The Process Of Salvation (Part 3)

A nurse on the pediatric ward had a practice that, before listening to the chest of a little one, she would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own hearts. Their eyes would always light up with awe, but she never got a response equal to that of a 4-year old named David. Gently she tucked the stethoscope into David's ears and placed the disk over his heart. "Listen," she said. "What do you suppose that is?" He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap, tap, tapping deep in his chest. Then his face broke out in a wondrous grin and he asked, "Is that Jesus knocking?" From CyberSalt Digest

Yes, Jesus is knocking and wanting us to begin the salvation process.
The Apostle Paul in dealing with the Christians at Ephesus, answers these questions concerning The Process of Salvation. Why do we need to be saved? The 4 part picture of the unbeliever.
How Can We be saved? 2 things: The Grace Of God, And Our Faith.

Theme: Today:What are our specific responses of faith?
Let’s look at what the Christians at Ephesus did: We will look at the Letter that Paul wrote, and what happened at Ephesus on Paul’s 3rd Journey. By grace we are saved, through our faith (Ephesians 2:8-9)

As we reach out in faith and receive the gift of God's Son to save us, we respond in four ways.
1. By Hearing The Word Of Truth (Ephesians 1:13a)
2. By Believing The Word Of Truth (Ephesians 1:13b)
3. By Repenting Because Of The Word Of Truth (Ephesians 2:1-3)
4. By Being Baptised, Because Of The Word Of Truth (Acts 19:4-5)
5. By Being Faithful In The Christian Life, Because Of The Word Of Truth
(Acts 19:11-20)

There is one more Bible Lesson to be featured in this series:
"The Six Walks Of The Christian Life" (Part 4) 

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The Process Of Salvation (Part 2)

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of good works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

I have been working on a series of Bible lessons entitled: "The Process Of Salvation" In the first lesson we looked at the question: "Why Do We Need To Be Saved?" The Apostle Paul answers this question by showing us a picture of the condition of an unsaved person.
It is a picture of death, disobedience, depravity, and doom.
In the second lesson we look at another question: "How can we be saved?"
In our text the Apostle Paul shares with us two things that are vital to our salvation.

1. "For By Grace You Have Been Saved" (Ephesians 2:8a)
There isn't a thing that we can do to obtain our salvation. It is a gift from God. We may think that our good deeds will accomplish it. But good deeds are not enough. Paul says, "Not of good works, lest anyone should boast"(v.9) No matter how involved we are in being good, and doing good, it will never be enough. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23) who have a sin debt, that needed to be paid. And that's what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. He did, what we couldn't do. Jesus was the instrument of God's grace on our behalf.

The second thing that is vital to our salvation is..
2. "For By Grace You Have Been Saved, Through Faith."(Ephesians 2:8b)
The gift of God's Son as the sufficient sacrifice for our sin debt, is God's part in the process of salvation. To make it complete, we must reach out in faith, and accept the gift of God's Son, as our Savior. Trusting that His sacrifice is true, and sufficient, to cover our sins, and carry us all the way to our eternal home. The Apostle Paul said to the Christians at Philippi that we are to "Work out our own salvation with fear and trembling." (Philippians 2:12)
I look at faith as a response to the grace of God. And there are steps in our response to accepting God's gift to us. that we will look at in the next lesson.

The process of our salvation is a cooperative effort on both God's part, and ours. But how wonderful it is to know, that God's gift of His Son, is the demonstration of His extreme love for us. I ask, where would we be without it? GP

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The Process Of Salvation (Introduction)

The Process Of Salvation (Why Do We Need To Be Saved?) 

Introduction:
In Ephesians 2:1-10 The Apostle Paul presents to us The process of salvation. Warren Wiersbe in his book on Paul's letter to the Christians at Ephesus, entitled "Be Rich" shares a picture of the terrible condition of an unsaved person. There are four parts to this picture.

1. He/She Is Dead (Ephesians 2:1)
Spiritually dead. Unable to understand and appreciate spiritual things. He/she possesses no spiritual life, and he/she can do nothing of themselves to please God.

2. He/She Is Disobedient (Ephesians 2:2-3a)
As Adam and Eve were disobedient in the beginning. Man-kind as been disobedient since then. The three forces that encourage man-kind to be disobedient is:
the world, the devil, and the flesh.

3. He/She Is Depraved.(Ephesians 2:3b)
The unsaved person, only desires that which steals, and destroys. The lusts of the flesh, and of the mind will bring one to spiritual bankruptcy, and death. They may think that they can please others, and themselves, but they cannot please God. They by nature are children of wrath.

4.He/She Is Doomed (Ephesians 2:3c)
In this condition, there is no way that man-kind can save themselves. They need a Savior, to set them free, and set them on a course of spiritual rehabilitation.

And in verse 4 comes two of the most wonderful words:
"But God" who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)...Here is the answer to this terrible condition. The rescue of God's grace.

This is our introduction to God's process of salvation.
We see in this picture Paul shares, of why we need to be saved. I want us in the next few weeks to follow through with God's process of salvation. To see how He works to make us whole again, and sets us on a course of spiritual health, and spiritual hope. GP

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The Path Of Pride

"But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie
against the truth." (James 3:14)
In a world where selfishness abounds, it is not surprising that it creeps into the church.
I have seen churches that I have served, crippled by selfishness. The conduct we are to display as Christians, is to focus on our blessing others. Our personality, our speech, our actions are to be an encouragement and a help to others. The various gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows to us, are to be used (as The Apostle Paul said)" for the edifying of the body of Christ." (Ephesians 4:12) The focus is never to be totally on us, or our family. The objective is never to be, how can others enhance, or make me and my family look good in the sight of others. There should never be an attitude of envy, or striving to maintain a competitive spirit. There is a destructive path that Christians follow to often. There is pride, and boasting, and then deceit. The enemy can, and will carry us down this path of destruction. It destroys our relationships, our witness,  our effectiveness for ministry. Most of all it destroys our relationship with the Lord. A rich man once invited many honored guests for a feast. His own chair, richly decorated, was placed at one end of the long table. While he was away, each guest seated himself according to his own esteem of his position in sight of the master. When time came and all were seated, the master moved his chair to the other end of the table. It shouldn't matter where we are in the Kingdom of God. We should be glad that we are apart of something wonderful and productive. We should be glad that God can use us to be a blessing to others. We have God's love and care. For us, what more do we need? Let's not travel the path of pride. (GP)

Lessons From A Fruit Tree

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 
The longer I am a pastor, the more I see an increase in people having problems with people.
In families, in communities, organizations, at work, at school, and yes, at church, I see such conflict. When I look at the fruit of the Spirit, that Paul presents to us in Galatians 5:22-23, it is clear that these virtues are to be evident in our relationships. I believe that we are to allow the Holy Spirit to show us, through the Word of God, how we are to treat one another. If we are in submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit, we are not to treat people in a way that suits us, but we are to treat them the way the Holy Spirit instructs us, no matter how we feel about it. It is called "being obedient to the Word of God". We are to never operate by passion, but we are to operate by principle. There is a lot of selfishness going around these days. That is the enemy's greatest tool. To totally focus on our feelings, and our needs, and totally ignore the feelings and needs of others; is a path of destruction, as far as our relationships are concerned. And Satan is very happy, when we follow that path.
When I look at these nine fruit of the Spirit, I don't see selfishness there.
When I look at a fruit tree, I see a tree that is always giving. Providing fruit for food, providing leaves for a covering for the ground for winter, providing a place for birds to build there nests, so they can raise their families.
God promised that He would take care of us, and he does. The question is, will we establish and maintain that outward focus towards others, at all times. When the nails were piercing our Savior's hands and feet, there was love in His heart for us, who put Him there. Let's not carry with us a negative spirit towards those who have hurt us, or desire to hurt us, let's display the fruit of the Spirit, and see how effectively they will affect our relationships. GP