[0:00] A.W. Tozer, some of you will recognize that name, but he once said, if man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict.
[0:16] Salvation, or in reality salvation, was bought not by Jesus' fist, but by his nail-pierced hands. Not by muscle, but by love.
[0:30] Not by vengeance, but by forgiveness. Not by force, but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ, our Lord, surrendered in order that he might win.
[0:45] He destroyed his enemies by dying. And he conquered death by allowing death to conquer him. Good morning.
[1:00] What a great day this is. I've been looking forward to it. You have that sort of whittle out. You're right, Rod. No, I'm really happy to be here with you this morning.
[1:13] I heard a saying years ago that sort of stuck with me. Every day is a good day, but some are better. My prayer for you this morning is that today is going to be one of those better days for each and every one of you.
[1:30] Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here together to worship and glorify you this morning.
[1:42] We ask that the Holy Spirit fill us all with your love and your peace and comfort us with the knowledge and truth of your word.
[1:54] Amen. We're getting some variety the last couple of weeks. Charles was here last week. I'm here this week. And with luck, Pastor Josh will be back from Mexico by next week.
[2:09] Or it's your turn, Rod. When Pastor Josh told us at an elders meeting a couple months ago now, I guess, when he was going away, what the dates were, and that those dates would include two Sundays, my spidey senses went, uh-oh.
[2:33] Well, then he asked Charles and I if we would each take a turn coming up here to talk to you. Well, Charles took the first week, and here I am.
[2:47] Well, my immediate reactions when Josh asked us that were, well, maybe he was a little anxious, a little fearful, doubtful, but the opportunity to share God's word is such a blessing that those feelings quickly went away.
[3:17] The Lord then put a thought in my head about what it was that he might like me to talk about this morning. Tozer referred to it a little bit, the thought that came into my head was salvation.
[3:35] Now, we've been talking about it at different times, like salvation and how sure are you, what is it, and why do you want it? Well, I had really to do not a lot of thinking because I don't get random thoughts in my head unless they're coming from the Lord, usually, and he put that one there, so here goes.
[4:02] I'm going to give you a couple points the way I see them on salvation. First thing I'd have to look at is salvation. Well, what does it mean?
[4:14] What does salvation actually mean? Well, being kind of old school, I took out my Funkin-Wagnall's Dictionary. I don't, some of you might remember that term, but for the kids, a dictionary is a book with words in it and it describes what those words actually mean.
[4:35] Okay. And as I was looking up, looking for salvation, I'm going down the page and I saw salvage.
[4:45] I thought, hey, that's close. What does that say? And the definition of salvage was anything saved from destruction.
[4:58] And I thought, hey, you know, that's close. That's not a bad answer, but well, let's see if we can clarify it just a little bit more.
[5:10] And the very next word under salvage was salvation. I thought, okay, here we go. Now, they listed three possible definitions for salvation.
[5:23] The first one was the process or state of being saved. Preservation from impending evil. I thought, well, that's getting closer.
[5:36] Then there's one that said, any means of deliverance from danger, evil, or ruin. Again, it's in the ballpark. And then it said, in theology, it means deliverance from sin and its penalty.
[5:53] and I thought, bingo. Now we got it. I think that covers it as good as I was going to get it covered. Next question I would ask, the second point would be, well, where would we find salvation and how do we secure it?
[6:15] How do we get it? Well, my first suggestion to you would be, read your Bible. Okay, your Bible tells you exactly where and how.
[6:27] And that's Jesus. In Isaiah 2, or 12 rather, verse 2 states, Surely God is my salvation.
[6:42] I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, yes, the Lord himself is my strength and my defense.
[6:54] He has become my salvation. Acts 2, 36 to 38 state, Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this.
[7:11] God has made this Jesus whom you crucified. I'll just clarify here, okay? This is Peter talking to a big group of Jews shortly after the crucifixion.
[7:24] Okay? So, God has made this Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, well, what can we do?
[7:43] What should we do? And Peter replied to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
[7:58] God's spirit. John 14, 6. We all know this verse, I think.
[8:11] I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Well, the way, the truth, and the life.
[8:24] Well, apart from the way, there would be no going. apart from the truth, there is no knowing. And apart from the life, there is no living.
[8:37] God says, remain in Christ and rest yourselves. He is the way, the truth, and the life. In Romans 10, 9, if you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
[9:08] And then I'll go to probably the best known verse ever in the Bible, John 3, 16. And it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
[9:32] And I thought, boy, that kind of hits it on the nose, but God said, well, keep reading. So I did. And the next thing is John, of course, 3, 17.
[9:46] And I would even go add on verse 18a, the beginning of verse 18. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
[10:00] Whoever believes in him is not condemned. They have salvation. Whoever believes in him.
[10:11] There are many other verses, really, there are a lot of verses in scripture that explain this process. but I think the verses we just read stated so clearly and precisely that I could probably stop there and I would go on to the third part, point three in my talk to you this morning.
[10:38] And the final point is the assurance of your salvation. salvation. How many of you can look in the mirror right now or this morning or when you go home and look at yourself and say, you're saved and you're going to heaven and I know it.
[11:03] Hopefully every one of you. And if you don't have that insurance, let's see what the Bible and these words tell us.
[11:16] Little thing we found actually this morning, you know, like documents like teaching, you teach from sort of change minute by minute. And we were talking about things this morning, Colleen and I, and she got looking at things and I got looking at things and I said, hey, that's a good one.
[11:35] So I'm going to read this to you. It's a quote from somebody. where we found it, it didn't say who it was, it just, but I liked it. We tend to seek assurance of salvation in the things God is doing in our lives, in our spiritual, in our lives or in our spiritual growth.
[11:56] In the good works and obedience to God's word that is evident in our Christian walk. Now, while these things can be evidence of salvation, they are not what we should base the assurance of our salvation on.
[12:19] Rather, we should find the assurance of our salvation in the objective truth of God's word. We should have confident trust that we are saved based on the promises of God.
[12:37] God has declared, not because of our subjective experiences. Where do you get confidence? Where do you get an absolute conviction?
[12:50] I'm saved from God's word. Look it up. It's there. salvation.
[13:03] It's not just a wonderful experience. It is also a blessing to know your salvation is secure. You don't have to worry about it.
[13:15] Relax. He's in control. You're right there. Right in his pop. He's got you. there. There are no ifs, ands, or buts.
[13:34] Okay. If you are saved, it's there. It's yours. Nothing can take you from the palm of his hand. John 23, I think it is, Jesus said, now I've got to read my writing, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
[13:58] No one can snatch them out of my hand. No one, nothing. If God has given you your salvation, know it, believe it.
[14:15] It's yours. Nobody's going to take it away. Okay. we shouldn't, we should, here's a, I was listening to a reading devotion by Dr.
[14:30] David Jeremiah a couple weeks ago, and he quoted a lady by the name of Sheila Walsh in the devotional, and she said, remember, it is important to read the Bible carefully, taking in every promise in its context.
[15:00] We shouldn't twist God's words to mean whatever we want them to mean. Okay. Read something in the Bible. If you're not sure, look in the Bible, because the Bible will back itself up.
[15:17] It will repeat it to you. It will say it again. Okay. But when we have accurately understood one of his promises, we can stand on it and rejoice with confidence.
[15:36] God does not change, nor do the glories of his person, or the salvation he has engineered for us. God's promises are as dependable as he is.
[15:54] And I like that quote. Think about it. God's promises are as dependable as he is. So if we're going to find verses in the Bible that give us a promise, it's God's word.
[16:15] It's dependable. Okay. If God promises it, it will be fulfilled. Guaranteed it will be.
[16:31] So let's look and see if there are I was going to say any, but some verses in the Bible that, you know, relate to your salvation and it's guaranteed, that there's promises attached to them.
[16:49] First off, John 24, and this is Jesus speaking, I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned.
[17:06] He is crossed over from death to life. I don't know, it sounds like a promise there to me. Let's see if there are any more.
[17:22] John 3, 16 again. Let's go back to it. It tells you about it, but we weren't looking actually for a promise before.
[17:33] Now we're looking for promises. So John 3, 16 and 18a. For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
[17:51] Again, that's a promise. God's promising you that. And then verse 18a puts on the exclamation, point. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.
[18:08] If you're not condemned, you're saved. Romans 10, 19. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
[18:28] not might, not maybe, you will be saved. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt. There are many more, but I want to finish with one last promise that I found.
[18:47] And this one comes out of Romans, chapter 8, verses 35 to 39. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
[19:01] Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long.
[19:15] we're considered a sheep to the slaughter. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[19:32] For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else, in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
[19:57] Nothing exists that can take you out of God's hands. You're his. We need not fear life or death.
[20:09] Things present are things to come because Jesus loves us and gives us the victory. This is not a promise with conditions attached.
[20:21] Okay? It's not, well, if you do this, God will do that. There's always those attachments. You get a promise from a person, there's doubt, right? There's an attachment.
[20:32] Well, if you do that, I'll do that. If you give me 10 bucks, I'll give you 20. You're doubtful, right? Okay. This is not a promise with those conditions.
[20:46] This security in Christ is an established fact. And we can claim it for ourselves because we are in Christ.
[21:02] Nothing can separate us from his love. Remember, and remember this always, take it home with you. God's promises are as dependable as he is.
[21:20] And I've never met anybody more dependable than that. I want you to believe it and then rejoice in it.
[21:37] Because it's yours. You don't have to worry. Now Miranda's going to come, I think, is this one?
[21:47] No, this isn't it, is it? Hey, I'm still up. Oh, I was going to run away. No. Have to get the other page.
[22:04] This is a special time in any church for any Christian. Okay? Here at Davidson Community Bible Church, we usually celebrate communion every month.
[22:17] I want to emphasize that this is something special. Okay? Very special. It is an opportunity to reflect and remember what Jesus actually did for us.
[22:33] It is not a right or an obligation, but rather a chance for us to personally remember and thank Jesus for the sacrifices he made for us.
[22:48] Matthew 26 to 28, while they were eating, Jesus took bread, bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take and eat.
[23:07] This is my body. Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink from it, all of you.
[23:21] This is my blood of the new covenant. which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
[23:38] Serious words. Lucky thing. Okay. I want you to remember something just before we go for it.
[23:48] we want to invite everybody who has a personal relationship with Christ to join with us in communion this morning. But before we distribute the elements, I'm going to take just a second to reflect on things.
[24:04] the broken bread represents Jesus' broken, tortured, and crucified body.
[24:20] And the cup represents his blood that he willingly shed so that our sins can be forgiven. let's just reflect on this for a moment, and then we will pass out the elements.
[24:37] into the hands who is in Thank you.
[25:36] Thank you.
[26:06] Thank you. I'd like to call up the elders and distribute the elements.
[26:26] Thank you. Thank you. Just a reminder as they're passing out the elements that, let's wait until all have received the elements and then we will commune together.
[26:54] Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[27:04] Thank you.
[27:34] Thank you.
[28:04] Thank you.
[28:34] Thank you.
[29:04] Thank you.
[29:34] Thank you. This is the body and the blood of Christ.
[29:57] Thank you.
[30:27] Thank you. Thank you. Now we'll have worship through song.