The Hope of Our Salvation

[00:00:00] I'm so glad you're in my life. I'm so glad you came to save us. You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the earth to the cross, my death to pay, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky. Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I lift your name on high. Lord, I love to sing your praises. I'm so glad you're in my life. I'm so glad you came to save us. [00:00:48] You came from heaven to earth to show the way, from the air to the cross, my death is paid, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high. There is a Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son [00:01:38] Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son And leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done Jesus, my Redeemer, name above all names, Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, whole for sinners slain, [00:02:28] Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son And leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done When I stand in glory, I will see His face. There I'll serve my King forever in that holy place. [00:03:07] Thank you, O my Father, for giving us your Son, and leaving your Spirit till the work on earth is done. And it also gives us the reassurance that we might live a sin forever. [00:03:38] This song is called The Life Giver. The hammer, the brutal nails, the old rugged tree, Jesus died in place of me, and his wounds set me free. [00:04:16] The whiffy and the mocking crew were all in God's plan With a willing heart he bore the pain just to save fallen men He nailed him to the tree, the great I am They pierced the Savior, the sacrificial lamb [00:04:57] So he gladly gave up his life in redeeming me from sin And because of that great love, into heaven I enter in. And because of that great love, into heaven I enter in. [00:05:38] The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Is that true in your life this morning? Does Christ live within you? Would your life be any different today if Christ hadn't rose from the dead? Knowing about God, knowing that Christ died, knowing that Christ rose again [00:06:10] makes no difference until Christ lives within you. That is the difference between Christianity and every other religion. Most religions have a founder or a prophet or a man that they look up to that lived on earth at one time. Every one of those religions can take you to that man's grave and show you where he's buried. We can tell you our leader rose from the dead. It's just wonderful to know that we serve a risen Savior. [00:06:46] Just some thoughts I wrote down actually after I was at church when John was preaching this morning. I'm not planning on having an Easter message, I guess, as such. I thought John was probably going to talk about that this morning. We had Sunday school on that. I'm going to keep going with my study in Ephesians with some thoughts I wrote down. One of them was, does Christ live within you? Check your relationships with others. Is there anyone in your life who you just cannot get along with? [00:07:21] Jesus said, by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Forgiveness is a choice we need to make. We cannot say that we have Christ living within us if we have relationships that we cannot forgive the person involved. Even if they are, they're the ones that are at fault. That's how it always seems to us. It's not my fault, it's his fault, it's her fault. It is still our responsibility to forgive. Another one I thought of is looking in the mirror and thinking of God's word as the mirror. [00:07:57] Looking in the mirror does no good if you don't wash the food off your face. When you get up in the morning and you get ready to leave, you look in the mirror. If your hair is all messed up, you've got cheese in your eyes, it does no good to look in the mirror and see all that and then walk away. You might as well not look in the mirror. If you don't do anything about what you're seeing when you read the Word of God, Or when you look in the mirror, then it does you no good. [00:08:33] I just challenge each one of us to be honest with what we... When I said that about check your relationships with others, if you just take a, you know, just be quiet for a little bit and just think about that. Is there someone that comes to your mind? And when that happens, do you brush that thought away? Or do you say, yes, there is something there I need to take care of. [00:09:03] I need to make that, I need to wash that dirt off my face. This challenges you to be honest with God. God knows your heart. God knows everything about us. And hiding it does no good. The truth, what is proclaimed in secret will be, what is whispered in secret will be proclaimed from the housetops. We do no good by hiding things now. Okay, I'm going to do a little bit of a review this morning. [00:09:35] I want to read Ephesians 6, 10 through 18. We've been looking at the armor of the Lord, the Christian's armor, and we've made it through verse 14 so far. We'll read this section and then we'll do just a little bit of review. And then I'd like to cover the 15 through 17 this morning. Ephesians 6, 10 through 18 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. [00:10:07] For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. [00:10:42] and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. A review of the list of things we need. We need the whole armor of God, verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Verse 12, we need to be on guard against the wiles of the devil. Satan's main weapon is deception. You cannot tell when you are deceived. If you are deceived, you don't know it. You may tell if you're living in sin, but if you have really been deceived into living in sin, not knowing it, you can't know it. [00:11:37] You need to read the Bible. You need to be able to listen to what people have to say. The Bible is the only way, by reading the Bible, if you are truly deceived, is the only way that you can know it. Someone that is deceived does not know it. You can be living in rebellion and know that. If you are deceived, you don't know it. Verse 13, to realize that while we are no match for Satan, he is no match for God. [00:12:11] We wrestle not against flesh and blood, that is why we need the armor of God. But at the same time, having the armor of God makes us victors over Satan, gives us the victory. Verse 14, we need to have truth, both in knowing the truth, as in the word of God, the truth that we have been given, and in being truthful. We need to be truthful. We need what we say, what we do. Do we live a truthful life? [00:12:43] And then another one in verse 14 is to live a righteous life. Hold ourselves to a righteous standard. We have the breastplate of righteousness. Okay, I'd like to go to verse 15. And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Feet shod with the preparation. How prepared are we to share the gospel of peace? [00:13:16] How established is the peace of the gospel in our own lives? Do we, in our hearts, do we have a peace that comes from knowing the gospel? I've heard the illustration, a lot of you probably have, of every human, the human soul has a God-shaped hole in it. I don't know how many of you have seen the little Tupperware balls that has all the shapes and then you put the circle in this one and the triangle in this. [00:13:49] There's different holes and every one of those pieces, and I've tried it, every one of those pieces will only fit in the hole that it's made for. You can't take the square and put it through the triangle. None of those will fit. And that is how our lives are. Every one of us has a hole in our lives that is shaped for God. If we do not have God plugged into that hole where He is the only one, we take money, we take happiness, the pursuit of happiness, work, travel, whatever we might take and try to use to plug that hole in our lives, to give us contentment, to make our lives fulfilled, will not work. [00:14:39] It has to be God that is plugged into that hole. When we have God properly fitted into our lives, it brings a contentment that greatly reduces Satan's ability to tempt us. Here again, we are in the battle against the wiles of the devil. It talks about the fiery darts. Those fiery darts are temptation, deception. Deception, usually we know like in Job, Satan was allowed to give Job boils and actually take his family and that kind of thing. [00:15:16] Usually the way we face Satan, the way Satan attacks us is through deception. That is his main weapon. So all of these different pieces of armor are designed to protect us from being deceived by Satan telling us there is more. We've got to have something different or better or God won't keep us happy. God won't fulfill what we, won't bring contentment to our lives. Once we have God in his proper place in our lives, that greatly reduces Satan's ability to tempt us with anything else. [00:15:55] We are no longer uncontent. We are no longer searching for something. One thing I often, if you read like the Gospel Echoes newsletter or different ministries like that, they'll have letters from people that responded to their ministry and one thing that you often read is that this person was living his life and they were into drugs or alcohol or whatever they were in and one common theme you often hear is I just thought there had to be something more to life. [00:16:30] And so many of those people, what their testimony is, when I found God, I found what I was looking for. But God did none of them any good until they were willing to submit to God and have God in His proper place in their life. We need to be, our feet shot of the preparation of the gospel of peace. We need to be ready to share, but it's got to be real to us first. [00:17:02] Knowing all this, knowing all the right words to say, we will not be able to speak with the conviction, Christian with the, like Terry Meyer says, they got to be able to see you enjoying doing it. If you are trying to tell someone to be a Christian, be a Christian like I am, and you're glum all the time, you're not satisfied, you're not happy, you're not going to be a good salesman, a good Christian salesman. You are not going to be able to sell your product. [00:17:34] If you believe in your product, you are a much better salesman. Colossians 4, 5-6 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. 1 Peter 3, 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear. [00:18:07] Do we know how we ought to answer every man? Would you be able to explain the plan of salvation to someone who knew nothing of the Bible? We can talk to each other. Most of us have grown up in the church. Most of us know a lot about, you know, we've heard all the Bible stories. We know all that. So we can have a conversation. If the person you were talking to came to you like the jailer to Paul, [00:18:37] Sir, what must I do to be saved? Could you explain the plan of salvation to that person? I worked with a man in White Pigeon, and we kind of got into a lot of religion arguments, and I often look back and wish I would have been a lot smarter than I was. Maybe I should still wish that. I do still wish that. But one question I asked him was, Okay, I'm a person on the street, I know nothing of the Bible, and I'm coming to you. [00:19:13] What do I need to do to go to heaven? And he was floored. He said, I guess I'd give you the Ten Commandments and say, here, do these. That's not going to get anyone to heaven, doing the Ten Commandments. We need to have a personal relationship with God. We need to be able to express to people the gospel of peace. And that comes through preparation. Verse 16, taking the shield of faith. [00:19:48] Let's look at 1 John. I'm going to read two verses. 1 John 4, 4 and 1 John 5, 4. Just keeping in mind the whole time through here that we are in a battle and we are figuring out the armor we need to be wearing for this battle. 1 John 4, 4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, [00:20:21] because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. The shield of faith. Faith. Faith is trusting God. Faith is believing God. Faith is knowing that what God says will come to pass. We do not have to wonder, is God trustworthy? Is God, can I really trust God? Does God really care? God has a tremendous track record. And we can have every assurance that God will do what He says. And that is where our faith comes in. [00:20:56] Notice that he says little children. Does that sound like someone that is going to overcome the world? You have got little children and have overcome them. Little children do not overcome. We have to realize that we are overcoming because of what God is doing for us. 1 John 5, 4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, Even our faith. There again, faith is the victory. That is what we have to overcome the enemy. [00:21:35] Hebrews 11 verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Without faith it is impossible to please Him. I think the opposite would also be true, that a lack of faith displeases God. How much time do we spend worrying about things that we have no control over? All the worry in the world doesn't do any good. [00:22:07] At the same time, we can know that God has every one of those things under complete control. I heard before that worrying does help, because 95% of the things you worry about never happen. So that's proof. We do not need to be, I don't think being a worrying person is a good testimony. If you are known as somebody that worries a lot, I don't think you can be known as someone that is a person of faith. [00:22:45] I don't think you can have both. Faith and worry do not go well together. One thing I thought of would maybe be if you would have a box or a graft maybe where it's going to be full and you're going to have whatever, if you have 50% faith and 50% worry, whichever way you move that bar, if you go to 70% faith, you can't have more than 30% worry. The more faith, the less worry. The more worry, the less faith. I don't know how accurate that would be, but I don't think that we can be a worrisome person and be a person of faith. [00:23:26] I think worry shows a lack of faith. It doesn't mean that we never have questions, you know, what's going to happen with this meeting I'm going to tomorrow. It doesn't mean that we never have concerns that way. But to make it a habit to worry, Oh, this might happen, this might happen. Listening to talk radio all the time can do a lot to make you worry. That's funny, but at the same time, if listening to talk radio is making you worry, [00:23:57] maybe you need to turn the radio off. It's one thing to listen to the news and know what's going on. That's another thing to listen to the news to find out which day the world is going to end. And I just think we need to realize that if we are worrying, we are not trusting. God is in control. Take the shield of faith to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Let's look at Genesis 3, 1-5. Genesis 3, 1-5 [00:24:47] Remember, it's the shield of faith that is quenching the fiery darts of the wicked, quenching the temptations. Genesis 3, 1-5 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? See, he's starting to question God. And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. [00:25:22] And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Okay, now Satan has placed in her mind a doubt. This is where Eve makes a choice. Do I have faith? God is a good God. God knows what's best for me, for my life, for my situation. God told me not to eat the fruit, and that's good enough. [00:25:53] I believe it. I'm going to have faith in God. If she would have simply done that, that would have quenched that temptation. We know what happened in verse 6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Something I never thought about, really, in that story. It sounds like, in verse 3 she says, [00:26:27] But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. I always, well in the Bible story books and whatever, she's standing by this tree and the serpent is hanging in the tree and saying, Eat the fruit. You get the picture that Satan came to her and she was somewhere else. And she said, The fruit that's in the midst of the garden, we're not supposed to eat. Almost like, we don't even go over there. Then Satan gave her this idea, and then in verse 6 it says, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food. [00:26:59] Almost like, well, I'm just going to go look. I'm going to go check it out. And then, we all know, she took the fruit, gave to Adam, and that was the first sin. If Eve would have had faith, trusted God, it would have quenched the temptation she faced. Verse 17, take the helmet of salvation. I had to work with this one a little bit. How is our salvation a guard against the wiles of the devil? [00:27:33] 1 Thessalonians 5.8 says, But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation. So that gives it just a little bit different thought. We have salvation. We know we have been saved in the fact that we believe Christ has died for us. We've accepted Him. We can know salvation in that sense. [00:28:05] But at the same time, we are not truly saved until we... Let's say there's a man drowning in a lake. He's at sea. He has a life jacket. He has no idea when help is coming. When that lifeguard boat starts coming to him, he's been saved, really. He knows now he's been saved because that guy's coming to pick him up. But when he is actually saved is when he is picked out of the water, into the boat. [00:28:38] And I guess in that hope of salvation, we know we are saved. We know we've been born again. But we are still in this sinful world and still in this sinful body. We will be saved when the Lord comes back. When we have that hope of salvation, that is when we will see, We've been given the Spirit as an earnest, the Bible says, as a down payment of our salvation. But when our hope will finally be realized is when the Lord comes back and we either go to Him then or when we die. [00:29:15] When we are in a battle, that hope that we have, no matter how bad it gets, no matter what happens, I can be strong and I can be true to God. I can resist temptation because, like Jesus, He kept His eye on the goal that was set before Him. And that hope of salvation can be a helmet for us. 2 Timothy 1 verse 12 [00:29:45] For the witch cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed. for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Once again, it's our knowledge of God that protects us from our enemy. It goes back to knowing the truth and being set free. The truth shall set you free. If you are living in the truth, you are free. If you are hiding the truth, if you are not bringing things out, [00:30:16] You may think that's the best route because if I tell people, well, it's going to cause problems. The truth will set you free. And the sword of the Spirit. Let's turn to Matthew 4, 1-11. Matthew 4, 1-11. This is when Jesus was tempted and every time that he was tempted he was presented with three different temptations [00:30:53] and every time he rebuffed the temptation with scripture. Now Jesus as the author of scripture would have known scripture. He probably didn't have to do a whole lot of reading. We need to read. If we don't know scripture, verses can't come to our mind if we haven't heard them, haven't read them. If we are faced with temptation, in Psalms 119 it says, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. [00:31:29] Matthew 4, 1-11 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. [00:32:03] And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up. Lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. What he meant by tempt there, that would be... Okay, he has a verse saying that if the angels have charge over him and if he throws himself off, the angel will take care of him. That is tempting God. [00:32:36] Jumping off of a building to see if God can protect you. We know God could protect you. That is tempting God. Verse 8, again the devil takes him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. [00:33:08] Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. We see Jesus using the sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, to fend off temptation. And there again, if we know what's there, I think I've mentioned this before, but a couple quarters ago I was a Sunday school teacher, and we had a lot, it was Old Testament, and I can't even remember the names right now, [00:33:40] But different kings and different people that when the word of God was presented to them, it just changed their lives. The word, I guess what I came away from that quarter with, contact with the word of God, actually reading the word of God and letting it work in our lives, changes you. You cannot read the Bible seriously and honestly and openly and not be changed. You just, there's just, none of us measure up to what's there. [00:34:14] And that is, no matter where you're at in your life, if you're kind of smug because you haven't sinned in 12 years, you need to start reading some more. Because that is, the Word of God changes us as we read. If Jesus had not known Scripture, might He have fallen? I don't want to sound blasphemous or anything, but it was possible for Jesus to sin. If it wouldn't have been possible for Him to sin, there wouldn't have been any temptation for Him to sin. [00:34:49] So, being grounded in the Word is what protected Him at that time. I wrote at the bottom, you can't know it if you don't read it. We need, I speak to myself first, my wife could tell you that, we need to spend time reading the Bible. We should always be fresh on that. We should be prepared to share our testimony, prepared to share the gospel of peace. [00:35:21] Living in faith, using the shield of faith to fend off the fiery darts, the worries, the problems that we see that might affect us. and then using the word of the Lord as a sword to protect us. Let's ask you guys to all stand. I guess I would just kind of like to say this together. [00:35:54] You can't know it if you don't read it. All together. You can't know it if you don't read it. I'd just like to leave that as a challenge to make sure you make reading the Bible a priority in your life and that you would have that piece of armor, the sword of the Spirit, as a vital part of your armor. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you again today for what you've given us, your word, your defense, Lord, your armor that we can have [00:36:31] That's available for all of us, Lord, and we just ask that you would help us to be willing, to be open, to be honest, to realize the areas where we have failed. To be willing to change and correct those areas. We ask for strength to do that. Just pray that you'd help us all this week to live victorious, to live in your armor, to be who you'd have us to be. I just pray you'd help us all to be a witness for you, to be what you'd have us to be to those around us. [00:37:08] Thank you, Lord, for all you do and for caring. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.