SUNDAY SERMONS

 

What does SAVED Mean?

There used to be an advertisement in a comic book that appealed to my scientific nature. The product being offered for sale was called a "miracle plant." The ad declared that the plant would be dead when received by the purchaser; but when placed in water, it would soon "miraculously" return to life!

If you ordered this wonder of nature, it would sure enough, arrive looking dead, with leaves that were brown, dry and brittle. If you placed it in a pan of water and waited. I'm not sure how long it took, but lo and behold: as the water was absorbed into this plant, it actually did "come to life" again, becoming green and soft. It was  a miracle!

I have learned since that this is actually called a "resurrection plant." This natural phenomenon is a good illustration of the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.

We come to Christ with a soul that is dry and brittle and lifeless because of sin; and in that moment when we ask Christ into our lives, our soul is spiritually immersed in the Living Water and is infused with new spiritual life.

There is a process in Salvation

1.  Saved – From the Penalty of Sin

2.  Justified – Made Righteous

3.  Sanctified – Set Apart

4.  Purified – Cleansed

5.  Glorified – As Christ was Glorified

1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

Romans 8:27-32 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

 

I.                 Saved – From the Penalty of Sin By the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men :10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

a.  That is what we were (are)

b.  Sinners lost in our sin.

c.   Condemned to an eternity in Hell

d.  But Paul writes of our relief …

1 Corinthians 6:11  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

e.  We were sinners lost but by the wooing of the Holy Spirit we have entered into a relationship with Him.

Romans 8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God.

 

f.    A relationship that changes us … makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus!

g.  Old Preachers would use the term redeemed!

 

God gave the land of Palestine to Abraham for an eternal possession, and by the Spirit of God, the land was divided up among the people for an eternal inheritance.  And they were never to sell it, but it was to be in the family through all of their generations.  God had given it to them.  That’s the reason that when King Ahab came to Naboth and said, "I want to buy that vineyard by my palace, and I’ll give you money for it" [1 Kings 21:1-2] – that’s the reason Naboth replied, "God forbid that I should sell unto thee for money the inheritance of my fathers" [1 Kings 21:3].  It was a thing given them of God, and it was always to be in the family. Now, that’s where that word "redeem" came from.  If by need a member of the family was sold into slavery, they could be redeemed by a friend or member of their family.  A friend could, a neighbor could – could buy them back; or as you find, like Ruth and Boaz, so many times in the Bible – or the nearest kinsman could buy back the inheritance of the family that had lost it.  And that transaction they call "redemption" – "redeeming". 

 

We are God’s Possession lost to sin as above, and God through the death of His Son Jesus has paid the price to buy us back!

SAVED

 

II.              Justified – Made Righteous

Made righteous in the sight of God.

Righteousness is our justification. 

a.  Righteousness is our standing in the temple of God’s justice. 

b.  Righteousness is our being set right with God,

c.   If I could use a figure from the Book of the Revelation:

 

Revelation.19:8, (describing the saints, he says,) "And there was given to them fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints"  

 

d.  Righteousness is the outside.  It’s the thing that you see. 

e.  It is your actions …

"This man is a righteous man.  He does this, and he does that, and he acts the other way." 

f.    Righteousness: the outside. 

g.  We are justified in Christ [

Romans  5:1-2  Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

 

a.   Not that we ARE righteous, but there is GIVEN unto us righteousness. 

b.  We are given robes of white 

Revelations  7:9  After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

c.   We are treated as righteous, because of Him, in the presence of God. 

 

III.          Sanctified Set Apart

a.  Set apart

b.  free from sin

Sanctification is the inside. 

c.   There is also given unto us a quickening Spirit 

 

2 Corinthians  3:6  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

 2 Corinthians 5:21 "If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation".

 

d.  By Sanctification you are somebody different.  You are somebody else! 

e.  That’s sanctification: the regeneration on the inside, the forming of Christ in us. 

 

The Spirit and mind of Christ in us is sanctification. 

 

There’s something of the sun in an apple.  There’s something of the moon in a rose.   That’s it.  … That something of Christ that motivates and regenerates and quickens on the inside – that is sanctification. 

 

1 Corinthians 1:30-31  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. :31  Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."

 

IV.         Purified – Cleansed

a.  Cleansing of the Soul

b.  The blood is righteousness. 

c.   It is an external atonement 

Hebrews 9:24-28  For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence. 25  Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26  Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27  Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28  so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

 

Back yonder, two thousand years ago, did it happen.  We are justified before God because of Jesus Christ.  We are treated as righteous, we are accepted as righteous, in the presence of God because of the blood – the atonement of Jesus Christ.  The blood represents the outside, the righteousness, the historical atonement for our sins on a Cross outside the city of Jerusalem.  That is the blood. 

The other: the water.  That represents the washing of regeneration.  He is a complete Savior.  He not only justifies us in the presence of God, He also regenerates our hearts and our spirits. 

 

We are washed by the Holy Spirit of Jesus on the inside of our souls.  He came by water and by blood.

 

He justifies us in the presence of God by the historical atonement on a hill called Golgotha. 

 

He also regenerates us on the inside of our hearts by the washing, the cleansing, of His Holy Spirit; and we are there before Him complete as He is a complete Savior. 

 

V.             Glorified – As Christ was Glorified

Romans 8:30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

a.  Lifted up

b.  Made glorious

c.   Will happen in Heaven.

Heaven

On the market for the first time in 30 years, the 10-acre Chartwell Estate in LA’s Bel Air was owned by a late TV exec  who passed away in May. The main house, with a limestone facade was designed by architect Sumner Spauling and shows off grand 18th-century French Neoclassical style over 25,000 square feet. Interior highlights include a ballroom, formal salon, and paneled dining room. It is on the market for $350 million dollars. Oh … it was made famous as the exterior shot for the Beverly Hillbillies TV show.

 

d.  Is that Heaven? … a large expensive home?

e.  Is money in the bank Heaven? … It is according to some people who don’t care about the Lord.

f.    What ia Heaven?

Some picture dying as a boat ride across a great body of water and as you get closer to the shore you may see people waiting there…. A parent … a child … brothers or sisters who went on before you. Waiting for your arrival.

 

I think of my grandmother Nell Aly. A fine Christian woman who died in the early 1980’s. I think she will be there waiting to greet me on that shore. We will walk the streets of Gold to a place on a back street. A little house that will have the scent of fresh baked apple pie. I will know it is her house because of all the beautiful plants. She loved her garden and the flowers here are bigger and prettier than any she grew this side of Heaven.

 

Then I will go find Jesus and sit at His feet for a thousand years because time will mean nothing here.

 

A big fancy house is not Heaven! Anywhere Jesus is will be Heaven.