Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
jesus christ it was shed on the cross blood of the lamb of god to take our sins in his body on that cross so that we could be forgiven if we would but confess our sins and turn from them and confess jesus christ as lord of our lives and then show that that is true father we thank you we ask you to bless bless the the teaching and preaching of your word this morning in jesus name amen hallelujah everyone can be seated you know i just want to say this that the lord clearly spoke to me this this weekend and this morning and told me what to preach not that he doesn't at other times but sometimes he's louder and clearer than other times amen sometimes i have to fish around a bit and until i find it but this morning we're going to talk about the nature of salvation all right the nature of salvation and the reason is you would think that by now in america in the american church world we would understand this but we're living at a time when we have a lot of false gospels we have a lot of false teachers and preachers we have a lot of people who think that they're teachers of the word of god and and some of them are on television and some of them sell millions of books and all those things of that nature there's a lot of people talk about grace a lot of people talk about faith but there's the truth and then there's a lie amen so this morning i want to talk to you about the nature of salvation now first and foremost i want to get us to go to romans you know the the favorite romans road of salvation everyone talks about [Music] the scriptures that we use say in a basic witnessing or preaching outline but i'm just going to start there just for the sake of of simplicity and present the first part of it to you we're going to turn to quite a few scriptures this morning so i hope you stay with me all right first and foremost about the nature let me give you the definition of the word nature the reason i believe god gave me this title i've never entitled the message the nature of salvation now what i mean by that the nature and this is the the webster's definition is the definition of nature is the inherent character or basic constitution of a person or thing it is its essence its disposition its temperament it's basically the very core
of that thing it's the fundamental principles it's the foundational characteristics um a second definition is a creative or controlling force in the universe an inner force or the sum of such forces on an individual so we talk about the forces of nature when we talk about the natural world we're talking about the forces of wind and rain and hail and and all the things that nature can dish out so when i'm talking about the nature of salvation i'm talking about the power of it the core of it what it's made of how it affects people and how it is supposed to affect you okay that's why this is so important the the because and the reason i believe god's having me preach this this morning is because i believe that the nature of the salvation message within the church world has been corrupted has been changed and many are being deceived because the key elements of what salvation is are not being preached and remember to know the full nature of a thing you have to know it you have to know all parts of it okay now let me establish this right here first and foremost this is something that that jesus said and actually i know i said we would look at romans but let's let's just look at what the apostle peter said go to acts chapter 4 because he actually uses this term acts chapter 4 and verse 12 ought to be a familiar passage of scripture but let's just establish this first because right now the corruption that's creeping into the church and that's already creeping into the world is is that all religions lead to god all religions have within them aspects of redemption or re the ability to redeem yourself and make yourself a better person let's understand one thing here the god of creation the god and father of our lord jesus christ the one who created the earth and the universe the one who gave us the holy scriptures that have been confirmed for thousands of years through prophecy through archaeology through history the one who gave us the word of almighty god the one who created it all and made it all he is very plain about that there is but one way to him there is one way of salvation and there is no salvation in any other except jesus christ of nazareth the one who died on the cross for our sins and the one who rose from the dead there is no other
salvation and this is exactly what the apostle peter preached and this is a message and i'm not going to preach his whole message but chapter 4 of acts verse 12 he says this neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and he had just been preaching jesus christ and him crucified that is it that is all there is no other way now what i was saying about romans if we go back to romans romans chapter 3 the basic understanding is okay if god sent his only begotten son down here to the earth to live a sinless life and to be the sacrifice for our sins that must mean that man is a sinner amen so what does the bible say about that it says this in old and new testament but romans chapter 3 verse 10 everybody ought to know this one this is one of those famous roman road scriptures as it is written there is none righteous no not one can i just say that there is no man in this world no woman no one that's going to save themselves by themselves trying to be good trying to give to charity trying to do good works trying to be you know bring world peace and all these things they may be good in and of themselves but all men all women have sinned against god and are separated from god and that there is no good work that you can do outside of jesus christ and faith in jesus christ and walking with jesus christ there is no good work that you can do to save yourself all right are we we're clear on that right now i'm saying that because people are going to listen to this message all the way over in europe they're going to listen to it in india they're going to listen to from this little church they're going to listen to it all over the world but some people just don't get these things all right but this is christianity anything else is a corrupted version if they say there's any other way besides jesus christ it is a corrupted gospel and the very nature of salvation has been corrupted and once you corrupt something poison something what have you done you've changed its nature if somebody fed you a whole you know bucket of arsenic guess what they just did to your whole system they just corrupted it and it's going to kill you and this is what happens when we corrupt things now there is none righteous no not one right
everybody knows that verse what's what's verse 23 say everybody ought to know this one all have sinned and come short of the glory of god right all have sinned right so there is a plain teaching in the scripture there are people teaching right now that men are not sinners all men have a divine spark within them they're all children of god and don't condemn someone because they sin different than you sin and all these things that you hear now right we're all the children of god we're just at different levels of growth and development to enlightenment to finding our god within the god self within this is where the whole world is going this is the message of the antichrist okay you can find truth within yourself no you can't you all know you lie and you're a lie and you lie to yourself and you lie to people right no the truth is not in you unless jesus christ is in you right now let's let's move on from this all right everybody knows and i've established that jesus came to die on that cross to deal with our sins but then there's something we have to do now we're going to look at the nature of this i want everybody to turn there's two passages of scripture we're going to look at very quickly in ephesians chapter 2 this these two scriptures are preached to death in america no one understands them i don't think very few men with doctorates of theology and thds and phd's and dds and hdhd they preach this all the time did i say that right adhd okay i'm getting too many d's and h's and everything going on in here all right here's the famous scripture now we're going to look at this that is preached all over the world and we talk about uh the nature of salvation right and everybody agrees with this one you know my baptist and presbyterian brothers they love this verse right this passage everybody ought to have this one memorized but ephesians 2 8 9 what does it say for by grace that's it for by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast so what you see here is two aspects of salvation for by grace are you saved
through faith everybody say that with me for by grace say with me for by grace are you saved through faith oh now if that is true and we believe the bible is true if that is true then don't you think it would be an important thing for us to understand what grace is and what faith is especially when the bible warns us in the book of jude and we're not going to turn there right now but in the book of jude the one little short book of jude the brother of jesus the half brother of jesus he says this that there would come men who would creep into the church unawares who would turn the grace of god into lasciviousness now putting that in simple terms what it means that there would be men who would creep into the church and turn the grace of god into something that god never meant for it to be or never never taught that it was and literally what the word lasciviousness means is that you are free and you can live any way you want to live now folks let me tell you the bible has never ever been unclear on this matter now if some man is coming to you and preaching grace in such a way that he tells you that that because jesus died on the cross and because you're saved by grace that you are now free if you just believe you're free and you can and you're saved just because of what you believe and you can live any way you want to live that man has just said grace is freedom to do what you want to do and that man is a deceiver and a liar because god warned us so if that's the case if he warned us that men would turn grace into a license to freedom to do what you want then what is it all right so we're going to define grace and faith this morning vitally important and then i'm going to show you how they work together grace here is the greek definition of the word grace it is charis anybody any preacher that will be listening to this message will know this verse or this definition from the strong's concordance the greek dictionary but let me read it to you grace charis it means graciousness as gratifying of manner or act it means the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life it also can mean gratitude acceptable benefit favor gift graciousness joy liberality pleasure and thanks worthiness now i know that's a lot of definition but let me focus in on the part that it seems like that the grace teachers love to pull out the
favor part of this definition right now granted grace is favor from god and we could say you know the the common definition we hear is what grace is unmerited favor right now technically you could say that's true but it's a very incomplete definition very incomplete because let's just say it this way we have to define words in the bible by how god defines them not how men define them okay um and what i mean by that is what is grace is grace just a mystical force that god brings down in the universe upon everyone or is it something else now let's while we're doing this i'm going to turn to one more turn to hebrews i'm going to show you something now i know my my grace preachers out there don't like hebrews they try to explain it away hebrews chapter 10. now let's look at this and what i love is the context in which it's in as well but we're going to look at it hebrews 10 verse 19 we're going to start reading there because it's important because he's talking about the blood of jesus to enter into a new life through faith we'll talk about that in a minute he says verse 19 having therefore brother in boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of jesus by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having a high priest over the house of god let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water this is talking about coming to jesus through the blood and through the water remember when jesus was crucified and the the roman soldier stabbed him it said out of that chest cavity of his blood and water flowed and that is the blood and water that the scripture talks about cleanses us from sin and the sins of the flesh all right you know i'm not getting y'all too bogged down emma y'all with me all right let's keep going he says let us draw near and then in verse 23 he says this is interesting let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering hold fast to your faith right this is all important hold fast to your faith without wavering for he is faithful that promised and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the
more as you see the day approaching then he says this and i love the writer of hebrews which i believe is the apostle paul but whoever is one of the apostles and he says this says for if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sins now a lot of people don't understand this verse because they just read over it too quickly but he says we now brother if i say we what do i mean mean you exactly together so this christian inspired by the holy ghost to write this down said if we sin willfully now the word sin in this verse is a present tense greek verb so the definition of sin or a present tense greek verb here is an ongoing action a continuous or ongoing action that is taking place in the present so what he's saying here is if for if we sin habitually ongoing we're practicing some sin on a regular basis there remains no more sacrifice for sins meaning you're in trouble and then he tells you he tells you right here why he goes on and he says this for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth about jesus and turning from sin there remains no more sacrifice for sins see and i'm going to get to this in a minute but repentance there is no forgiveness of sin without repentance we'll deal with that in a second but just so you know that's what he's referring to there remains no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries this is a reference to hell and and to where god's enemies are going he says he that despised moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses now look at this verse 29 of how much sore or worse punishment supposedly shall he be thought worthy who is trodden under foot the son of god has counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified oh my god he's talking about counting the blood of the covenant where at one time past tense he was sanctified or cleansed by the blood of jesus this means someone at some point in the past who has been born again through grace and faith in the lord jesus christ had their sins washed away through repentance turning from their sin and being a disciple at some point they had been washed in the blood sanctified by the blood but it says now that they've cast this aside and it says that they have done look at this we'll read again of how much sore or worse punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy
who has trod and under foot the son of god counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and have done despite to the spirit of grace now i read this so you will see something in my bible the good old king james version that i love in my bible spirit of grace the spirit is capitalized now grace is from god right grace is an attribute from god but here's what we miss grace is not just something god gives grace is someone it is the spirit of grace meaning the holy spirit somebody say this with me grace is the holy spirit oh my once we understand that we can understand a lot of things can you blaspheme the holy spirit can you resist the holy spirit can you quench the holy spirit then you can blaspheme grace and you can quench grace and you can resist grace see our presbyterian and calvinist brothers got a doctrine they call irresistible grace i'm sorry it's a lie from hell saying you can't resist grace and they actually say to you can't resist the holy spirit yet the bible says pretty clear don't quench the holy spirit don't resist the holy spirit don't grieve the holy spirit well listen to me whatever you can do to the holy spirit you are doing to the spirit of grace because here let me explain going back to ephesians 2 8 9 for by grace are you saved through faith grace is when god sends the holy spirit to you to draw you to him to convict you of sin to convince you you're a sinner to convince you that jesus christ is the only way to convince you that you need your sins washed away by faith in his blood to draw you to repentance so that you'll give up your alcohol your sex your drugs your your idolatry whatever it is that is the holy spirit whatever the holy spirit does that's what grace is trying to do [Music] amen and that's why the definition of grace is the divine influence of god upon your
heart and its reflection in your life and that doesn't always mean something good i've seen people under conviction of sin by the holy spirit miserable angry people who hate christians they don't know why they're uncomfortable in church they don't know why they can't stand a christian to talk to them but see that is because they're under the conviction of the holy spirit literally that means that the that the spirit of grace god's grace is actually working on them see no man the bible says this very plainly in john 6 no man can come to the father or come to jesus christ as their savior no man can come to jesus unless the father draws him how does god draw a man or woman to it he sends the holy spirit or the spirit of grace that we don't earn we don't earn this god does it because he loves us he sends his holy spirit to convict us like you can't be a drunkard you can't be a fornicator you can't be an idolater you can't be a drunkard you can't be a homosexual you can't you can't save yourself in religion you can't save yourself by being a buddhist or or a hindu or a muslim you have to come to jesus christ that is the grace of god when he's drawing you he's dealing with you he's convicting you he's trying to get you to believe two things that the holy spirit is always trying to do he's always trying to glorify jesus and bring you to know jesus christ as savior and lord and to honor him and to bring glory to him and he's always trying to get us to repent and get sin out of our lives and be more holy and more on fire for god that is what the holy spirit is all about if you don't believe me read john 14 15 and 16. amen the bible says in john 16 the holy spirit has come to convict the world of what sin righteousness and judgment to come can i just say this the holy spirit inside trying to deal with you he is a preacher that exposes sin that pinpoints your sin he is a preacher that tells you the only righteousness can be found in jesus christ and he tells you that there is a judgment day coming and one day you're going to stand before god and give an account for your life and you're either going to go to heaven and live with him forever or you're going to go to hell and burn forever that is what the holy spirit is preaching to every man woman boy and girl in their conscience and you either resist that conviction or you give in to that and we all one day see even the calvinists teach this they say well well god only has chosen some to be saved and he's chosen others to go to hell that is another lie can't deal with that one thoroughly today but i'll tell you this right now
here's what jesus said john 6 he said no man can come to me except the father draws him well guess what he said in john 12 this is good news right here he said if i be lifted up i will draw hold men unto me so god is drawing all men which goes along with first timothy chapter 2 when he says god wills or desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth but yet we see that even though god's will is that all men be saved and god is sending grace to all men in convicting them and trying to draw them to repentance and faith and to save their soul from going to hell god's trying to save every man but men some men some women are resisting the holy spirit fighting against him saying no to him quenching him in their lives see judgment day is going to all be about one thing it's either going to be about you listen to the holy spirit and did what he wanted you to do and follow jesus with all your heart soul mind and strength or you're going to stand there and try to say to god well i was a good person i wasn't this bad or i wasn't this bad and god's going to say depart from me you wicked cursed person into everlasting fire that's it that is the definition of grace and if you don't believe me if you don't believe me let's see what grace does go go to whoo somebody that says good preaching go to titus chapter 2. i'm fired up about this because i'm tired of people corrupting the gospel and we only own grace right now we got to get to faith here pretty quick everybody say this with me grace is the holy spirit is that a revelation it ought to be i remember we're doing a bible study at work when we went through this one day our little our bible study students in there were like their their jaws were laying on the floor because one came up in the presbyterian church and the other one came up in the baptist church and go i've never seen this before in my life but it's in the bible didn't they kevin freaking them out all right everybody go to titus and i didn't even go there lord help me tightest tightest titus chapter two here's what it says look at verse 11. we're talking about the nature of salvation this morning talking about we're saved by grace through faith now let's look at this for by grace for by the grace of god or
for the grace of god that brings salvation that's a good thing the grace of god that brings salvation right verse 11 titus 2 11 for 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 oh boy looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great god and our savior jesus christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify him to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works here here we see what grace he says the grace of god that brings salvation can i say this there's another perverted grace that will not save you it's that grace that tells you you can live any way you want to live and you're eternally secure that's a false grace but the grace that teaches to you that you should should live righteously soberly godly in this present world and keep your eyes looking and believing that the lord jesus christ is going to return to this earth that is the holy spirit that is the spirit of grace that is true grace and is that not what we just said in john 16 what the holy spirit does convicts convinces the world of sin righteousness and judgment quiet with that now let's keep going let's go back now let's deal with faith all right [Music] back to ephesians 2 8 9. i'm going i promise you i'm going to get through this ephesians 2 8 9. remember for by grace are you saved now now now listen to me did that verse say we're saved by grace alone oh no it did not right i've heard preachers and i've heard entire denominations say oh it's grace alone it's grace alone that's not what the bible teaches right he says for by grace and i like to say it this way for by grace through faith grace is god's part and faith is our part now here's where we get the false teaching on faith all right how many have you have heard that faith in god is simply believing right all you have to do is believe in jesus believe that he died rose again and that's faith no it's not it's never been just that
that's the first step but faith has never been that faith like grace has multiple parts multiple revelation okay let's look at it i'm going to give you the definition this is the greek word for faith i'm gonna give you this and then we're gonna get into the second part of this and i promise you i'll be through in about 20 minutes the greek word here is pistus p-i-s-t-i-s i've given you this before but i want to give it to you again the greek word here is pistus and here's the definition the greek definition of faith it means persuasion credence moral conviction of religious truth or the truthfulness of god especially reliance upon christ for salvation and constancy in such profession by the extension it is a system of religious belief truth itself assurance belief faith and fidelity okay now i want to bring out some parts that aren't preached about this word first of all 99 of the time when it's used in the bible it is a present tense greek verb which means ongoing continuous action that's taking place in the present why does it say that well like we said have faith in god why why continue why you have to continue in but wait a minute what if i always believe does that mean i'm continuing no not necessarily because let's look at it faith here means reliance upon christ for salvation and look what it says here constancy in such profession and fidelity now i want to bring out the word fidelity here a lot of people i mean most of you probably know what it means but you need to hear the definition this is webster's definition of fidelity again the quality or state of being faithful accuracy in details exactness the second definition is the degree to which an electronic device as a record player radio or television accurately reproduces its effect remember we used to have the the wreck the old vinyl record players we called them hi-fi's remember that high fidelity what would that mean that that record would reproduce the original sound when they recorded it a christian that has jesus in them that's been born again through faith and repentance should be having jesus living through them their lives should be so transformed through faith through repentance through the power of the holy spirit that they are becoming more and more and
more faithful and more and more able to reproduce and look just like the way jesus wants us to be like him amen so we we break these words down here faith faith doesn't just mean to just believe it's never meant to just mentally ascend to something that's true i mean that's the first step in anything but hear me hear me we're going to go to the book of james because there are people out there that say we're saved by just believing now we we we got a little problem within the church world all right now we've just been focusing on this right therefore grace you're saved through faith not of works right now it says that right not of works but do we have a contradiction because let's look at a verse everybody turn to philippians before we go to james philippians chapter 2. philippians 2 lord help me do this philippians 2 verse 12. now paul writing to christians here this is what he says verse 12 wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling wait a minute now i thought he just said it's not of works lest any man should boast and here we have him saying the apostle paul the same apostle work out your own salvation with fear and trembling okay whenever the bible has an apparent contradiction it's not that it's a contradiction it's just that we don't understand something okay these verses don't fight against each other because they mean different things in ephesians 2 8 9 what he is saying about salvation is there's no good work you can do to save yourself you can't be a nun a priest you know celibacy or charity does not save you but what he's saying here is once you are born again once you are saved you have to work that out between you and god with fear and trembling because it is a relationship with god that must be maintained it's not i jumped in said i do
at the wedding said i do and i go cheat with anybody i want to cheat with modern christianity says believe that jesus christ is your savior believe he rose from the dead and you're saved say a little prayer you're saved and then you can live like hell live like the devil live like the world love the world live in sin that's the same as saying a man saying to his wife say i do put the ring on her finger let's say i do let's get married and you go cheat on me all you want to no that's not god now there may be some perverts out there that they're fine with their wives cheating but god's not amen god isn't he is hey you stay faithful to me and any normal man is going to be oh right now let's look at this i showed you that verse now let's go to james i posted this on facebook and already started some comments like i said good some good ones actually from london over in england they're dealing with this over there too i'm gonna try to deal with this as best i can this morning james chapter 2 and i i quoted this verse right go down we're just going to jump down to verse 24 but then we'll back up but how many of you heard preachers say we're not justified by works we're justified by faith how many of you know the bible says we're justified by works oh oh [Music] just slaps american christianity right upside the face just slaps it i'm gonna read it to you this is what james said and let me can i say this too some people like to put james down as if he wasn't in uh he wasn't as high up as the apostle paul let me inform you some james was the brother of jesus and james was the head apostle over all the others including paul yes we'll deal with that in another time as well but here's what he said i love this verse 24 you see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only oh i wonder what the hyper grace crowd thinks of that verse they probably don't even read james and i'm going to give you a little hint luther and some of the reformers even though they needed to break free from the roman catholic church and that whole system of merit salvation that rome has that's false they swung the pendulum so far the other side to this grace and faith that that
they begin to teach again that you just believe and and luther and and some other reformers actually hated the book of james and called it the straw epistle they couldn't stand it why because it contradicted their version of faith and grace and faith that had gotten even though it needed to swing away from the roman catholic church they swung it a little too far okay because let me just help you understand something there's a difference between a work say giving to a charity and staying out of sin like fornication or adultery there is a difference staying out of sin is not a work it is an expected act of faith from god and this is what i want to back up let's read let's read a little in james this is what james says about faith go back up to verse 14. he says what does it profit my brethren though a man say he has faith and has not can faith save him do you see the question he's he's asking here can faith alone sing and what james is referring to is can just belief save him does he not have to change oh come on now somebody say it's good preaching he says what does it profit my brethren though a man say he has faith and has not works can faith save him and then he does talk about doing good he says if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you saying depart in peace be warm notwithstanding you give those things that are needful to the body what does it profit and then he says this verse 17 even so faith it has not works is dead being alone everybody look at me faith without corresponding actions or works is dead faith dead faith does not save you he goes on let's keep reading he says this verse 18 yea a man may say you have faith and i have works show me your faith without your works or your actions i will show you my faith by my works or by my actions you believe there is one god you do well the devils also believe and tremble what is james saying just believing does not save you there even he's even telling you even satan and the demons believe in jesus it doesn't change anything about them and it doesn't change anything about you or i simply believing that jesus is god
almighty who died on a cross and rose from the dead yes you have to believe the truth first but if you don't act on it it's going to do you no good this is what blows my mind about modern christianity let me read the next verse verse 20 he says but will you know o vain man but will you know that faith without works is dead [Music] he says was not abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up isaac upon his altar justified by works meaning that his faith produced something in his life that justified him but wait a minute i thought we were justified justified by faith alone yes it is but real faith not dead faith dead faith says just believe in jesus and you're good a lie of faith says believe in jesus and get out of the sin and follow him with all your heart y'all with me all right let's keep going and he says it he says was not abraham our father justified by works when he had offered up isaac his son upon the altar see then how by that how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect everybody say this with me by works faith was made perfect we've got preachers out there now saying if you preach works if you preach repentance that people have to have to live right have to get out of sin and follow jesus that you're a heretic that you're a works preacher that you're preaching a false gospel if you tell people they have to repent my god no sir you are a false preacher if you tell people grace covers it no matter how they live and i'm going to tell you what if i'm wrong i'd rather stand before god being wrong about this than be if they're wrong i'm sorry but i'm fired up this morning fired up all right now now that you see that we've shattered much of american european and lukewarm christianity gospel okay just by the scriptures let's go [Music] to go to second corinthians chapter seven and hold yourself there for a second who i'm sorry y'all don't mind me getting a little excited this morning do you
all right now didn't we read for by grace are you saved through faith not of yourselves it's the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast right right all right now let me show you something remember how earlier i showed you how grace was the holy spirit let me show you what faith is faith is believing in jesus and repenting you could actually say faith is repentance or faith is obedience to god remember we just define faith as it's more than just believing it's believing and acting on what you believe right now i'm going to show you if grace and faith is what saves us grace from god and faith in jesus christ and that faith means and that faith has to have some action to it what is the action is it given to the poor no that's good to do but is that it no all right gotta hurry here we go we'll give you this and we gotta i'm gonna show you how it works real quick all right second corinthians chapter seven look what he says this talking about again the nature of salvation look what he says in verse 10 for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death i want you to see that do you see that clearly right [Music] for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation godly sorrow what is godly sorrow that's the spirit of grace making you feel bad about living in sin repentance that leads to salvation is the faith to get out of it and follow god oh somebody you see what i'm saying you can say to me brother you have faith in jesus christ but if you're living in adultery i will tell you you do not you might believe in him but you're not repenting and you're not acting on that faith and your faith is dead my friend and you will die in your sins and burn in hell believing in jesus christ this is the greatest deception satan has ever put on the church just believe in jesus but you don't have to change anything
you don't have to repent you don't have to obey now am i saying that we christians don't sin or christians are going to live perfect lives that's not what i'm saying but there is a big difference and i've addressed this many times but just for the sake of those who will listen i've addressed this many times there is a difference between falling into something and wallowing in something and living in something amen now i'm going to show you how this works and i wrote this down if you write notes i said repentance is the action of faith or you could say it this way too repentance is the is the fruit of true saving faith repentance means and i shared this last week repentance means you know dean used to be a drunkard dean used to be into drugs dean used to be in the pornography dean used to be in the fornication when dean believed in jesus christ and got saved and gave my life to jesus i turned away from those things and walked away and that's my walk of faith is to keep walking in a relationship with god and leaving those things in my past washed away by the blood of the lamb and me walking with him in right relationship [Music] now have i been perfect since i left that spot no but i'm going to tell you what they've never been a habitual practice in my life ever again because i repented you hear me see we got people believing that they can live in that all those things and because they believe in jesus no their faith is dead all right now let's look at how jesus taught this let's we're going to go through these real quick real quick john we're going to start in john 8. we're going to watch how grace and faith work you want to see how grace and faith work how jesus worked it when jesus works something he works it perfectly right we're going to see grace and faith work right here everybody knows this story the woman caught in adultery let's read it real quick verse one jesus went out to the mount of olives and early in the morning he came again into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and he taught them and the scribes and the pharisees brought in him a woman taken in adultery and when they had set her in the midst they say unto him master this woman was taken in adultery in the very act now moses in the law commands us that she such should be stoned but what do you say and this they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him but jesus stooped down with his finger and wrote on the ground as though he heard them not and so when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and he said unto them he that is without sin among you let him
first cast a stone at her and again he stooped down and wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last and jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst and when jesus lifted up himself and saw none but the woman he said unto her woman where are those thine accusers hath no man condemned thee and she said no man lord and jesus said unto her neither do i condemn thee go and sin no more now this is the perfect picture of the gospel all right the law of moses the law that god gave moses demanded that sin be punished even in this life it demanded it it required it now the law wasn't always fulfilled by israel but that was the law of god that is the demand and it is the justice to deal with sin when there is sin there has to be death when there is sin there has to be blood it will be yours or it will be his you choose but sin always demands it so what we see here is when the law the law did its work the bible says the law is our school master to bring us to christ what the pharisees didn't know they were steeped in the law of moses but they took they they represented the law bringing this woman caught in adultery and brought her to jesus well guess what the law the right and wrong issues are to bring us to the feet of jesus knowing that we can't keep the law we have failed we have sinned and we need jesus so the law did its work in this moment it brought her to the feet of jesus now the law demanded that she be stoned for adultery back then but when jesus came remember it says he was wounded for our transgressions and the chastisement of our peace was upon him the word chastisement means punishment see the reason we don't stone people anymore for adultery or stone rebellious children anymore is because when jesus died on that cross he not only took our sins but he took our punishment for those sins you hear me so jesus took that so jesus even though the law required this woman to be stoned he dealt with the requirements of the law he stood between her and the judgment of the law to be stoned so jesus this reveals jesus dealing with the law through his crucifixion all right but did he say to her now that you have been set free from the law now that you have been forgiven and
given grace that you didn't even deserve did he say believe in me and go live like you want no he tells this woman i don't condemn you i forgive you but go and sin no more and the word sin is that present tense greek verb which means don't go and practice this sin anymore and that was grace teaching her how to live in this world and what would give her eternal life now let me show you another picture of it real quick go to mark chapter 10. i just got this one and one more mark chapter 10. because this is all about eternal life y'all my european brothers and sisters are like that y'all i just threw in there all right [Music] mark chapter 10 the story of the rich young ruler let's read it [Music] i know you've read it before we're going to read it again verse 17. and when he was gone forth just speaking of jesus when he was gone forth into the way there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him good master what shall i do to inherit eternal life and jesus said unto him why do you call me good there is none good but one that is god some people try to use this as an example that jesus did denied he was god but it's basically a kind of tongue-in-cheek thing are you saying i'm god here he's wondering if the guy he's checking the guy to see if he gets it that he is god but he goes on he says thou knowest the commandments so jesus gives him the commandments you know the commandments do not commit adultery do not kill do not steal do not bear false witness defraud not honor your father and mother so he gives him the law well this isn't this isn't preachers today is it somebody comes into church and and we don't want to give them the law we don't we don't want to tell them guess what's required of you you got to live holy you got to obey god you got to change something you got to repent oh no that's the law that's the commandments we're free from that we're under grace no jesus gives him the law he says you know the commandments oh i tell you it's funny though jesus gave this list of commandments he left out one on purpose because he's about to deal with it because guess what none of these problems none of these issues were that man's problem he wasn't an adulterer he wasn't a murderer
he wasn't a liar he wanted a thief he loved his parents he wanted any of those things you know what he was he was an idolater and money was his idol all right let's look at it verse 20 and he answered and said unto him master all these i have observed from my youth so he'd been a pretty good guy now i don't think he'd kept all these commandments but obviously he'd been a pretty good guy right pretty moral upstanding citizen right y'all with me look what jesus said to him and i love this verse then jesus beholding him loved him oh you ought to underline that in your bible because here's love about the deal with the problem that's in his heart the one problem keeping him from eternal life from salvation jesus was good at this he looks at him and he says that jesus beholding him loved him and said unto him one thing you lack go your way sell everything or whatever you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me do you see what he did jesus said your problem son is you love your money you love your comfort you love your riches you love your wealth here's what i want you to do if you want eternal life you got to go get rid of all that stuff give it to somebody else and take up your cross and follow me see it wasn't just give away your stuff it was get rid of your idol and follow me take up your cross and follow me somebody say this if i don't take up my cross and follow jesus and get rid of my idols i will not inherit eternal life money is probably the biggest idol i'm going to say this money in in america money entertainment and sex those are such idols people so many people are going to be damned over those there are people listen to me there are people who run into churches like this man where did he run he ran to jesus he ran up to jesus what do i do to inherit eternal life you know what most preachers in america would have done say this little prayer sign this card you're good no she said well you know the commandments keep those commands let's talk about the commandments do you keep the commandments do you obey god basically jesus do you obey god do you live a holy life well yeah lord all these things i've done for my okay
that's good tell you what you need to do go get rid of all that money and follow me oh boy how many people i i've run across how many young people i've said you want eternal life give up your sexual sin and follow jesus and the head goes down and they keep living in it this man jesus looks at him wants to give him eternal life but money is his god and she said go sell everything you have give it to the poor and come and follow me [Music] look at verse 22 and he was sad at that saying and went away grieve for he had great possessions and jesus looked round about and said to his disciples how hardly or how difficult shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of god and we could go and talk about that i got one more example once you turn to luke 19. we're going to end on a positive note luke 19. i'm feeling like i almost done my job today almost luke 19 verse one the story of zacchaeus he changed let's look at what jesus said what what just happened to the rich young ruler he didn't get eternal life did he why he wasn't willing to repent he wasn't willing to leave his idol his sin and follow jesus he wanted eternal life but he wasn't willing to do what was necessary he wasn't willing to repent the grace came to his life listen how many people got the opportunity to see jesus face to face i mean can you imagine the discussion can you imagine what this man if he didn't repent later in his life and he died and went to hell and he's been in hell for 2000 years and he's got to live with for eternity the fact that he stood in front of jesus christ the god of the universe and asked him what must i do to inherit eternal life and he said follow me give up your wealth follow me and i said no and now he's burning in hell forever what's that money to him now he's dead he can't take it with him not at times going with it and even if you could take it all there it's not getting you out and it's not helping zacchaeus was a little different zacchaeus this is what he says here in jesus verse 1 19 verse 1 and jesus entered and passed through jericho and behold there was a man named zacchaeus or is that chaos maybe which was the chief among the publicans
now let me tell you the jews hated the publicans they were the tax collectors and he was the chief let me tell you back then all the tax collectors were crooked kind of like today okay it says this man was named zacchaeus and he was the chief among the publicans or tax collectors and he was rich you know why because he took more taxes than he should have and he siphoned it all for himself that's how they work back then so zacchaeus was rich now when the bible says somebody's rich what do you think they're rich all right and it says though that he sought to see jesus who he was and he could not for the press there were so many people gathered around but he was and he was little of stature so we got a little napoleon complex guy but here's what's interesting about him he's a crooked tax collector and he even says that he admits it in here that he took from men by fraud he admits it later but but just picture this with me here's this wicked man he's hated by his own people he's a jew but he's hated by his own people because he collects the taxes for the roman government he's hated by them the romans don't like him because he's a jew he's just a worker for them they don't care about him so here's this man that's really kind of isolated but probably the only friends he has is because he's rich and he hears about jesus and he gets wind of this and remember every jew knew that the messiah was going to come there was a coming messiah and every jew knew some scripture and something stirred and this is what i believe grace was working the holy spirit was working in zacchaeus and making him desire to see who this jesus was and i believe that this is what drove him i mean he he wanted to see jesus so bad and he's trying to get through the press and he can't get through the press and he climbs up in a tree i mean he wants to just get a glimpse and boy what does this show this shows a heart that wants something you know what his money hadn't satisfied him he knew there had to be something else and he hears about jesus going through preaching and healing and casting out demons and they're thinking is this what we read in isaiah is this is this the messiah is this him i've got to see i've got to see it for myself and can you imagine when jesus points up in the tree stops and there's hundreds maybe thousands of people around him and jesus stops as zacchaeus calls him by name word of knowledge zacchaeus come down we're going to your house today can you imagine i mean jesus is famous i mean jesus is more famous than a rock star you know we're going to your house today
wow let's read it let's read the rest of the story i imagine zacchaeus heart was just overwhelmed and look at verse four this is what i was talking about he ran and he climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was to pass that way and when jesus came to the place and he looked up and he saw him and he said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down for today i must abide at your house let me tell you something a heart that goes after god attracts god what if i see anything i can get across to y'all you have to want him more than anything else that's what salvation is you have to want him you want him more than you want any sin or anything in this world and zacchaeus jesus said come down today i must i must abide at your house and look at this and and he made haste that means he just quickly just i mean you couldn't imagine how excited this guy said he made haste and he came down and received him joyfully and when they saw it again the people around him they murmured that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner and zacchaeus stood now he's having dinner at zacchaeus house and i'm sure there were other people there and he in zacchaeus stands up and and here's the work of the holy spirit the work of grace and zacchaeus convicting him of sin and bringing him to repentance to make changes and zacchaeus says this he stands up in this joy and in this excitement of having jesus in his house he wants to do whatever is necessary and he says he says he says lord he said lord and he called him lord meaning i believe who you are you're the messiah you're god lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore to him fourfold repentance faith real faith real repentance in zacchaeus and look what jesus says to him and jesus said unto him this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he is also a son of abraham for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost the work of the holy spirit is to bring us to the place that we love jesus more than anything we're willing to give up every if it's everything in our lives every sin every material possession if we can just have him but he wants us to make things right if we've done things wrong to people we should go apologize if we can make it right that's repentance
faith has actions repentance means you change your actions and this my friends this is the nature of salvation this is it this is bible this is the way to eternal life there is no other way let's pray father in heaven god i ask you today to take this word god your word your truth and let it settle deep into our souls god for this is the gospel and the way of salvation that we must preach to the world and that we must receive ourselves and live god it has been watered down too long it has been corrupted too long it has been preached incorrectly for too long lord you are the spirit of grace and you come to draw us and to deal with us to get us to give up our sin and our idols and to make jesus lord of our lives and to follow him and to love him like zacchaeus did lord i pray in the name of jesus make my brothers and sisters and everyone who will listen to this understand biblical grace and biblical faith and the salvation that is alone in jesus christ for this hour is late and the deceptions are many and the spirit of antichrist is rising and the deceptions are going to get greater and lord i pray that your gospel go forth god not just from this church god but from everyone here everyone who hears this it is time that we preach and believe the true gospel of jesus christ