. However, it does not make the sinner inactive. You don't just ignore it and say, Well, I'm just going to wait for God to save me. No, you stir up your heart to go after Him. You must rely on Christ. If you're confused, don't sit back in indifference and say, Well, it must not really matter.

It matters. If you're confused, you cry out to God for mercy. Help me understand.

I'm so confused. And that preacher goes on forever. God, help me understand. By the power of your Spirit open my mind, you've got to do something to help me because I just don't get it.

You cry out like that. You sit down and you open your Bible and read it. You can't say, I'm concerned about my soul and leave your Bible unopened. This is where God meets us. This is where God makes Himself known.

If you've got a Bible and you can open and you can read it, then that's what you should do if you're confused. If you don't care enough to do that, then don't blame God that you're not saved. Luke 9, verse 23, where Jesus said, He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

Beloved, let me just wrap it up just like this. Do you see, Jesus says, you lose your life for My sake. You lose your life for Christ. You exchange your life for this salvation. He says, if you want to enter in, say this little prayer.

One, two, three, and you're done. No! No! I'm frightened by the impact that I know that that kind of thinking has had on the world of so-called Christianity and how it still influences some of you.

That is not it! If it was a little simple prayer that you could recite in ten seconds beside your bed when you were three years old, Christ would have said so right there! No, He addresses it to thinking, conscious, thoughtful beings. If you want to have Me lose your life for My sake, pick up your cross, that instrument of death, deny yourself, reject yourself, and come follow Me. Not a little tiny prayer that leaves you unchanged with no intention of reorienting your life. The one, if you want to be saved, what you must do is you must come to Christ with the intention of turning it over to Him, of giving your life to Him, saying, Lord, save me, I now belong to You. Not to me, I belong to You to follow You. And for those of us who have been saved, isn't that the sweetest thing that we're able to say about our existence? I belong to Christ. Isn't it sweet for you who are Christians to know, to love this Christ who gave His life for you, to realize that He did that for you? Isn't it the consuming affection of your soul that, oh, just to belong to Him, that's the greatest privilege in life? I love Him so much, you say to yourself.

I'm so glad for the cross, I so worship Jesus. I belong to Him. I belong to Him though my guilt should have forbidden it. He fulfilled justice so that I could be saved and belong to Him.

And oh, how I love Him so very much. What must you do to be saved? Turn truly to Christ. Believe in Him for salvation. And with that, we've come to the end of a fascinating series on the doctrine of election, titled Chosen by God.

This subject often sets off fireworks in Bible studies, but once you realize what Scripture actually teaches, you should gain great peace about God's sovereignty and His power to do what you cannot. Pastor Don Green will embark upon another edifying series next time, and we invite you to join us then on The Truth Pulpit. But right now, here again is Don with some closing thoughts. My friend, I am delighted that you've been with us today on The Truth Pulpit.

We've covered a lot of deep theological issues on this series titled Chosen by God, and this is the kind of theological truth that you have to review often in order to let it sink deep into your heart and gain understanding. And I have some things for you here. Our programs are archived on our website.

You can go back and listen to them. And you can also receive a free CD copy of the full-length messages if you'll simply contact us and request it. Bill is here to give you the information so you can find it and get those materials into your hands. Just visit thetruthpulpit.com. There you'll also find a link to Don's Facebook page. Again, that's thetruthpulpit.com. And now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time as our teacher teaches God's people God's Word from The Truth Pulpit.