The One God’s One Way of Salvation

Transcript

GR 2214
The One God’s One Way of Salvation
07/14/2019
Romans 03:27-31
Gil Rugh

We’ll be in Romans chapter 3 in your Bibles and we’re going to allow some time for questions. I have a couple of things to address then I give you time so you can keep that in mind as we work through this passage. We’re in Romans chapter 3, no greater subject than the gospel and this is what it’s about. We’re really studying the power of God for salvation, because in chapter 1 Paul told us. The gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,” so we’re getting a detailed unfolding as Paul writes to the Romans under the direction of the Spirit. What is the gospel that we believe? That doesn’t mean that we understand all these details the first time we hear and believe. It’s usually a simple faith and something of a pure faith. We may just be under the conviction of our sin and the need for the salvation that only God could provide and that is found in Jesus Christ and we place our faith in Him.

We want to grow in that and understand what was entailed. Paul has explained, look at verse 26, we live in this period of time when God has demonstrated His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus, just and the justifier. As we noted, these basically come from the word for righteousness that He might be righteous, and then the legal use of the word in the context, declare righteous. So He could maintain His own righteousness, while at the same time He is declaring righteous those completely corrupted sinful individuals that we talked about in the first three chapters basically, where He demonstrated clearly that there is none righteous. The whole world is guilty because of their sin and accountable to God for their sin.

Now how can a righteous God declare a clearly unrighteous people righteous? Well, He can do whatever He wants, He’s God. No, He has to function consistently with His character. It wouldn’t be righteous just to declare unrighteous people righteous. We understand that concept even with the more limited framework of how we look at righteous today. Just for a person who commits atrocious crimes and the judge says as he sentences, “I declare you righteous so you’re absolved of all guilt.” You say, “Well, that’s not righteous to do that.” So what God has to do is demonstrate how He can be righteous and at the same time declare unrighteous people righteous in His sight, thus absolved of their guilt and the penalty that would be associated with their sin. This is a crucial matter, that apart from Christ it’s not possible to understand with any clarity how God could operate in this way.

Come back to the Old Testament just two passages, Deuteronomy 32. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy chapter 32. Very early in Israel’s history God said to them in verse 3, “For I proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock! His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness and without injustice.” So you see there, He’s a just God He would not be guilty of any injustice. “Righteous and upright is He,” so He must function consistently with His character. If you want to stop at Psalm 89 right about in the middle of your Bible if you’re using a paper Bible, Psalm 89 verse 14, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; lovingkindness and truth go before You.” The very foundation of the throne of God, the foundation to all He does is righteousness and justice so it could not be that He could provide a salvation that would be inconsistent with who He is as God and how He always conducts Himself. So He is explaining that to us as you come back to Romans chapter 3.

Having shown how sinful Jew and Gentile alike really are now how can we understand verse 21? “The righteousness of God has been manifested,” it’s been made known, His provision of righteousness for us who are unrighteous. An action done in Christ to take our place, pay the penalty for our sin so that God could declare the unrighteous righteous. We are, verse 24, since we’re all sinners “and fall short of the glory of God,” we are “being justified,” declared righteous, “as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Redemption, through the price paid on our behalf, it’s in Christ Jesus, He’s a propitiation. These key words, justification, redemption, propitiation all shed light on the salvation and how it is accomplished on our behalf. He’s the propitiation in His blood and that word propitiation, He satisfies the requirements of righteousness and turns away the wrath of God from us.

He’s God’s sacrifice to take our place, be our substitute, so God’s wrath is turned away from us because the penalty that our sin required has been taken care of. “This was to demonstrate,” verse 25, “His righteousness,” and verse 26, this is “for the demonstration I say, of His righteousness at the present time.” It is crucial that we understand that the very character of God is at stake in this matter of providing salvation for sinful people. He is God, He can do no other, function in no other way, so He has done that by providing Jesus Christ “so that He would be just,” verse 26, “and the justifier.” Now key here, He is righteous and He’s the One who can declare righteous. Now He makes a provision, but the application of that provision is not credited to our account until we believe, and this will become the key as we move through chapter 4. He’ll repeatedly state using a Greek word logizomai of the crediting to our account by faith what Christ has done, so it is applied to us so God can declare us righteous, forgiven, absolved of guilt.

You come to verse 27 he asks the question, “Where then is boasting?” You know, man likes to exalt himself. We have had the self-esteem movement but this has never been a problem. People like to brag about their low self-esteem and somehow you get some kind of credit, but you like to act humble and tell people how low your self-esteem was and you didn’t -- that’s never been a problem. We think very highly of ourselves and when it comes to the matter of salvation God will have none of it. A plague of not understanding clearly the truth of the gospel is how a self-esteem movement ever finds any footing in the church that we have Christian self-esteem books and things being promoted and how important it is. For a time, we had the books on raising your children with good self-esteem.

“Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?” So since he’s dealing with the Gentile church but there’s a Jewish influence pressing into this church and Jewish teachers. Judaizers who would want to try to convert the Christian Gentiles to a form of Judaism, claiming they believe in Christ but now you wed that to Judaism. “By what kind of Law. Of works? No, but by a law of faith.” Here’s what God has established as the way of salvation. Not by works, it’s excluded. How is it excluded? Well, salvation is only made available to men, by faith. Well, what about my works, what about my keeping the law, what about my trying to clean up my life? It’s excluded, that’s the emphasis. Down in verse 2 of chapter 4, we won’t get here tonight, but “if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.”

I mean, we have already established Jews who said they kept the Law and Gentiles who never even made a profession of keeping the Law alike are sinners. Now if Abraham, he’ll be the example in chapter 4 could say well it was a combination, I believed God and then I did these things also, and together that enabled me to be declared righteous by God. Well, then I can boast. It was a combination, God and I worked together to bring about my salvation. He provided Christ and I contributed my works and together that resulted in salvation. There would be something for you to boast about then, we have to be careful. Can I boast because I have salvation in Christ and the lost person doesn’t? That’s some credit to me, I was not as bad a person as they were. If they had been as good as I had, they would have believed. Well, now we begin to undermine the foundations again, so where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. Here’s what God has provided and what God requires. You do nothing but believe. Faith is not a work, it is a response to the work that God has done.

Just come to one passage, come over to 1 Corinthians, that’s right after Romans, chapter 1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26, “For consider your calling, brethren, there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not may noble; (because) God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” God has chosen, you’ll note the repeated emphasis on God’s decisiveness here. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not that He might nullify the things that are. Why? So that no man may boast before God, I would have nothing to offer. I have nothing there that I can say, “God, I did this, it’s not a lot, it only was five percent of my salvation,” but there’s no boasting. We are hell-deserving sinners and there is absolutely nothing we can do to make ourselves more savable, there’s nothing we can do to make our salvation more complete, it’s been done. It’s offered as a gift, a free gift of grace. Believe it, believe in what Christ has done.

That’s the point, God is working and done all of this. You know, not many mighty, not many noble, and so on are called and the problem becomes man’s pride, and it gets in the way. Salvation is a humbling thing. You can’t come to Christ with your chest puffed out. I’m here and I’ve decided I’m willing to have Your salvation, I’m sure You’re very pleased. As though we’re doing Him a favor, that God has been just there hoping, and so we come as though we’re helping God out. The hard thing about salvation is its completely humbling. That’s why we hesitate to start with the teaching about sin, because people don’t want to hear that. We really start by telling me I am a sinner and deserve nothing but hell. I don’t want to hear it so we try often to massage it. I’m not saying the first thing you have to say is you are a sinner. You might introduce the conversation with general stuff but you have to get to this issue. It’s about sin. We need redemption, we need propitiation to take place, I mean, this is all about sin. If it’s not all about sin, we don’t need a Savior. The idea that you can talk about the gospel but not talk about why there is a Savior provided and that can lead to disaster. People say, “Sure, I’ll trust Christ, get all kind of benefits. I’m a believer, too.” But there is a conviction of sin recognition, of my unworthiness, my guilt.

Back to Romans chapter 3, it’s “by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified,” declared righteous, “by faith apart from the works of the Law.” It’s just that clear, there is no salvation until faith takes place, the death of Christ on the cross saved no one. Christ died 2,000 years ago. I was just as lost and on my way to hell as the worst of sinners until I believed the gospel. Could it be any clearer? A man is justified by the death of Christ on the cross, that’s not what it says. The death of Christ on the cross-made possible the salvation of sinners, but God has established a law that death will not be applied apart from faith. Now, that’s not a work that I do, but it is a response to what He has done, and important to be clear in this whole area. Theology can become confused as though Christ died on the cross that paid my penalty. It paid the penalty for sin it did not pay my penalty. It was not applied to me until I believed. You’ll note, you’re not justified apart from faith.

Some of you have done some reading on Reformed theology, the idea that we are justified so that we can believe. Every time I read that, I find myself puzzled and its illogic, since you are a sinner and you can do nothing to please God, you wouldn’t be able to believe until you were justified. Well, that’s not what God says, a man is justified by faith not so that he can have faith. Let scripture be the authority not our logic applied to scripture. We are declared righteous by faith apart from the works of the Law, a good verse to keep in mind when you talk to people and you’re sharing the gospel with them. They say, “Well, I try to keep the Ten Commandments, I try to do good.“ Well, that’s nice but that won’t save you. The Ten Commandments are part of the Law and they just give you a summary overview, but there are 613 commandments and even if you kept all 613 you wouldn’t be saved, but no one does, so we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

Now come over to Philippians, we have a number of verses on these, I’ll select out just one or two, you’re familiar with many of them, but Philippians chapter 3. Paul talks about his salvation and he’s given his testimony here. He was a Jew who was zealous to keep the Law, verse 5 of Philippians 3, he was “circumcised the eighth day” as a good Jewish boy in a Jewish family. “He was of the nation Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to the righteousness, which is in the Law, found blameless.” That doesn’t mean that Paul kept the Law perfectly, but he did it as well as any human being could be expected to do it. Now, I realize he didn’t perfectly keep the Law or he would never have been involved in the sacrifices that the Law required. The point: I did everything, when I did sin I did the right sacrifice; and he did all that. What’s it come to, verse 7, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.”

You know, we have people who want to claim to be saved but they want to stay in their false religious system because, you know, my family won’t understand. Wait a minute, it cost Paul greatly. Well, I realized that was the road to hell, I cannot stay on that road. So all these things in Judaism, He was a rising star in Judaism, a young man excelling, honored, whatever things were gain to me that immediately goes to the rubbish heap. You see there’s recognition, a clarity, that comes with salvation, not a full understanding, but a clarity on my condition, and the hopeless wretchedness of what I was trusting. “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.” There’s one thing supreme above everything else, Jesus Christ my Lord, I would lose everything to have Him. That clarity that comes with salvation. “For whom I have suffered the loss of all things.” This wasn’t even a willingness on Paul’s part, this was his experience. He became the outcast.

“I have suffered the loss of all things” and I bemoan that. No, what are they? “I count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ.” That doesn’t mean you’re earning the salvation that Christ provided. That means that salvation that I have in Christ is worth more to me than anything that the world would have, it’s all garbage compared to having Christ. If I have Him alone, I have everything. That’s why down through the history of the church there have been martyrs, they do lose everything including their life. Why? When it comes down to it I will hold on to Christ no matter what, that I may be found in Him. Note this, verse 9, “not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.” Could it be stressed any clearer? The death of Christ saved no one.

There is a Savior, He has paid the penalty for sin, it is offered as a gift. People insist on doing it their way, I did it my way and he was sometimes acclaimed as a Christian, well-known, prominent, but what song did he want at his funeral? I Did It My Way. Far from me to think a Christian wants that to be a theme remembered of his life. Paul’s saying I didn’t do it my way, I realized I had to come and receive God’s way. I didn’t get righteousness through the Law, I get the righteousness that comes from God to me by faith in what Christ has done. Come back to Romans 3 and I declare, we get saved by faith, it’s not what we do, we don’t earn it, we don’t merit it, but when you’ve truly trusted Christ. If any man be in Christ he’s a new creature, old things pass away, new things come Paul wrote to the Corinthians. When we get to chapter 6 Paul will talk about this. God’s salvation is a life-changing salvation but we don’t acquire that salvation by changing the life. That is crucial, if we’re not clear on the order you can be confused, and go to the grave and to hell.

A changed life is a result of God’s salvation because He changes us within. We’re made new, that’s the marvel of it. The power of sin to control us is broken so there is a result. There is fruit produced out of the new life called the fruit of the Spirit, for example in Galatians 5, so yeah, a changed life is there. It will be there and it’s continuing to change as we grow and become more and more mature. And more of the character of God is revealed in us in our conduct, our behavior, and so on but we do reveal; by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Those who practice sin are of the devil, those who practice righteousness are of God. Not because they practice righteousness, not because they have earned salvation, but as John explains in that first epistle, it’s because they were born again. You say you’re born again, that’s going to be a change. There’s a reason this analogy is used. When a baby’s born in the physical world, now a functioning person, we expect there’ll be certain characteristics of a physical life. You can make artificial things, but this is different than the real person.

It’s innate in their humanity. Now as children of God it’s innate in our new nature to desire the things of God, that’s one of the tests of Luke. Do you have any interest in the things of God? Do you have any interest in the word of God? Do you have any real interest in having a life that honors God? Is your life manifesting that those kinds of things are there? Sometimes I’ve had people come, and “Well, I’ve trusted Christ, I know it.” And I’ve gone through the fruit of the Spirit, and if I’ve known them well sometimes I’ve tried to be direct and say, “I want to be honest, I don’t see these things in your life, I can’t see your heart but I can see a manifestation of what is in your heart.” Just like Jesus said, “It’s out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks,” it’s out of that abundance of the heart that we act. That’s why you have to be made new, that’s why we don’t start by trying to clean up the outside of the dish, to whitewash the tomb, and all those analogies that Jesus used.

We want the newness to come to the inside and just growing up in a Christian church or a Bible- believing church and conforming and doing what’s expected that doesn’t produce salvation. It has to be an act of God that changes us on the inside, that’s what we’re talking about here. I have a whole list of a dozen or so verses but we won’t have time for those, you’re familiar with them. James writes very clearly that faith without works is dead. We may talk about that in chapter 4 because he uses Abraham. But faith without works is dead, saving faith produces works, produces a changed life. But keep the order clear, just because I try to live like a Christian doesn’t make me a Christian is the point. There’s more that could be said but he’s going to unfold this through chapter 4 and chapter 5 and then get into sanctification in chapters 6 and 7 and 8 so they’ll be more detail.

All right, “we maintain,” verse 28, “that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.” Verse 29, “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also.” What the Jews were trying to promote was God is the God of Israel. There’s an element of truth in that. You know, in most heresy and error there is truth mixed in which is what makes it confusing. He was the God of Israel, the God of the Jews, in a way He was not the God of the Babylonians. Now in one sense He was God and sovereign over all, the Creator of all; in another sense, He had chosen the nation Israel for Himself. He had chosen the Jews to be His special people. You only have I chosen out of all the nations of the earth Amos tells us recording the word of God. He had given them His Law so that’s where the Jews come and say He’s the God of Israel. So it’s good to trust in Christ.

We agree He’s the Jewish Messiah, but unless you also adopt the practices and become a Jewish convert, you won’t have the God of Israel as your God, because He’s the God of Israel, and there’s a certain truth. In the Old Testament people had to get saved through Israel. They had the word of God, the Babylonians didn’t, the Assyrians didn’t, the Egyptians didn’t. God gave His word to Israel so we have to be clear, but He is the God, the only God, and He’s going to come to this argument, He’s got the Gentiles also. Now note verse 30, they broke this up, I wish they hadn't, it’s all up front in the Greek here. “Since indeed God,” and at the end of that verse, “is one.” In fact, if I remember correctly the word one is the second word in this verse after that word since emphasizing one God, so I want you to have that since, since indeed God is one, and that’s a fine translation of it. It’s just you sort of break it up here; I don’t want you to lose the connection. The focus is on there is one God, one, one God, there can’t be a different God for the Jews and the Gentiles.

There’s one God and this one God He’s the “God who will justify,” declare righteous, “the circumcised by faith,” that’s the Jews; remember Paul circumcised the eighth day in Philippians 3. He “will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised,” the Gentiles, “through faith.” The point being there is one God, there can only be one way of salvation. This idea, well, you know, there are many ways to God, all religions are going the same direction, the same way. I have an article I may bring in, a guy is talking about, well, you know, I can join together with Muslims and others, we’re of the Abrahamic family, we are the people of faith, all of that. What does it mean? There’s one God, there’s one way of salvation. How is that way? Verse 30, how does this one God justify people? Well, He justifies the circumcised and the uncircumcised, Jew and Gentile, in other words, everyone in the world who is going to be declared righteous by this one God will be declared righteous by faith.

There’s only one-way of salvation, it’s not by works, it’s not by keeping the Law, it’s by faith. Well, I’m a person of faith, I have faith. That’s where you have to have faith in the truth in the Person and work of Christ. It doesn’t do any good to have faith if you believe a lie. Well, if I jump off the top of a building because I’m on drugs and truly believe I can fly it won’t change anything, it’s faith in a lie. If you give all your money to a con man because you believe he’ll triple it in the next month, that’s too bad, you believed a lie. We have today people think if they declare something that they believe you ought to believe it, too. At least you oughtn’t to say anything that would imply they’re wrong. But God speaks clearly, there’s one God and He’s the God who will justify Jew and Gentile alike by faith, that’s the only way.

All right, come back to this one God, if you will, to the Old Testament to Deuteronomy. Now again, we were in Deuteronomy earlier, the last book of the five books of the Law, Deuteronomy chapter 6. Look at verse 4, a basic foundational declaration of the Jews, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” One God. Israel in their history began to adopt the gods of the nations. They didn’t learn anything. They developed their own pantheon of accepting other gods. The northern kingdom when they split from the southern kingdom -- they’ll establish their own center of worship with their own worship system. There is one God, Israel should hear it, and He requires complete devotion. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Sounds like Paul, right? Everything else, I consider rubbish for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. I love Him with the totality of my being. You would expect that that’s what God would require. He makes it possible for sinners -- what? Well, He loved because God first loved us and we have the clear demonstration of that love, as 1 John further explains it, because He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to turn God’s wrath away by having provided a salvation that enabled God to declare us righteous when we believed.

Come over to Isaiah chapter 45, Isaiah 45, God is reminding Israel, centuries have gone by since God gave the Law through Moses and now the days of Isaiah the prophet, verse 4 of Isaiah 45. “For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one,” Jacob and Israel, it’s the same thing He’s repeating here in these two parallel statements. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel when he wrestled with God, remember. “For the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides Me there is no God." At the end of verse 6, “I am the Lord and there is no other,” then that verse that we connected it with when we were in Ecclesiastes, verse 7, “The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.” He’s the creating God, He is the only God, so it’s natural you get verse 9, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker,” that’s what we’ve talked about, you don’t challenge God and say to Him, “What are You doing?” Remember in Ecclesiastes, that’s not a question you have the right to the answer to those in authority over you and ultimately God is the authority over you. We saw God applied that to authority. You know we have to be respectful but to God -- you don’t quarrel with your Maker. You don’t challenge what He is doing with the question what do you think you’re doing. But there’s one God that’s the world in which we live, that’s the God that must be served.

Come on back to Romans. There’s one God, there’s one way of salvation. The question then, this will lead into the explanation in chapter 4, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith?” In other words, something’s come up now and that nullifies the Law because now we’re declaring faith. Up until this point salvation was by keeping the Law, now it’s by faith, so we’re canceling out the Law. He says, “May it never be” and that’s a strong statement; King James translates it, “God forbid.” It’s a strong statement, it doesn’t have the word God in it, but it can never be. “On the contrary, we establish the Law.” And you see if you’re not careful with scripture you say, “Oh, he just told me we’re not saved by the Law, it’s by faith, and the Law can’t do anything to save us. Now you’re telling me we establish the Law, I thought we did away with the Law.” We have to understand it properly. The Law was never given, and that’s where we’re going in chapter 4, the Law was never given as a way of salvation.

So what he’s going to do is go back 500 years before the Law was given, because if there’s only one God there is only one way of salvation acceptable to this God. Provided by this God which makes us acceptable to Him. If we can go back in the word of God to the early days and find out how God saved one person, we will know how He’ll save every person. So He goes back to Abraham and logical because Abraham is the father of the Jews. The Jewish nation began with one couple, Abraham and his wife Sarah. We’re going to find out how Abraham was saved so we come down just before we wrap this up and open to questions, look at verse 3. What does the Scripture say? We’re back in Genesis chapter 15 verse 6, Abraham believed God. That’s the first use of that word believed in the Old Testament, when we get to Genesis 15:6 we’ll talk more about this. It was credited to him as righteousness. Now wait a minute, Abraham is about 2,000 years before Christ. Moses is, let’s say 1500, we’re 500 years about, Abraham’s about 2,000 years before Christ. Moses -- we’ll round it off to 1500 just to make it easy, 500 years.

God declared Abraham righteous before there was ever a Law and as we’ll see in chapter 4 He declared Abraham righteous years before Abraham ever got circumcised. The point being keeping the Law can’t be required for salvation. Circumcision can’t be required for salvation because Abraham was declared righteous by faith. So that’s the point, it wasn’t the coming of Christ, and the clarity that comes and how God would provide a Savior that would enable Him to declare righteous when we believe. That’s the way He saved Abraham 2,000 years before the coming of Christ, 500 years before the giving of the Law, 13, 17 years before Abraham was circumcised. The point is how do you get saved? You pick it up with verse 30. There is one God, there can only be one way of salvation. We come to find out in the Old Testament how God saved one person. Well, here’s a clear statement, that’s why Abraham stands out. You know, anybody who was saved before Abraham, like Enoch, was saved by faith, but God didn’t give the clarity for that. When He made that statement about Abraham that clears the air. Oh, now I know how those before Abraham were saved, they were saved by faith because there’s only one God. But the clarity of the statement is in Genesis 15.

Now I’ve used this sometimes with people who believe baptism is necessary for salvation. Well, Abraham’s the example. When was Abraham baptized, before he believed or after? Right, never! Well, then how are you telling me . . . you’re telling me there’s two gods, one who saves people by faith plus baptism, and the one who saved Abraham by faith plus nothing. Well, joining a church, what church did Abraham join? You know some of these things so if we work through this carefully and consistently there’s not much to misunderstand. So it’s not like we had to have something totally new. Salvation has always been by faith because there’s always only been one God who saved people only one way, faith in what He said and what He would provide. There is clarity that comes. Now it’s true the Law served its purpose with the coming of Christ. But that doesn’t have to do with now salvation is going to be by faith, before it was by keeping the Law. That has nothing to do with it. We’ll talk about the intention of the Law as we move on, all of chapter 7 of Romans is about that. Well, we’ll stop there and have a word of prayer then deal with some questions.

Thank you Lord for the riches of Your word and Lord we want to be clear, very clear in our understanding of these great truths about the gospel, about the salvation You provided in Christ. Lord this is of eternal importance and significance. We would not want to blur this, we would not want to be anything less than very clear. It’s easy to grow up in an environment where the truth is presented and yet the truth doesn’t become a reality in our own lives personally, salvation does not occur. Your righteousness is not credited to anyone’s account until they personally recognize their completely lost, hopeless condition, sinners condemned justly by a holy God. And Lord when you enable them to see and understand and place their faith in the Savior a marvelous change occurs. They will never be the same again. They’re born again. Thank you for so great salvation. In Christ’s name, amen.

All right, I have a couple things I want to say and then I’ll open it up to you for your questions. One of them is an article that I saw on the news today. Some of you may have seen it on the news on the internet. Bastille Day in France showcases European military cooperation. Remember when we studied Revelations and we studied Daniel, the final form of the revived Roman Empire will be ten nations federated together, the ten horns on the beast in Daniel and so on. Well, this Bastille Day in France showcases European military cooperation and they have all kind of pictures in the article. They were in color but these are in black and white of the tanks in Paris celebrating Bastille Day connected to the French revolution back in the 18th century, tanks and airplanes and military parade. The annual Bastille Day celebration in Paris this year was not just about showcasing France but also military cooperation among European countries. (They’ve got the word continues but it should be countries, I think.)

The flags of 10 countries of the European Intervention Initiative, so they’re calling this the European Intervention Initiative, the flags of 10 countries of the European Intervention Initiative, a joint military pact created last year (so you see things going on that we don’t maybe even catch in the news) led Sunday’s military parade in Paris. Summarize that statement: flags of 10 countries that are bound together in this European Intervention Initiative. Here’s what the president of France had to say, “Never since the end of the Second World War has Europe been so necessary. The construction of a Europe of Defense in connection with the Atlantic Alliance is a priority for France. It’s the theme of this parade” he said, “acting together and strengthening our ability to act collectively is one of the challenges that the European Intervention Initiative along with other key European projects wants to address.” It goes on, you can see a number of pages because there’s many pictures with the soldiers marching, the tanks, the airplanes. The European Intervention Initiative, they conclude here, this is the last paragraph. “The European Intervention Initiative is a 10-country coalition of European militaries ready to react to crises. “The French led Initiative” and it includes the other nations, “was launched last year.” So just a reminder, you know, we talk about the European Union and all the nations but my ears always perk up. I don’t know why my ears perk up when I’m reading it with my eyes but you know it doesn’t sound right to say my eyes perk up. But you pay closer attention. Ten nations federated together because Europe has to come to the place to be ready to act on its own defense, on its own behalf. And you see, where will this go?

We see all that’s going on in our own country. How quickly could we dissolve into chaos and ineffectiveness but Europe is going the direction and 10 nations see themselves as bound together now as the European Intervention Initiative so any crisis that rises to be sure our army . . . I thought it was interesting since we just had an issue about military action on the 4th of July here. They’re proudly parading their tanks and their airplanes flying overhead and their soldiers. We’re ready and getting more ready for our own event and this was just formed last year. I wasn’t aware of that until I happened to read the article today. This was published July 14 so just something to be aware of, things move along.

A different subject . . . we can come back to that if you want. I got a question and a good question, it’s about angels and perfection and salvation. Need to clarify because sometimes we talk about angels, there’s no salvation provided for angels. I want to be clear on this, God made angels perfect as He made Adam and Eve perfect. Remember we saw in Ecclesiastes God made men upright, that’s going back to Adam and Eve, the original creation, He made Adam upright. They’ve sought out many devices (Ecclesiastes 7:29). The angels were created perfect. Being made perfect doesn’t mean you’re on a level with God because He’s the Creator. That means He made angels -- as well as humans in the creation of Adam and Eve -- without sin, so He could declare them good. He made angels without sin. So he’s declared perfect until the day iniquity was found in him, referring to Lucifer in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, those two key passages, you were perfect in the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. So the angels were created perfect but they’re not God, because they’re created beings, but they were sinless.

Now the angels who sinned lost that perfection. They were corrupted by their sin so we call them fallen angels, they had lost their position of perfection. They were now under the condemnation of God as sinful beings, there’s no salvation provided for them. That’s Hebrews -- Christ didn’t become an angel to die for angels. Those angels who did not join in Lucifer’s rebellion remained perfect. They are fixed, if you will, in their perfectness, so that was a decision that was made. Was like from what we can tell and what is recorded of at least Adam and Eve. If they had not eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was the only tree they were forbidden to eat of, but had eaten of the tree of life, God says they would live forever. So if they’d eaten of the tree of life they would have been confirmed in their holiness, in their perfect righteousness, would have lived forever.

That’s hypothetical obviously, because the plan of God includes the fall of man, but for angels that was a set thing, so angels could be perfect, and the unfallen angels are and they always will be. The fallen angels will always be fallen, they will have to spend eternity in hell. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels because God prepared no savior for them. Well, is that fair? Yes, it’s just. God does not have to extend mercy, that’s why it’s there, I take it, in Hebrews as a reminder for us. Our salvation is by grace, the result of God’s mercy. All God has to do is be just so He metes out justice to the angels, He prepared hell for those who would rebel against Him. Human beings who don’t place their faith in Christ will suffer the same fate as fallen angels, because there’s no savior for them because the work of the Savior was never credited to them, because they never believed in Him. Now you talk about a terrible situation! The angels sinned, there never was a savior. Human beings sinned and God provided a Savior but some reject the salvation that the Savior God provided, and they will go to hell. There is no greater sin than the sin of not believing in Christ, because that’s the only way of salvation. Now people are not lost, human beings are not lost because they don’t believe in Christ.

This is a theological twist we want to be sure we’re clear on. They’re not lost just because they don’t believe in Christ. They are lost because they’re sinners and that’s what condemns them as lost people. They’re saved through faith in the salvation God has provided. Why is that important? Some people got confused on this, and so they teach those who never hear about Christ are not lost because you’re lost because you don’t believe in Christ. As Romans 10 will make clear, you can’t believe in Christ if you never hear about Him, so they’ve come up with an idea that people aren’t lost who don’t believe in Christ because the reason you’re lost is, you don’t believe in Christ. Well, that’s that element of truth. You’re lost because you don’t believe in Christ because the only Savior that could save you is Christ, but the reality is you are lost because you’re a sinner. You don’t have to do anything, you don’t do anything you will go to an eternal hell. You have to hear the gospel and believe it to be saved so I want to be clear. Somebody will say, “Well, if you don’t believe in Christ you’ll be lost.” I understand, sometimes we understand what we’re saying, but we want to be careful that when we have to grapple with theological error that we are clear. People are lost because they’re sinners. Their only hope of salvation is believing in Christ. If they don’t believe in Christ they will remain lost, that’s their condition.

Okay, so on angels -- they are perfect if they didn’t sin in following Lucifer in their rebellion. It was a onetime act like Adam and Eve. That one action condemned the whole human race to sin but God intervened for the human race by having His Son become a human man and dying to provide a salvation that could be provided to sinful human beings. When that is credited to our account through faith then God declares us righteous, absolved of the guilt and penalty. Someday we will be perfect in the presence of Christ but we won’t be God. We’ll get our glorified body, sin will be removed and we will be perfected forever but that doesn’t mean that we will be God, so part of the question here was perfection doesn’t get equated with being deity. You can be perfect and not be God. That’s how God created the angels and created humanity at the beginning.

Okay, anybody have any questions or things you want to raise? I’d like to give you a chance, if I do this next question that’ll probably use our time. Anybody have anything you’re dying to say or ask? Here we are.

In relation to the European Institute, the 10 nations, do you think Italy needs to be one of those ten? I guess in my mind I’ve always pictured Italy being part of it because it is the revived Roman Empire.

It seems that would be logical but it wouldn’t necessarily be a requirement, it wouldn’t seem -- I’ve got to clear the dust webs out of my mind. But the 10 nations and then the Antichrist arises from within those 10 and becomes the dominant figure and those 10 nations come out of the Roman Empire, the beast that represented Rome. But the Empire would be broader than just Rome so I’m trying to think of another verse. I’m waiting for it to come, you know, it’s like it’s getting clearer, it’s getting clearer. So I would assume Rome will be in this, you know, because there is a juggling. I was surprised some of the nations that are included in these 10 and some that aren’t. It may be that these 10 will become a representative of this greater empire because Rome covered quite a bit of territory, but you think of it centered where the Roman Empire was centered, Europe and then into the region around the Mediterranean. I’ve tended to think of the Antichrist being more an Italian. I think you can more clearly establish he’s not a Jew because some believe since he’s an antichrist, the false Christ, he’ll be Jewish but I think the indication is he comes out of the Roman Empire. It could be a Jew living in that empire because, you know, you have Italian Jews or wherever they migrated to and raised there, they take on that nationality, Polish Jews. But I’ve tended to think of him as Italian. I have to go back and refresh my mind, it’s still as cloudy as it was when we started. So the ten, I wouldn’t even say, wouldn’t necessarily say, these wouldn’t be the final ten, but they’ll be ten, and it’s evidently fluid enough that he can displace three of them, and assume dominate power so you can see it’s narrowing down. They’re seeing this European Intervention Army as 10 of the nations put together so, you know, we speculate a certain amount. But you have to say Daniel, you know, writing 500 years before Christ and then John writing in Revelation and it’s just interesting to see even the numbers. The 10 and it’s the European Union, which seems to be what we talk about with the revived Roman Empire because it fits in that framework, they have their currency and so, yeah, and then you look at what’s happening in our country.

The fabric begins to unravel and there is a total disrespect. You know much of what we have is dependent on people respecting. If you didn’t vote for the president you accept the fact that other people did and enough people voted within the system we have that he’s the president, I’ll accept that and respect it. When the half that didn’t vote him decides we will not support him, we will fight against it, then pretty soon if the other half gets their president next time these people are going to fight against it. And there seems to be no respect for the authority and recognizing existing authority even among the authorities as we see what’s going on. You say how far is the country away from beginning to disintegrate when everybody takes it upon themselves to be a law to themselves? So, I don’t know, I’m not predicting anything but you see Europe moving along in a way and us deciding we don’t want to . . . I mean we have to . . . aah, I won’t get into that. That’s probably good enough, let’s end there.

Okay, let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for Your grace. Thank you for the riches of Your word and Lord these are awesome days to consider. We see what is going on in the world and Lord only You have authority and we don’t know for sure exactly where we are and what will unfold in the days before us, but Lord we want to be alert, we want to be aware. We realize the urgency of the time to give forth the gospel to a world that is moving towards chaos sooner or later. Thank you Lord for the privilege of living in these days, may we be a church, may we be individuals who shine brightly with the light of the gospel wherever we are, with lives that support that message that we share. Lord, our desire is that the Spirit would use the message that is shared to bring conviction to hearts so that many more might come to know the Savior. Bless the days of the week before us. Guide us in all that You take us through. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
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