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Salvation

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

Bible Room

Justification Discussed

The issue is how is a man justified before God. Once this is settled then one should have no trouble with eternal security.

I would like to break it down to four areas:

I. What Is Justification

II. Where Do I Go In the Bible To Get Justification?

III. My Duty After Justification

IV. Closing Remarks

What is Justification?

The Problem

I was born a sinner -Rom. 3:23, dead in trespasses in sin - Eph. 2:1, at enmity with God -Rom. 8, blinded - II Cor. 4:4), dead to spiritual things - I Cor. 2:14), not seeking God - Rom. 3:8 and on my way to a lake of fire because of the sin that dwelt in me - Rom. 5:12; Rev. 20:15. There was nothing I could do to get out of this mess - Rom. 4:5; Eph. 2:8,9; Tit. 3:5

The Provision

Because of sin God has to judge sin and the penalty for sin. Something or someone has to be the sin payment in order for man to be redeemed from death in hell for eternity. In the OT God provided the sacrifices so their sins could be overlooked for a time. But God is gracious in that He desires to display His love and mercy. Man cannot meet the requirements that God demands -Tit. 3:5; Rom. 3:10-12; Isa. 64:6; Psa. 39:5. The law cannot redeem man - Rom. 8:3; Gal. 2:21; 3:11,12. God has to provide a blood substitute and it has to be perfect blood to redeem imperfect man - Acts 20:28. The only way to redeem man is to have a perfect man redeem imperfect man and that man is the man Christ Jesus who became our sin substitute on Cavalry - Rom. 5:8; II Cor. 5:21. When Christ hung on the cross he became sin for us. The wrath of God that poured out on Christ should have been for us but Christ took our place - II Cor. 5:21. Andrias Tobias in the 1600's said, “All God's wrath was poured out on Christ so there is none left for the believer”.
The Deliverance

Then one day I was given the gospel - I Cor. 15:1-5; God took the blinders off - Rom. 10:17; II Cor. 4:5,6; God gave me the faith of Jesus Christ - Eph. 2:8,9; Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:16; enabled me to believe - Eph. 1:13; regenerated me - Tit. 3:5; reconciled me -Rom. 5:10; spiritually circumcised me - Col. 2:10-12; sealed me - Eph. 1:13; put me into the body of Christ - Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:10-12; glorified me - Rom. 8:30; redeemed me - Col. 1:14; Gal. 3:13; made me an adopted son - Rom. 8:15; made me accepted in the beloved - Eph. 1:6; blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ - Eph. 1:3; forgave me - Eph. 1:7; raised me up - Eph. 2:6; made me bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh - Eph. 5:30; gave me an inheritance - Eph. 1:11, came in to me - Col. 1:27, and completed me - Col. 2:10 and a few more that we don't have to go into now.

Where Do I Go in the Bible To Get Justification?

First of all let me make something very clear for I will seek to head off something before I go any further – I believe All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: - I believe all the Bible – I believe the King James Bible I have in my hands is inspired down to the punctuation, italicized words, and chapter headings. I do not believe the writers of the Bible were inspired but what they put down, as directed by the Holy Ghost, was inspired. I do not believe the King James translators were inspired but what they put down by God's providential hand was and is inspired (and please do not seek to point out the arguments against the AV1611 for I have heard them all and they don't keep me awake long enough to yawn.). I read the entire Bible and believe the entire Bible. The reason for the above is that others and myself have been accuse of using just portions of the Bible and throwing out the rest.

I understand that the entire Bible is for me but………not necessarily written to me. I understand that first of all I have to find out what is doctrine for me and for others first. Illustration – how many of you have been to the Tabernacle lately to sacrifice a lamb? How many of you have sat down lately and pigged out on some good fried catfish – yum! How many of you have been rebellious children - Duet. 21:18,19? You say you don't have to worry about it – good, things change don't they and aren't you glad for it. God deals differently with different people in different ages. I am not Abraham looking for a city. I am not a Jew under the OT law anymore. I am not a Jew in the gospels looking for my Messiah. I am not a Jew in the OT, the gospels, or the early part of Acts looking for a physical kingdom. In the OT the Jew had to mix faith with the law and trust God to overlook his sins based upon how he observed the law. The OT Jew knew nothing of Calvary – all he knew that one-day a king would come and bring in a kingdom.

Now, Jesus shows up one day preaching the gospel of the kingdom (not the gospel of the grace of God which Paul preached). The Jews' duty was to believe Jesus was the messiah and get baptized to show they believed it. They, even the disciples, knew nothing about Christ dying for sins (see Luke 18:32-34). Christ dies, is buried, and is raised from the dead. In Acts 2 Peter preaches repentance regarding the Jews rejection and murder of Jesus but even he at that time he does not understand what happened at Calvary regarding sins and forgiveness.

When Israel officially rejects Christ in Acts 7 then God calls out a murdering Pharisee, regenerates him, and gives him a new commission that no one else got – he (Paul) was to preach the gospel of the grace of God to both Jew and Gentile. After several appearances of Christ to Paul (Acts 26:16; II Tim. 1:10) then Paul preached forgiveness based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ and that a man was justified by the faith of Jesus Christ without the deeds of the law.

During his second prison stay he wrote the prison epistles and because of Eph., Phil., Col. I & II Timothy we understand what Jesus gave to Paul in regards to the church and how to live because of what we are in Christ (Eph. 4:1). The gospel that saves comes from Paul – Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day (Acts 16:31). Why would one go to the OT or the gospels (before Christ was even crucified), grab a message that was meant for Israel under a kingdom gospel to get the plan of salvation for today!!!???!!! Just go to Paul for he got his message from Christ so what Paul speaks are essentially the words of Christ.

My Duty After Justification

Real clear – walk worthy - Eph. 4:1; live godly - Tit. 2:12, be not conformed to this world - Rom. 12:2; study - II Tim. 2:15; pray - Phil. 4:6; forgive others - Eph. 4:32; love my wife (Eph. 5); witness - II Cor. 5:20; be thankful - I Thess. 5:18, and the list goes on and on. So I don't just stop at believing for after believing and being saved the real work begins - Phil. 2:12.

Closing Remarks

As you can see salvation is not dependent upon anything man can do. Man is justified by what Christ did at Calvary alone. Because he did nothing to earn salvation he can do nothing to lose what is not his. The work was not the sinners but Christ's, the faith the sinner exercised was not his but Christ's Rom. 3:22, Eph. 2:8,9, the sealing was not the sinners but Christ's so what was left for man to do? All the sinner could do was to take God at His word that Christ did it all.

And anybody who thinks after reading the above thinks that he can still lose his salvation after all that Christ has done is just trusting in his own merits.. Yes, I have heard all the verses you use to teach one can lose his salvation but if you take what Paul says you are secure.

Modern Bible Study..Ooops!!!

Picture this:

Elder Dim Whitt, “Welcome everybody to the Truth of Truth Ministry's weekly Bible study. Thanks for being here. I'm stoked. Our passage to study tonight is John 11:35 Jesus wept. Let's see what we can learn from this passage. Who wants to go first?”

Elder Dim Whitt, “Well, my New English Common Vernacular version doesn't read Jesus wept but that “Jesus groaned.”

Mary, “Interesting, you know the Greek word there for wept is ‘awahuu' – I got this from Nestle.”

Bill, “Wow, profound!”

Elder Dim Whitt, “But my version, The “Newest English Super Common Version” says grunt.”

Jack, “You mean Jesus grunted?!?!”

Harry, “I have a Greek lexicon from the 4th century Syrian that says the word for wept is really, ‘awahooe' which makes a major difference in the phrasing! Wow, I get so excited when I use the Greek – makes me feel, well, just enlightened like an angel of light!”

Elder Dim Whitt, “I can see this is going to be a very uplifting night. Nothing like some real dynamic equivalent renderings using the aros tense of the subjective superlative!”

Bill, “Harry, where did you learn Greek?”

Harry, “I don't really know Greek I just read it in Zodiates book, “How to Master Greek in 30 Days.”

Martha, “Well, I have a Greek lexicon from the 14th Century revision of the Lollard #3 and the word wept can also be translated moaned.”

Martha, “You have to understand the trials and tribulations for the times for without this information you can't enter into the emotional congatative condiveness of the sureality.”

AV, “What am I missing here – we are only talking about two words.”

Harry, “Hush, AV, you've got a bad attitude! What about all those poor people before 1611?”

Elder Dim Whitt, “Hush, AV you are not exhibiting the sweet spirit of the Christ here. Also, what about all those people in other countries who can't even speak English? Now let's get back to our Bible study. Who has some more nuggets on, Jesus wept?”

Mr. Brilliant, “My new updated ‘Antioch Gratulative Retention Bible' speaks of the word wept being in the past tense conjegative thus meaning that Jesus was weeping before he ever got there. This really touched my heart.”

Mary, “Oh, I feel my life is now completely changed based upon that nugget – thanks Mr. Brilliant.”

Mr. Brilliant, “By the way my new version is special for the translators of this great work translated it so there are no words with less than 9 letters long so as to bring out the most demonstrative and subjectivelatuative meaning of the words thus enabling me to get all that can be gotten from the most complicated renderings thus making me even more brilliant in the eyes of unenlightened believers.”

Harry, “I still think we need to examine the different 3rd century renditions of the Greek word ‘awahooe' so we can see how other Greek writers used the word so we can determine the most reliable and effective use of the word for the most authentic rendering of the verse thus pulling from it all the vast riches of this profound word ‘awahooe'.

AV, “But how do you decide who is right?”

Mike, “AV, you are so narrow-minded! How can you read a Bible with Easter in it anyway?”

Nancy,“How do we even know John 11:35 was really in the originals?”

Neal, “I found a scholar who read of a professor who talked with his gardener who knew an archeologists who was able to gaze upon the famous fragment P734075439.479 1/2 from the collection over in Dead Sea Visitor's Center, oh I mean the ‘Dead Sea Museum of Ancient Artifacts' and he says it is there.”

Nancy, “Wow, could the archeologists read Greek?”

Neal, “No, but the janitor could and he told him that P734075439.479 1/2 contained the verse as it stands in many of the modern versions.”

Elder Dim Whitt, “Well, that is great – I think we can call this Bible study a great success. Let's meet next week so we can have some time to digest these great truths. Then we will be prepared to really dig into John 11:35 verse using all the modern tools and resources available.”

Mary, “You are not coming next week are you AV?”

AV, “No, I think I'll just stay home and watch some Captain Kangaroo reruns, thank you for asking and for being so thoughtful.”

May God bless!

The Pilgrim's Journey

Psa 119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light;

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Modern Bible Study..Ooops!!!