The Essence of Salvation

[00:00:00] Grace and peace to all of you in the name of our Savior, the victor. Sitting up here looking out across this sea of faces, for one, I was looking for the face of my beloved and I just found it. Secondly, I'm realizing that you are my comrades in this great work. I was very moved to think about the fact that some of my heroes are here. [00:00:38] And I'm also especially thankful that two of my team members are here. My brother, Benny Beiler, who has, I guess he's been my bishop now for going on 30 years. He's one of those men I admire and look up to, and I'm very grateful for his influence and for his care in my life. [00:01:11] And isn't that what these meetings are about, to help us care for those under our responsibility? I'm also thankful that we have here with us our newest minister ordained just last September, Brother Simon Schrock. And it seems to me like these two brothers are standing with me. I'm also thinking right now, one of our comrades, and perhaps we ought to pause for just a moment to consider Brother Howard Eichhorn and his need. Right now, our dear comrade is facing a battle. [00:01:46] His beloved is very ill. Her health, perhaps her very life, is hanging in the balance. And with the pressures of the ministry and with this burden, I can only imagine that this dear brother would love to be here to receive encouragement, but he's at the side of his beloved. Could we pause for a few minutes and we'll just maybe everybody intercede silently for our dear comrade and his situation. [00:02:26] Our Heavenly Father, we just ask that you would be with Howard Eichhorn, his dear wife, very ill. Bless that home, bless his ministry, give him strength to carry on. Father, may these prayers that are ascending right now for his home and his dear wife and daughters, may these prayers unite together in a powerful wave of strength that will carry him through these next days. In Jesus' name, Amen. [00:03:06] My topic is the essence of salvation. If you would define salvation, I thought of last summer when our family visited the location up there in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. I think it was 1993 when those nine miners were trapped underground, trapped by rising water. And it seemed as though it would take a miracle, and a miracle did happen. And you remember that story, how they were able to bore down through, I think it was 240 feet of earth and rock, and they punched right into the cavity where those men were, and they followed with a, I think it was a 30-inch bit, straight down, and they lowered through that hole a 24-inch cage. [00:03:51] We were there at the farm. We saw that cage and every one of those men were plucked out of that place. It was a drama that transfixed America and the world. I think it was three days and we could say that that day salvation came to those men and their families. Salvation in a biblical sense, in the New Testament sense, means to rescue, to deliver, to save. And this morning I'm so very thankful that we can say with Simeon, that old man in the temple, [00:04:26] those of us who have tasted of the goodness of God can say with him, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He cradled him in his arms But those whose faith is fully in him Can be assured that he is in their hearts Christ in you, the hope of glory And we're able to say with assurance That neither is there salvation in any other For there is none other name under heaven Given among men whereby we must be saved There is only one name [00:04:58] And we're here because of him And we're also sobered with the words of Hebrews chapter 2 verse 3 Where we're told how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation And I believe that this topic this morning was intended for us to lift up salvation and reinforce our understanding You know we really have an obligation, we have a two-fold obligation one might say to this salvation First of all, we are called to work out our own salvation, aren't we, with fear and trembling, Philippians 2.12. [00:05:36] And then in our calling as servants of Christ, we are called to stand along with our brother Paul to endure all things for the elect's sake that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 2 Timothy 2 verse 10 And I say, I mean this morning, is there any other priority? I mean, what greater question is there than this question? [00:06:10] How can man be reconciled to God? Is there any greater question than that? There isn't. And you know, we have an adversary that ever since the beginnings of the faith He has been very hard at work to undermine and to misinterpret and to misinform people as to the essence of salvation. What is it all about? So I believe that this topic is important and I don't know, I feel so inadequate. [00:06:41] You know I'm so thankful this morning that we don't have to understand everything about it. We just know it works. And I'm sure that my understanding is very limited and inadequate. And I'm, to be frank, concerned that I can in some way lay out something of the meaning of salvation, the essence of it. I feel so inadequate to do that, but I am able to testify that it works. I may not understand how, but it works for all those who put their faith in Christ. [00:07:14] So I wanted to look at three main points if there's time. Number one, I don't like to do this, but I felt like I should address the problem of the other gospel. And I've called it the problem of the self-ish salvation. Then I wanted to look at a couple of the causes, perhaps, of how that salvation came about. Then I wanted to look at the atoning work of Christ, our victor. And then what it means to follow him. What are some things that we as leaders of God's people ought to look for? What is saving faith anyhow? And how, what should be some of the fruit of saving faith in the lives of those whom we are called to pastor? [00:08:00] So, the problem of the other gospel or selfish salvation, Christ's atoning and reconciling work, and then what does saving faith look like? So first, the problem of the other gospel or of selfish salvation. I don't like to talk about this because I don't like conflict and I don't like to criticize people, but I think that we would have to acknowledge, And Paul warned of these things and Jesus warned of these things that there would be another gospel. There would be a delusion. There would be a watering down of the gospel. And we do see it. It's the gospel of easy believism, as someone has called it, cheap grace, and it's a selfish thing. [00:08:51] Eternal security. Unconditional eternal security is part of that. And this other gospel is characterized by this kind of terminology. Would you like to go to heaven? Would you like to accept Jesus as your personal savior? Now, I'm sure that many people have been genuinely born again with this kind of terminology and other phrases and buzzwords like this. [00:09:24] But is there anything wrong with these statements? I guess the biggest problem that I have is that it seems to me that statements like this come from another gospel that is mainly about what is in it for me in this salvation. Now contrast those sorts of things with this response from a man who had just been thoroughly humbled, brought to the end of himself, and as he lay there, as our brother already alluded to, on the Damascus road that day, there was a response that came from that man. [00:10:03] And it's the response that come to people who have had a revelation of this man and God, Jesus, and that revelation may come in a moment like it did for the Apostle Paul. It may come over a period of time. It may be dramatic. It may be not so dramatic. But whatever the case, people with that kind of revelation, they realize that this Lord they are facing is too great for them. [00:10:36] And with fear and trembling, they cry out, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? I say, that is the language of genuine salvation. And they mean it. They are willing to give themselves, to make themselves poor in spirit, to surrender to this Christ. And theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Paul's boast in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 was, [00:11:07] I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why? For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from one faith, one level of faith, faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. You see, Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. He says that leads to salvation, number one, because it is the power of God, and number two, because the righteousness of God is revealed by this gospel that leads to salvation. [00:11:51] Paul's understanding of salvation, and I think this is for us brothers, Paul's understanding was thoroughly God-centric. It was centered on God. He was concerned about God's power, God's righteousness being revealed through the lives of saved people. I don't think Paul was primarily concerned about saving people from going to hell, although he was concerned about that. We don't read anywhere that he invited people to accept Jesus as their personal Savior, but we do read that he called people to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus in that order, according to Acts chapter 20, verse 21. [00:12:36] And I believe with all my heart, brothers, and this may be a strong statement, but I believe that one of the primary reasons that we are caving in to the culture and the reason we are losing identity is because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what it is to be saved. A fundamental misunderstanding of salvation. I know that's saying it pretty strong. But I do not believe we can borrow as much from the other gospel as we have without losing something. [00:13:20] So what is wrong with this other gospel, with this selfish salvation? And I've got two points under that, and we don't want to spend a whole lot of time there if we can help it. But number one, I say, one of the biggest problems with that other selfish salvation is a neglect of Jesus' teaching, including his teaching on salvation. You know, if I were to be leading somebody to Christ, where in the scriptures would I go to lead that person to Christ? [00:13:52] I'd probably go to Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the mouth confession, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And that's a wonderful passage. And countless souls have been one, genuinely born again to Christ, one to Christ, by putting their faith in those truths. [00:14:26] But you know, it probably would be well if we would remind ourselves, wouldn't it? What did these verses mean in the context, in the times that they were written? To confess Christ as Lord, what does that mean? Does it mean that I get up in a meeting such as this or at testimony time when it's time for our baptismal applicants to give a testimony that they confess in front of this approving group of people that Christ is Lord? [00:14:58] Well, yes, it means that, of course. But also, what would it have meant to those Roman Christians? It's my understanding that before the term gospel came into the biblical terminology, the word gospel meaning good news as in the good news of the kingdom, That word was used to express the pleasure and the delight of those people when they received a new Caesar. [00:15:36] When a new Caesar came to power. When a new Caesar took the seat of power in Rome. There was no modern communication back then, so I understand that heralds were sent out into all the Roman Empire, to the major cities at least. And these heralds were supposed to proclaim that a new Caesar was now in power. And now the people were being called to give their allegiance to this man. [00:16:08] And so the herald came to a town or a major city And the people in that area were required to congregate into that city to hear the good news about the new Caesar And so the proclamation was called, for example, the Gospel of Augustus Caesar Meaning that there is good news, there is a new Caesar, Augustus In power in Rome. And the herald came into the city with great fanfare and cavalry and just a lot of pomp and ceremony and he unrolled the scroll of the Roman edict which declared there is a new Caesar whose name is Augustus. [00:17:04] It was the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of a new rule. And that's the context in which we should understand Romans 10, 9, and 10, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, because those Roman citizens in that vast empire were required immediately upon hearing the good news of a new emperor. Remember, they were required to publicly and verbally declare their allegiance to this new God ruler. [00:17:37] You see, that was the implication for the people at Rome. They understood that when they read this letter from the Apostle Paul. The Roman Christians realized that Paul was making salvation contingent. They'll be saved if they make public verbal allegiance to the new king of kings and his kingdom, his eternal kingdom. Salvation for them was not some easy raising of the hand or even relatively easy responding at a revival meeting or some sort of pledge or some sort of easy testimony. [00:18:15] It was a total commitment against all opposition to the new king with his new kingdom that had just been introduced to this world. And for many people, confessing Christ as Lord and embracing this new gospel of the heavenly kingdom, it meant for them death. Because they had to choose between Caesar or Jesus. And to not pledge one's allegiance to Caesar meant death, at least in certain eras. [00:18:49] And so we have here this very strong call, total allegiance to this new king and his kingdom. And it must happen in order for a person to be saved. But you know if you think about it, if you start with the teachings of Christ and work up to Paul We discover that Jesus essentially said the same thing over and over and over again in his teachings And we don't have much time to explore those teachings [00:19:20] But here's for example one verse So likewise in Romans 14.33 Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple There Jesus, the King, introducing his new kingdom, is calling for this same sort of unconditional, unqualified allegiance. That's the sort of demand that he made then and he still makes for those who want to enter into true salvation. But Jesus gets really specific in many places. [00:19:53] He names things that we must give up in order to enter salvation. and we go to Matthew chapter 7 for example and here's a tough one here's a tough one for any Christian in the United States of America he says in verse 24 of Matthew 7 no man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and mammon I think Jesus is laying down [00:20:23] at least indirectly here he's laying down terms For this salvation, he's saying, Jesus is asking for allegiance, he's saying that a man will either love money and possessions and let go of God, or he will let go of money and possessions and hang on to God. You can't have both. The choice is as clear here, the terms are as stark and as sharp-edged as it would have been for a citizen in Rome deciding, am I going to serve Caesar or Jesus? [00:21:04] And Jesus is saying we've got to decide either between our possessions and money or him. You know, boy, when do you hear this in a personal evangelism methodology class? You know, where do you read this in the Romans road tract? It's going to be one king or the other. Make your choice. Saving faith is only saving faith if it works out in a lifestyle, a way of life, a surrender to Jesus and his kingdom teachings. [00:21:40] And the teachings of his apostles. Otherwise, it is not faith. That other gospel, that selfish salvation has reduced faith down to believing at a certain point in time, certain things about Jesus' death and his resurrection. But the kingdom teachings of Jesus are too hard for that gospel And so they are pushed out to the margins Or they are pushed forward into some millennial kingdom Or I've even heard this They're pushed back, Jesus' kingdom teachings, into the era of the law [00:22:12] Because they are so hard They must be law We can't live them But Jesus came to bring salvation by introducing another kind of kingdom Quite a few years ago, Robert Friedman He was an Austrian and he had a passion for Anabaptist history. And he wrote a paper entitled The Doctrine of the Two Worlds and it's now published in a book by Herald Press, The Recovery of the Anabaptist Vision. He says that the mainstream of Protestant theology is sort of like a one-sided interpretation of the Pauline teaching on justification by faith. [00:22:46] Central to this other theology is the idea that we're all guilty because of the guilt of Adam's original sin. and that original sin and guilt was passed along to us, which I trust we do not believe. We make our own decisions and we are accountable for our own sin. But according to Friedman's thinking, the Protestant gospel runs something like this. The individual, a totally depraved sinner who cannot do any good, he craves for salvation and eventually he can find his salvation by putting all his confidence in the finished work of Christ. [00:23:17] You know, there's certainly truth in there. But it's a one-sided emphasis This one-sided emphasis, he said, in a fully developed Protestantism Which tended to ignore both the remainder of Paul's teachings and the Gospels It tended to ignore that Produced a theological system which assumed an extremely individualistic And may I add, an extremely selfish outlook Are we seeing any of this? An individualistic outlook on salvation [00:23:47] He goes on to say, the neighbor, the brother, important though he is, is in no way constituted to this outlook on salvation. No specific social implications could be deduced. In other words, this gospel didn't really change the culture of the people who believed it. Because it was not the gospel of the kingdom where there are sharply defined lines between the gospel of the kingdom of Christ and his people and the kingdom of this world. You see, if you make the gospel anything else, you lose that sharpness and that distinction. and people, God's people, lose their identity. [00:24:21] In contrast, I believe that the early Christians and the early Anabaptists at least saw salvation primarily as a world drama, a conflict between good and evil and Christ the victor came and he overthrew the tyranny of the old ruler, the despot, Satan. And by entering now, through the new birth into his kingdom, we can now live a new kind of life and we can be justified by faith. [00:24:53] A second problem. First problem with other gospel, that selfish salvation, is that there's a neglect of Jesus' kingdom teaching and there's a whole realm of areas we could go to there. But a second problem, I believe, and I'm sticking my neck out on this one, I realize. Anselm's model of the atonement, otherwise known as the penal satisfaction theory of the atonement. What did Jesus actually do on the cross for us? There's a man by the name of Anselm who lived back in the 1100s or so [00:25:24] Who developed a way of thinking to explain what Jesus' work on the cross actually did And it runs something like this God's holiness and justice require perfect obedience to his law Since all men have fallen short of his law And have sinned against the law all their lives God's justice and his holiness have been seriously violated. And there was an ever-widening deficit between what God's law required and the way we were actually living. [00:25:58] Someone had to make up that deficit in order for God's justice to be satisfied. That someone had to be a man, since man caused the problem in the first place. but also it couldn't be man because man had already proven himself that he couldn't meet the requirements of the law. So therefore, hence, it took both the God part of Jesus and the man part of Jesus to be that someone to make up that deficit. [00:26:28] And he came here, lived a perfect life, fulfilled the law, therefore he merited the righteousness of God and then on the cross, according to Anselm's theory, which by the way wasn't developed until 1100 when that man lived, According to this model of the atonement On the cross, Jesus did place the sins of the world upon Jesus And we believe that But what happened next, according to this theory As Jesus hung there on the cross as the sacrificial lamb of God And we believe all of that [00:26:59] Then God looked down and was satisfied And Isaiah 53 is clear That it pleased the Father to bruise His Son But then this theory sort of goes on out into realms that I think aren't really supported by scripture And Anselm's theory was, first of all, that God's sense of justice had to be satisfied Every sin that was ever committed had to be punished And so as Jesus, the God-man, lay there on the cross God not only put the sin of the world on him [00:27:33] But also the guilt associated with the sin and also the punishment for all those sins. And you follow that theory to its extreme. Many believe that he even went to hell and suffered there for a short time at least. And that was to be able to make up that deficit. Every sin then was fully punished and now since God's justice was fully satisfied, now he could be merciful to us. And now he could impute Christ's perfect righteousness to us. That's the essence of the Anselm theory of the atonement. [00:28:08] Every sin that was ever committed was paid for by Jesus' sacrifice, by making up that deficit, appeasing the wrath of God. And the song, Jesus signed my pardon, this I surely know, took my place on Calvary, now I don't have to go. All my life I give him, he gave his for me, when he signed my pardon. There's that legal transaction, when he signed my pardon on Calvary. That transaction that took place between God the Father and God the Son in order to satisfy and appease the wrath of God. [00:28:39] That theory is all over the place in the literature, in the songs that we sing. It's everywhere. But let me tell you, I sort of believed something like that all of my life, or at least elements of that, and I was totally shocked to discover that that theory, that idea of the atonement was not at all held by the early church. And like I said, it's a new development, a fairly recent development. Not until 1100 years or so after the time of Christ did this man Anselm develop this idea. You can look it up, check out the history or listen to David Bersow's three-part lecture on the atonement. [00:29:15] Another book that's real helpful is the book called Christus Victor by Gustav Alain who was a Swedish theologian and he lays out the history of the different views on the atonement and he clearly makes a very strong case that the early church did not believe this. There are problems with this view. And the first problem that I see is that God, does God require exacting and retributive justice for every sin that was ever committed before he can extend mercy? Is God really like that? [00:29:48] I mean what about the parable in Matthew 18 where the king had a servant who owed him millions and initially at least he just forgave him. There was no justice there really. And some of the other parables give a view of God in the same sort of way. But I think the biggest problem that I see with this model of the atonement Is that the work of Christ, according to this view, was primarily a work of appeasement, of the wrath of God It wasn't primarily a victory over sin, Satan, the world, and death [00:30:23] And as I said, the early church believed something entirely different Now let's, before we get into what the early church believed Let's talk about the meaning of the word atonement. Essentially, you could look at the word and it deciphers itself. It has come to mean, because of the layers of theology that have been attached, it has come to mean more the idea of satisfaction for sin. But look at the word, it's at-one-ment. [00:30:54] And that's really what it means. It's essentially about reconciliation. It means to be made one with. And as we heard last night, God has a heart for oneness. And the thing that that separated us from God in the first place, Jesus came to remove by his death on the cross and thereby he made the atonement. We could go to, let's say, a first Peter chapter three, verse 18. And I can see I've got way too much stuff here. First Peter chapter three, verse 18. I'm sorry. First Peter three, 18. [00:31:27] For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. That is a wonderful scripture describing the work of the atonement as the early church would have believed it. Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit. The early church believed in a model that has been called the Christus Victor model. [00:31:58] The essence of this view is that Christ voluntarily paid a ransom for our deliverance. Sort of in a similar sort of way that Neto Glick paid a ransom to free his father. 1 John 5.19 speaks of the condition of the world into which Jesus entered It says there, the whole world lieth How does it say there? 1 John 5.19 It says at the end of the verse [00:32:29] We know that the whole world lieth in wickedness Or other translations say, the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one And that's the world into which Christ entered The whole world was under the power of the evil one. I remember years ago when Ronald Reagan gave a speech, he described the Soviet Union as the evil empire. Remember that? And there were some repercussions to that speech. Well, this empire that this verse talks about here is far worse than some totalitarian empire like Hitler or communism. [00:33:04] This empire that was under the control of the despot Satan was a bondage of body, soul, spirit, and mind. And into this enemy empire, Christ came with a new way, a new kingdom. And he says himself in Matthew chapter 20, 28, he says, Even as the Son of God came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and give his life a ransom for many, he taught. And in this view, which was the view of the early church, and I think the predominant view of the early Anabaptists [00:33:40] In this view, the price was not paid to God It was paid to the bad guy But this was not some negotiation with the devil, let's make that clear Not some deal with the devil It was sort of like this, it's a poor illustration But last Sunday I was supposed to go to our local jail to preach And Brother Simon sitting here in the audience reminded me about a week before that or a few days before that [00:34:10] That it was my turn to go And you know with everything happening and preparing to come here I forgot about it And Sunday morning came and we realized we didn't have the second brother to go along to preach It was because of my foolishness and my mistake Okay, so somebody had to pay a price That meant that another minister had to give up It wasn't too high of a price, thankfully But he had to give up his Sunday afternoon nap, probably And maybe cut short his Easter Sunday dinner [00:34:40] And he had to go take my place Because of what I had done In the same sort of way Jesus had to pay a ransom In order to free us from the tyranny of Satan Which we had voluntarily given ourselves to And we do believe that Jesus, in this model of the atonement, was the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He was the mediator between God and man. He was the sacrifice for our sins, brothers and sisters. God did lay upon Him the iniquity of us all. But you know, it was less about appeasing the wrath of a father, [00:35:16] and it was all about defeating sin, Satan, the world, and death. Those things which had held us in bondage That is the Christus Victor model of the atonement And it's the one that I have chosen to embrace Because I think it fits, it just pulls everything together so well Now an old gospel song that reflects this The song, Oh Victory in Jesus I heard an old, old story How a savior came from glory [00:35:46] How he gave his life on Calvary To save a wretch like me I heard about his groaning, of his precious blood's atoning, then I repented of my sin and won the victory. Let's sing the chorus together. Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever, he sought me and he bought me with his redeeming blood. [00:36:17] He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me to victory, the cleansing flood. Did you hear in the chorus? How did it say again? He bought me and he sought me with his redeeming blood. [00:36:48] The idea of a ransom price paid. I think this song is theologically accurate, at least for the most part. You know, when I began to see the atonement in this sort of light, all kinds of scripture passages began to jump out at me. We don't have time for many of them at all. In fact, I'm going to give you some references. And you can jot them down. And brothers, I invite you to discern whether I am cutting this straight or not. I invite you to do that. And if I need to be publicly rebuked in any way for some error I'm teaching, do it. Let me give you some references. Luke chapter 11, verse 20 to 22. In this passage, Jesus is the strong man. John chapter 12, verse 31. Just before his atoning work, Jesus made this declaration. [00:37:32] Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. That was within 24 hours of his crucifixion. And that's the view of the atonement. Christ has won the victory. John 16.33 Romans 8.3 Ephesians 4.8 Where he led captivity captive. Now I want to read. Let me give you Colossians 2.13-15 But I want to read Hebrews chapter 2, 14 and 15. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15. And it is said, this passage, Hebrews 2, 14 and 15, it is said that this was the most often referred to passage by the early fathers. I don't know if this is true or not. [00:38:18] But it's a powerful, it's probably the theme of the Christ is victor model of the atonement. Hebrews chapter 2, 13 and 14, we'll just break into this passage, which is speaking of the incarnation of Christ. He says, let's read 14 and 15 For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood He also himself likewise took part of the saying That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death [00:38:48] That is the devil And here is the deliverance in verse 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage Brothers and sisters, Christ is victor. We only have to read the gospels to see that Jesus' life was an unbroken string of victory over the devil. Take, for example, the first eight chapters of the gospel of Matthew. You start reading about Jesus' victory over the devil. You read about his victory over the devil in the wilderness in 40 days of temptation. [00:39:23] and he defeated Satan there. And then you have Jesus defeating pretty much every conceivable enemy after that in the next few chapters. He forgave sin. He raised the dead. He healed the sick. Caused the lame to walk. Caused the blind to see. He healed the leper. Cast out demons. And all of this. Calmed the storm. At every turn of the page, you have another manifestation of the authority of Christ. He defeats the enemy and all the bondage that the enemy has brought [00:39:54] But not only that You see there's a component here that we're coming to now A component that I think is missing in that other gospel That selfish salvation In those first eight chapters of the book of Matthew And also in the book of Luke at least And in fact all the gospels Jesus not only wins a unilateral, unconditional victory over Satan, sin, death, and the devil, he also introduces as an alternative lifestyle another kingdom, another kingdom, another rule. [00:40:37] It was the announcement of another. It was the gospel of another rule. He brings in a counterculture of which we can be a part now. You see, we can't be a separated people unless we understand salvation in these sorts of terms. He announces that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now we can understand the very first thing that Jesus taught a little better perhaps. What was the very first thing that Jesus spoke publicly? [00:41:11] Repent. Why? Because if you don't you'll go to hell? Repent for I'm bringing you another kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. You know, if we see it in this light, that's not a threat. I used to sort of think of that like a train coming down the track and boy, I better repent and get out of the way or to run me over. It's not that. Jesus' words here are an invitation. Hey, you can change your way of life. I'm bringing another kingdom. This is good news. This is the announcement of another kingdom. You can actually, for the first time in history, change your life, really change your life by entering into my new kingdom here. [00:41:53] Jesus said I'm coming to overthrow the tyrant and I'm coming to bring you another way of life. Enter into it. And then in the book of Matthew we have those wonderful three chapters we call the Sermon on the Mount and it's the constitution of his new kingdom. And it's salvation brothers and sisters if we follow him in faith and love. Here is a man who single-handedly overthrew a corrupt regime, a despot, and now he brings in his own benevolent rule for all those who follow him in true faith. [00:42:39] Let me say that again. Here is a man, a God-man, who single-handedly, by not just his death on the cross, as the other gospel seems to focus mostly on, but by his entire life as we have seen, He defeated Satan, sin, death, and the world. He defeated all of that. He overthrew the corrupt regime and he brings in his own benevolent rule for all those who follow him in faith. And brothers and sisters, I say, this is the essence of salvation. It is a God-centered salvation where now I must choose, am I going to enter into that kingdom or not? Am I going to surrender to this man or not? [00:43:22] It's not this cheap question of asking, okay, would you like to receive Jesus as your personal Savior? The question is, in my court, am I going to receive Him as Lord of heaven and earth? And I believe when the apostles preached this message, believe on the name, the name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, They were doing much more than calling people, as this other gospel seems to do, to primarily focus their minds on certain aspects and certain promises that come out of Jesus' death and suffering. [00:43:56] When they called Jesus to believe on the name of the Son of God in order to receive salvation, they were calling people to embrace the totality of this Jesus, this King, this new ruler. Remember, they were calling people to embrace the gospel of the kingdom. You know, we're justified by faith when we reach out to that kind of Jesus. Now, faith that saves real quickly here. I think these are things that we need to examine our own lives for and the lives of those we're called to lead. [00:44:29] Number one, the early church believed this. They saw Jesus first and foremost as Lord. Lord, not as some meek savior up here appeasing the father. They saw him as Lord, ruler of heaven and earth. Paul wrote in Philippians 2. We heard that last night. God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow. They bowed now. They bowed right then. They fell on his feet. And we see that happening when they met the resurrected Christ. He is Lord. That's how they saw him. [00:45:03] So first and foremost, we need to see, and our people need to see, that saving faith means following Christ as Lord. That means surrender. That doesn't mean necessarily freedom of struggle, but is there clear evidence of a surrendered life? Is there a yieldedness to Christ? Is there poverty of spirit? Is there a yieldedness to the authorities that Christ has set up over His earthly domain? Remember the last thing he said. [00:45:33] All power, all authority has been given to me. Who are we to oppose him? Second, we're called to follow by faith a Savior. And I want to speak here now about adoration. You know, I'm concerned. I had a brother tell me recently and honestly, he said to me, about our congregation, really, as we were talking about our people, he said, you know, Our people, he said, our people, what word did he use? He used, our people don't have this effervescent joy. You know what the word effervescent, I looked it up, it means sort of a radiance or a lively kind of joy. [00:46:14] We need more of this effervescent joy that comes from following Christ. You know, I'm going to suggest maybe a lack of joy might come from a lack of adoration. Christ has come to redeem our emotions and heal our emotions and set them free. And we have got to have some outlet for our emotions. Maybe we as the plain people want to sort of squelch our emotions because we don't want to be known as phonetics. [00:46:47] And some of that's probably good. But there is an outlet for our emotions, brothers and sisters, and it would be Jesus, the Savior of the world. If we think of what all he has done for us in saving us, in redeeming us from sin, Satan, death, and the world. Oh, wouldn't it be good if we could regularly, very regularly, leaders, here, come before our Savior and just adore Him. Like Mary, who washed His feet with her tears and wiped His feet with her hair. [00:47:21] Wouldn't it be good if we would do that? Just adore Him. You know, we can follow all these things. We can obey the commandments of Christ and be as legalistic as the Pharisees were with the old law. And I wonder sometimes if that's our problem. I appreciate last night Brother Earl said that Christ is his hero. That's an element of adoration. You know, we bowed his feet and we're, you know, I don't know how to describe it all, but there should be a sense of awe, of wonder, of fear, really. [00:47:52] I mean, look at John. Talk to John in the book of Revelation. He fell at his feet. Talk to Paul who fell at his feet on the road to Damascus. Talk to those disciples who saw him after the resurrection. There's a sense of awe and fear, adoration. But not only that, love. Jesus said, if you love me, keep my commandments. Oh, and I'm scared of the legalism and dogmatism that might come when we seek to keep his commandments without adoration. Oh, we need to see this quality in the lives of those people we're seeking to lead. But first, we need to cultivate adoration in our own hearts. Finally, we need to allow Jesus to be master teacher. And I think this is another element that the other gospel leaves out. The other salvation focuses on salvation as a point in time. You know what Jesus said about salvation? This is a very important teaching in the New Testament about salvation. And we don't often hear it. in the context of teaching on salvation. [00:48:52] But he said, you know what he said in Matthew 24? He said, he that there will be many false prophets that come in the last days and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, he said. But he said, he that shall endure to the end shall what? Be saved. When was the last time you read that in the Romans Road Tract? There's a call to follow him now as master teacher. And I mean that in the sense, let's say there's a master carpenter who has an apprentice under him. [00:49:23] That apprentice watches him closely, tries to duplicate his master's workmanship. And now we're called to follow, earnestly follow, walk as he walked. There is no other way to follow Jesus but to go to his school. We must study his life, his teachings, and the teachings of his apostles and embrace them all. Brothers, I say that is part of the essence of salvation. Let us make provision right now in our lives for that schooling. [00:49:54] And let us call our people to enter that school as well. Well, brothers, I want to close with a verse out of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. For this Christ is victor. Christ is victor. Christ is Lord. 1 Corinthians 15. 57. But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.