A Quick Reminder Regarding Salvation...
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· 39 viewsA short reminder in light of this week's teaching at H2A.
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Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
What does it take to “correctly handle the word of truth” in light of the doctrine of salvation?
Some statements where made this week that could lead some astray.
Because of this, I’d like to take a brief look at 3 themes, hit on some things that were said, and clarify these Biblically.
An Understanding of the Gospel
An Understanding of the Gospel
Here’s what was said this week:
“People are lost because a demon controls the way they think. We need to work to clear their mind through prayer so they can hear the Gospel.”
The presenter used
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Another statement was made:
“The only reason why anyone will go to hell is that we have not taken our place of authority to bind the strong man, insisting on their salvation.”
What is wrong with these?
People are lost because they’ve sinned against God.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
People are lost
People don’t hear the truth because they’ve suppressed it.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
God does the saving apart from you and I.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Concord family, pray for your lost friends! Plead with them! Beg them to come to Christ!
It is not your fault if they don’t accept Jesus as their Savior. You want to be obedient and share Christ. You are accountable to share the Good News, but not for their soul.
People aren’t separated from God because you’ve prayed wrongly, but because they are sinners!
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
It was also said this week that the Bible calls us to “get people saved.”
This is also not correct. We are to share Jesus with them, but more importantly, we are specifically called to make disciples, not converts.
Matt. 28:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
A Correct Understanding of Hermeneutics
A Correct Understanding of Hermeneutics
A basic definition of Hermeneutics is the study of a text in a way that the intended message is made clear to the reader or hearer.
Why is this important?
Take the “telephone” game that people play for example.
What if I told you that tonight we are having Brandon’s baptism at 5pm at the Glazebrook’s house, you told the next person, and so forth, but when it got back to me the message was totally different?
The intended meaning was lost somewhere.
Maybe it was due to someone not speaking clearly, you weren’t listening, or you don’t like Brandon and you wanted to hinder everyone coming to his baptism!
It is critical that we understand the intended message of God through the NT authors.
When we do this correctly, we are Exegeting scripture.
Exegetics: A proper understanding of the “general import of scripture and that of it’s individual portions.” The parts cannot be understand without the whole. (Lange)
When we do this incorrectly, something called Eisegesis happens:
Eisegesis: the practice of imposing a preconceived or foreign meaning onto a text, even if that meaning could not have been originally intended at the time of its writing.
the practice of imposing a preconceived or foreign meaning onto a text, even if that meaning could not have been originally intended at the time of its writing.
Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 49.
Example:
“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils.
It was said this week that we pray wrongly because we aren’t praying what we’ve been commanded. “In Jesus’ name, I bind the demon...
The speaker not only took the text out of context, but missed the entire meaning of this verse within this section.
The point is found in
But some of them said, “By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.” Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
Jesus is the strong man! In Him alone strength is found. He alone has all power!
Here’s one more example.
who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
Friends, this verse is not taking about sanctifying your unbelieving friends. Take a look at . Who is Peter addressing this letter to?
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,
To believers! He’s talking to believers here, not the lost!
The speaker talked about when one person in a household coming to Christ, all should do so!
He used Biblical examples! Cornelius’ house, the Philippian jailer, and more.
having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
These are descriptive, not prescriptive!
A Correct Understanding of God
A Correct Understanding of God
God has given believers a responsibility to share the Word with others.
He has not given us the responsibility to save them.
and,
“A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.”
Matt. 13:1
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
1 Peter 2
For he says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
Romans 9:15-
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
Friends, God does the saving.
Do we want to and need to pray for our lost friends? Yes.
Does God hear your prayers? Yes.
Do they come to Christ because you prayed just right? No.
They come to Christ the same way you and I did, through faith and repentance, believing and receiving the Good News of the Gospel, being radically changed by the power of the Holy Spirit!