“What must I do to be
saved?”
Well… To answer a question with a question! “Saved
from what?”
Now that’s a good question…
Glad you asked!
In the Biblical sense, the sense in which the Philippian
jailer asked the question of the apostle Paul (Acts 16:30), it has to do
with being saved from God’s wrath and receiving eternal life.
That is actually the ultimate
question that everyone in
this world is faced with, and it has to be answered in this life, because
life in the next world depends on it. Whether we realize it or not.
Sadly, many people are so
distracted by other things going on all around them that they never get
around to asking, so they never discover the answer for themselves, and they
end up lost.
† The job of the committed
Christian is to help people get to the place where they are ready, willing and
able to ask that all important question… with understanding and commitment.
& The goal of Bible study for the disciple of Christ is to get educated enough in the word of God so that we will be able to give
a
reason for the hope that is in us. (1 Pet.3:15)
B A reasonable reason, not just wishful
thinking or superstitious fantasy based on the exhilaration of emotionalism,
or the exaggerated, unexamined proclamations of self-promoting
worldly preachers!
Ü Many times, folks are dealing with lots
of pressing issues in their lives that can push their way in and take
priority over seemingly far away things like concerns about heaven
and hell.
– Problems
like overwhelming financial difficulties can make life almost impossible… there
can be devastating health issues for
oneself or for a loved one.
– Life can be filled with challenging relational
issues… and then there are the besetting
sins that so easily sidetrack us, dominate our time and consume
our resources… they eat up youth and squander opportunity at the speed of life.
– Today in this technological world of instant
gratification coupled with the constant threat and terror of instant annihilation hanging
over everyone’s head… people are desperately in need of real hope!
– But sadly, more and more, the self-appointed social engineers
who have seized power in government,
education and the media… are doing all they can to steal
away real hope from people in order to manipulate them with empty
promises, failed systems and outright lies.
– They work every day to delegitimize the very
concept of objective truth and chip away at the foundation of ethical
essentialism… divine revelation and received
authority.
L The result… since the end of WW II has been an ever increasing
disconnect
from reality by more and more people… There is an obsession with the pursuit
of personal
self-gratification and a steady relentless growth in the enslaving
issues of addiction of all
kinds and types.
§ All of these trends are predicted in the Bible as being
the way things will go as we approach the end of this modern age.
– They will be ever
increasing in intensity and frequency!
– They will line up together one after another like airplanes
on a runway… filling up the skies, one after another until they crowd out the light.
(Synergism)
Ø 2 Tim.3:1-5 – But mark this: There will be
terrible times (raging insanity, orgiastic terrorism) in the last days.
2
People
will be lovers of themselves (seeking total self-gratification leading
to addiction of all kinds) lovers
of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy,
3
without
love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the
good,
4
treacherous,
rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—
5
having a
form of godliness (the new “tolerance”, extreme pluralism) but denying its power (to
deliver from sin and correct a life). Have nothing to do with such people.
Let’s go back now to and answer the important question that
we were discussing…
“What must I do to be saved?”
— The answer is… You
must be born again.
Says who? Says
Jesus Christ… Says the word of God!
P Common sense, tells us that this life… in this world
of mortality
and consumption… This life is limited and finite.
E The scientific and obvious fact of the
matter is that… the moment we are born into this world we begin to die… we start
to age and in doing so we begin to use up the limited capacity for life
that we were born with… we begin to use up these temporary, corruptible bodies.
þ Nature tells us that the universe, the world and all that is
in them is winding down all the time. Nothing stays the same, everything changes,
energy is consumed and never added.
R The natural order of things is that as time passes, there
is less and less usable energy available. Things left to themselves, without an
outside influence, go from complex to simpler.
S Things don’t spontaneously gain complexity by
themselves… quite the opposite; things spontaneously degenerate.
r Nothing ever could or ever does spontaneously generate.
Nothing pops into existence from nonexistence and nothing that does exist gains
energy or complexity on its own.
This is the fundamental Law of Entropy.
Ü {Now, atheistic, materialistic, anti-super
naturalists deny that the law of entropy applies to the origins or continued existence
of fundamental physical reality. Their arguments amount to nothing more than
speculation and mere assertion, never approaching anything close to proof. All of their arguments
have been thoroughly refuted and disproved by world class scientists and philosophers
and all of that cutting-edge material is available to review. (reasonablefaith.org)}
E So back to reality… Why do we need to be born again?
Why? Because the first birth… the one we have so far… is insufficient for continued
life.
— The immaterial components of our being (our
soul and spirit) are eternal… but the current physical
component of our makeup (our mortal body of flesh) is only temporary.
It must be replaced if we are to be equipped to continue and able to enjoy eternal life.
Ø Jn.3:6 – “That which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Ø 1 Cor.15:44 – If
there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
N The reason death entered the human race was because
of sin.
Ø Ro.5:12 – Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
Ø Ro.3:12 – ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY
HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE
WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
Ø Ro.6:23 –For the wages of sin is death,
but the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ø Ro.8:2, 5-6, 9-11 – 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has
set you free from the law of sin and of death...
5 For those who are according
to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of
the Spirit.
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if
indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit
of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
10 If Christ is in you,
though the body is dead (mortal and in the process of dyeing) because of sin,
yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead
will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
— So, we see that sin
is the
universal natural state of man after the fall… after it entered the
realm of man it became the inherited nature of man.
—
Sin is motivated by the overwhelming
desire for complete freedom to do whatever we choose…
Autonomy, to be a law unto our self,
leads to the unrestrained will to power, extreme self-will.
— Because of
the effects of sin on the mind, the heart and the will, we have perverted
judgement. We are working with a defective computer. Not taking into
consideration all the true facts
because we are ignorant of them… We have a deceptive heart.
Ø Jer.17:9 – “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately
sick; Who can understand it?”
˜ Therefore, we must come back to where we began…
Ø Jn.3:7 – “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
ÿ Well then, that obviously being the case… how
can I be born again?
1) Recognize and admit that
I am a sinner… admit it to myself
and to God.
2) Recognize and accept
that Jesus Christ is the only Savior
of man and my only hope.
3) Depending completely upon
the grace of almighty God and not upon anything that I could ever do… ask for and
receive
by faith… Jesus Christ to be
my
own personal Savior.
Ø Jn.3:14-16 – “As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
15
so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
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