Let's begin this study in prayer...
1 Peter 1:3-9Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you will greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-- of greater worth than gold, whiich perishes even through refined by fire-- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are reveiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Let us begin this study with the following:
QUESTION: How do I know that I am a child of God? How do I know that
I am saved and will spend eternity with God in Heaven? How do I know
that I am truly born again?
Well, in order to answer these questions let us look to the scriptures.
First of all the Bible teaches us that we must believe in who Jesus is
and what He did. In order to see this, let us first begin by exploring
the fact that we must believe that,
I. JESUS CHRIST IS LORD
In order to see this, let us remember what Jesus once said to the Jews,
John 8:23-24
QUESTION: What did Jesus mean when He said that He came from above
and we came from below?
Well, perhaps the best way to see this is by reading,
John 1:1-4
and now,
John 1:14
In other words we find that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of
God and is Lord of all and has the first place in everything. To see
this, let us read,
Colossians 1:15-18
Notice vs 18(a) He is the head of the body, the church.
Remember those who do not believe this. Those who do not believe that
Jesus Christ is Lord and came as man are from the anti-Christ. To see
this, consider the following scriptures.
1 John 4:1-3
and again,
2 John 7
In addition to believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is
Lord, we must also believe that,
II. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONE AND ONLY SAVIOUR OF MANKIND, i.e. EACH ONE OF
US PERSONALLY
In order to see this, let us first read that,
A. THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD
We find this by reading what God had to say about Himself in,
Isaiah 44:6-8
We also find that,
B. GOD IS OUR ONLY SAVIOUR
This is given to us in,
Isaiah 43:10-13
Notice vs 11 "apart from Him there is no Saviour."
The Bible also teaches us that there is only,
C. ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS
To see this, let us read from,
1 Timothy 2:5
QUESTION: But Lord this is confusing, I thought that You, Lord
Jesus Christ was/is God but now the Bible says that You are man.
What is going on?
Well, we find our answer by reading again from,
Colossians 1:19-20
In other words, what we are reading is one of the great
mysteries of the Gospel. Namely, that the second person of the
Godhead (i.e. Trinity) took on human flesh and became like us.
To see this, let us read from the instruction in the letter to
the Philippians where we are told to have a humble attitude.
Philippians 2:5-8
In His mediatorial role we must believe that,
D. JESUS DIED (FOR OUR SINS) AND WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD
In order to see this, let us begin by reading how we were
reconciled to God. This is given to us in,
Colossians 1:21-23
And we know that Jesus' sacrifice, to atone for our sins, was
accepted and true because death could not hold Him. To see this,
let us read what the Holy Spirit through Peter said to the folks
at the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon
Jesus' disciples.
Acts 2:22-36
Consequently, with all this in mind, let us read another
requirement for our salvation,
Romans 10:9
And so we find that,
E. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONE AND ONLY SAVIOUR
This is clearly given to us in,
Acts 4:12
QUESTION: Lord I do believe these things, does that make me
saved? Is salvation strictly based upon my knowledge of these
things? Actually, in faith,
F. WE MUST CALL UPON H/M TO SAVE US
To see this, let us read,
Romans 10:13
And so we find that our salvation is totally based upon
G. FAITH & BELIEF IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
This is clearly taught to us in,
Ephesians 2:1-10
Lord I have done this. In fact Lord I have even been baptized...
but how do I know that my faith and belief are real? How do I know
that I have not deceived myself and I am really truly yours? Well, as
it turns out, the Bible teaches us that,
III. FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD
To see this, let us read what the Holy Spirit said through the
apostle James,
James 2:14-26
Notice vs 17 faith alone is dead
19 (interesting!)
26 sobering...huh?
In fact we find that our Lord Jesus Christ compares those who do and
who do not follow His commandments to wise and foolish builders.
Luke 6:46-49
Now we may be saying to ourselves, yes Lord I am doing what You have
commanded. I have witnessed to the unsaved, I do go to Church, I do
speak in tongues or exercise spiritual gifts, I do participate in the
church's activities. Hence, all is well with me. Well, as it turns
out these are not the commands that Jesus is talking about. These are
not the fruits that He requires. To see this, let us read a parable
about a tree and it's fruit.
Matthew 7:15-23
In fact let us go back and reread verses 21-23. However, let us
substitute the New King James translation of "practice lawlessness"
in place of "evildoers".
QUESTION: So what is the will of God the Father and what is
lawlessness?
Well, as it turns out the Holy Spirit tells us very clearly in the
letter to the Galatians.
A. THE FRUITS OR OUR SINFUL NATURE ... LAWLESSNESS
Galatians 5:19-21
Notice vs 21(b)
and,
B. THE FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ... THE WILL OF THE FATHER
Galatians 5:22-25
In other words the Holy Spirit is telling us that,
C. A CHILD OF GOD WILL NOT CONTINUE IN SIN
To see this, let us read from,
1 John 3:4-10
So with this in mind, the Bible encourages us to check ourselves out
and be sure that we are children of God. To see this, let us read the
following,
IV. EXHORTATION
2 Peter 1:3-11
Notice vs 3-4
8 "...increasing measure" (or)
some translations say "abound"
10 "be sure"
QUESTION: Lord I have done this and have found sin in my life, does
this mean that I am not saved? What do I do?
First of all, let us remember that the above scriptures does not say
that these fruits are perfected in our lives; it says that they must be
present and increasing or growing.
2 Peter 1:8-9
Secondly, the sins we have found or that the Lord has revealed to us
must be confessed and forsaken.
Proverbs 28:13
QUESTION: So what is the point? What is the message of it all? Well,
it can all be summarized by the following,
V. THE TEACHING
1 John 1:5-2:17
And when we walk in this manner, in the will of God, we will find
that the Holy Spirit will bear witness to our spirit that we are His
children. To see this let us read,
Romans 8:12-17
Let's end this study in prayer...
1 John 5:9-15We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which He has given about His Son. Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not helieved the testimony God has given about His Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of Him.
Read the book by John Sweet, Jr.
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