The Certainty of Salvation Part 2

About this sermon

Introduction: We began looking this morning at how the certainty of our salvation is explained in the terms of having been given PEACE with God as a result of justification. We began talking about what this peace is. 1. It is a settled peace 2. It is the most important peace 3. It is the peace that has to do with access 4. It is the peace of reconciliation a. This reconciliation involves the removal of enmity on God’s part b. This reconciliation involves the removal of enmity from man ESV Colossians 1:21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, And tonight, I want us to think more about this. I want us to think about the experiential results of peace with God. And if these are experiential results of having been made at peace with God, then these are also evidences of conversion. These are results that saved people, converted people experience. I. THEY UNDERSTAND THAT AN ENMITY HAS BEEN REMOVED They understand what once was in their life compared to what it is now. All of these before and after passages of scripture make perfect sense to them; they understand exactly what they are talking about. **Let me say it this way, anyone who doesn’t recognize a before and an after in their life is someone who still doesn’t have peace with God. -I’m not talking about an exact date or time for that change, but they see a definite difference. Or, they know that without Christ there WOULD BE a definite difference. In fact, I’ve known people who had a date who manifested less of a change and who manifested less of an awareness of the real change that I’m talking about than some people who couldn’t give me a date. **It is NOT once I did not know the right information (alone) but now I do. **It is NOT once I had not been baptized but now I have **It is NOT once I did not attend church but now I do It is, a change from hostility to peace, from dishonor to worship and adoration, from hatred (haters of God) to love. ESV Romans 1:28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, IN FACT, IT IS A NEW AWARENESS OF THIS ENMITY THAT TROUBLES THE SOUL WHEN SOMEONE IS CONVERTED. Lloyd-Jones – “The moment we realize the truth about God we are troubled and disturbed and our natural enmity to Him reveals itself. That is what happens to many people who have always thought that they were Christians, and have always been religious and godly. They suddenly awaken to the fact that the God whom they thought they were worshipping is not God at all, not the God revealed in the Bible, not the God who has revealed from heaven His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. The moment they see that, they hate God, they are no longer at peace with Him. They had a false peace arising out of their own imaginations, but they were not at peace with God.” This is the decision set before us at the time of conversion. Will I embrace the God who really is? Will I love the Savior who really exists? II. THEIR MIND IS AT REST ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD But we must be very careful here, because we have all met with a great number of people who have a false peace, a false rest. But the kind of rest I’m talking about here is a rest that exists because I have taken the doctrines of salvation and worked them out with respect to my own life — I’ve applied them to my own case. Do you notice all the THEREFORES in the book of Romans? This is a real test of our own lives. Do we understand these therefores? Are we able to work them out in our own case and do they represent our own experience and faith? THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN THE THINKING OF SOMEONE WHO IS AT PEACE WITH GOD. A. THERE HAS BEEN AWAKENING 1. CONVICTION 2. CONTRITION B. THERE HAS BEEN REPENTANCE C. THERE HAS BEEN FAITH D. THERE IS NOW REST

Topics

• Salvation