Jesus' Teaching on Salvation
Matthew
This morning I mentioned to you that I was going to try to get a copy of the introduction to the book I'm writing on the issue of Lordship salvation. I was informed today that I can't do that because I am currently under contract to a publisher and they do not want it to be released. That sounds a bit clandestine but they have their reasons. So I thought in the event that I couldn't do that I would just read you a few things out of that introduction tonight. I'm really setting aside what I had intended to do and then speak to that issue, because if one person has asked me that question fifty people have asked me this question through the day. And I want to try to set in your mind the issue at hand and then look together to God's word. I'm not going to preach a sermon, I just want to take you through some things in God's word and have you consider this most important subject.
It really came about in my life as a matter of studying the gospel of Matthew over a period of about eight years and during that time the Lord was crystallizing in my thinking the very essence of his gospel ministry and as a result of all of those years and studying down every rabbit trail imaginable in the process I came to understand what I believe to be the biblical teaching on the theology of conversion, the theology of the gospel. I didn't really realize how much diversity of opinion there was on that subject until I began to get feedback from things that I was saying, which seemed to me to be rather apparent from the Scripture. And all of that has led to the point today where there's a need for some clarification on this whole issue.
Let me just read a couple of excerpts and then we'll look to the word of God. This will sort of set your thinking for you. Our Lord's words about eternal life were invariably accompanied by warnings to those who might be tempted to take salvation lightly. He taught that the cost of following him is high, that the way is narrow, and few find it, and that many who call him Lord will be forbidden from entering the kingdom of heaven. Present day evangelicalism, by and large, ignores those warnings. The prevailing view of what constitutes saving faith continues to grow broader and shallower. One segment of evangelicalism going to ridiculous extremes to emphasize that salvation is not earned by good works has even begun to propound the doctrine that conversion to Christ involves quote, "No spiritual commitment whatsoever" end quote. Those who adhere to this view of the gospel teach that salvation requires only that a sinner believe the facts about Christ and ask for salvation. "There need be no repentance, no resulting change in lifestyle," and I'm quoting here, "no commitment, not even a willingness to yield to Christ's lordship." Those things, they say, amount to human works, which corrupt grace and have nothing to do with faith. The result is that the community of professing believers is populated with people who have bought into a system that encourages shallow and ineffectual faith. Many sincerely believe they are saved but are utterly barren of the verifying fruit in their lives.
And that's not all. Shocking forms of open immorality have become commonplace among professing Christians and why not? The promise of eternal life without surrender to divine authority feeds the wretchedness of the unregenerate heart. Enthusiastic converts to this gospel believe their behavior has no relationship to their spiritual status, even if they continue wantonly in the grossest kinds of sins and expressions of human depravity. The distinctions between the church and the world are all but gone. Recent statistics reveal that two billion people worldwide say they are Christians. A well-publicized opinion poll indicated more than half of all Americans say they are born again. Those figures surely represent millions who are tragically deceived. Theirs is a deadly false assurance. Contemporary Christians have been conditioned to believe that because they recited a prayer, signed on a dotted line, asked Jesus into their heart, walked an aisle, or had some other experience they are saved and should never question their salvation. I have attended evangelism- training seminars where counselors were taught to tell converts that any doubt about their salvation is satanic and should be dismissed. It is a widely held misconception that anyone who questions his own salvation is questioning the integrity of God's word.
The Bible teaches clearly that the evidence of God's work in a life is seen in the enviable fruit of transformed behavior, I John 3:10, etc. Real salvation is not merely justification. It cannot be isolated from regeneration, sanctification, and ultimately glorification. It is a process as much as it is an event, a process through which we are being conformed to the image of his Son. There are those who would have us believe that the norm for salvation is to accept Jesus as Savior without yielding to his lordship. They make the incredible claim that any other teaching amounts to a false gospel because it suddenly adds works to the clear and simple conditions set forth in the word of God. They've even tagged the view they oppose lordship salvation.
Lordship salvation defined by one who labels it heresy is and I'm quoting, from one of those critics of lordship salvation, quote, "the view that for salvation a person," this is lordship salvation by his definition, "it is the view that for salvation a person must trust Jesus Christ as his savior from sin and must also commit himself to Christ as Lord of his life submitting to his sovereign authority" end quote. That is the heresy they're against. It's astonishing to me that anyone would characterize that truth as unbiblical or heretical but a growing chorus of voices is echoing the charge. And reams of literature that speaks of people making Jesus Christ Lord of their lives is now available.
And I add that we don't make Christ Lord, he is Lord and those who will not receive him, as Lord are guilty of rejecting him. Faith that rejects his sovereign authority is really unbelief. Conversely surrender to his lordship is no more a human work than faith itself. In fact it is an important element of saving faith, not something added to faith. And it goes on and on from there.
But I just read you a few excepts in order that you might kind of begin to get a grip on what the issues really are and they are grave issues to put it mildly and they must be dealt with and that is what we're endeavoring to do. And because there's so much query about this I feel the Lord directing my heart in that way and so rather than preach a sermon I'm just going to take my Bible and I want you to take yours and let's go to Matthew's gospel and let me take you on a little trip through Matthew and see if we can't learn from the Lord Jesus Christ what are the essential elements of saving faith.
And we'll begin in the very wonderful and God-blessed 5th chapter of Matthew with the beatitudes. I'm going to read them to you. I'm not going to say much about them. They'll come back into play in your own thinking as we move through Matthew. I can't say everything I'd like to say, but then again I never can. Time is always the pressure, but in fact I don't even know what I'm going to say since it's rather unplanned and I'm trusting God's Spirit as we look at this together.
But in Matthew chapter 5, I believe in the beatitudes Jesus laid down the kind of attitude that characterizes a person who is coming into the kingdom, the attitude that characterizes a person who is coming into new life in Christ. And he says in verse 3, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That is people who are beggars in the spiritual sense realizing their absolute bankruptcy.
"Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." Another characteristic of people in his kingdom, not only are they spiritually bankrupt and they know it but they mourn, they are broken over their sinfulness.
"Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." By the way the promises that come behind the beatitudes all speak of life in the kingdom and the beatitude itself speaks of the attitude that characterizes those who are entering in.
And then it says, "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness." And then blessed are the merciful and blessed are the pure in heart, and blessed are the peacemakers, and blessed are the persecuted and so forth. And what we gather there is the essence of the kind of attitudes that characterize a person who is brought into the kingdom. They're very general in the sense that they don't specifically talk about entrance into the kingdom, they don't specifically talk about saving faith as such, they don't sort of interact with gospel truth relative to the death and resurrection of Christ yet to come, but they nonetheless are characteristics of kingdom citizens, those who are entrants into God's kingdom.
With that in mind let's go to chapter 7. And after the Sermon on the Mount main thrust comes the invitation in verse 13, this is the invitation at the end of the evangelistic sermon, which I believe is the greatest evangelistic sermon ever preached, certainly ever recorded, and it is in verse 13 that the invitation comes. Our Lord says to those whom he has just really attacked, he has destroyed the Pharisees' system, the system of the religionist's of Israel and all who would adhere to that system. He showed them that their religion was bankrupt, their ceremonies were bankrupt, their prayers were bankrupt, their alms were bankrupt, their hearts were bankrupt, and things they did on the outside that didn't touch the heart were absolutely meaningless to God. In fact, they were blasphemous to him, they were of a righteousness that came far short of that which was acceptable.
And so he then offers them the invitation in verse 13 and it comes in this form: enter in at the narrow gate. "For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many there be who go in that way. Because narrow is the gate and compressed, or hard is the way, which leads to life and few there are who find it." Now Jesus proposes to his audience that there are two ways, there are two paths, and there are two gates that grant entrance to those two paths. One is a narrow way, a compressed way with a narrow gate. One is a broad way with a broad gate.
Now it is important for you to understand that Jesus is not contrasting the road to heaven with the road marked hell. The religionists never mark their road hell, they always mark it heaven, it just doesn't go there. And the broad road is the road that goes to hell even though it says heaven. That's the issue. Nobody is selling tickets on a road to hell, certainly not religion. And what Jesus is doing is characterizing false religion as a broad road that is it is latitude ness in what it tolerates. You can lollygag from one side to the other at your will, you don't have to give up anything, you don't strip down going on because the gate is as wide as the way is. It is tolerating every conceivable view, every conceivable religious attitude, feeling, doctrine or whatever. And so Jesus is saying you may choose the road of religion. The latitude ness wide gate, anybody gets on with any baggage and can live just about anyway they want and not fall off. But on the other hand there is a narrow gate and you go through that gate bare, stripped, you can't take your luggage, as one teacher said through a turnstile, and onto a compressed way where living is very circumspect and very prescribed and very demanding, and that is the way of salvation. Jesus then is calling men to come through the narrow gate to the narrow way, the hard way, the compressed way rather than the broad way that leads to destruction.
Now I want you to pick up the word few and just think about it. Few there be that find it. Few there by that find it. I believe that there are few, because Jesus said it, who enter in at the true gate so the reality of true salvation. How few I don't know, but few. You say, "Do you mean to tell me that heaven will be minimally populated?" Well my whole theology sort of adds a few folks since I believe that when a child dies before the age of accountability God in sovereign grace redeems that child at the point of death and takes it into his presence, and so if nothing else heaven will be massively populated with a whole lot of little ones who died and it seems to me merciful that in most, that the more pagan the country is the higher the mortality rate. That again is the grace of God.
I'm not talking about the number and the population of heaven because of that, but what I'm saying is what Jesus said, "Few there be that find it." On the other hand, the road of religion is still with many people. Isn't it true there are many more people on the road of religion that ends up in hell than there are on the true path to heaven?
Now would you notice in verse 13 the word many. Many there be who go in that way. We picked that word many up again over in verse 22. Verse 21 says, "Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." Why? There's a lot of folks on the broad road who think they're going to heaven and think they know the Lord, but they're not going to enter in. It's not going to be the one that says, "Lord, Lord," it's going to be the one that what? does the will of my father. So let's ask some questions and I'm going to give you some answers.
Who are the few? That's the question tonight. Who are the few? Who are they? The first thing we learn about them in verse 21 is that they are not the people who say Lord, Lord, but they're what? The people who do the will of God. Write that down. The few are the people who do the will of God.
Verse 22, what's the first word? Many. You know what many this is? This is the many that we saw in verse 13. The many on the wrong road end up at the end to say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and in your name have cast out demons, and in your name done many wondrous works? And then I will confess to them I never knew you." That as I never have had a personal and intimate relationship with you, he doesn't mean he doesn't know who they are. Of course he does. The word know is used here in the sense of intimacy as it is often in Scripture. I have never had an intimate relationship with you. Leave me you workers of iniquity. And again the issue is not what they claim, but he looks at their life and instead of seeing a pattern of doing the will of God, he sees a pattern of doing what? Iniquity and its rumination of chapter 3, isn't it? He that is born of God does not continue to commit sin as a pattern, for the seed of God is in him and he cannot continue in the unbroken pattern of sin.
So the first characteristic of the few then, the few are those who do the will of my father. And wherein is the will of God revealed? On the pages of Holy Scripture! The first expression of the will of God with reference to the gospel was what God the Father said out of heaven when pointing to Jesus Christ he said, "This is my beloved Son," what? "Hear him. Hear Him." And Jesus said, "I came not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me." And he came to express the Father's will for redemption. He came to confirm in reality that God loved men and wanted them in his presence forever.
The will of God begins then in the gospel sense with the coming of Jesus Christ to express that will and then with everything that Jesus taught. That's why in the Great Commission it says we're to teach everyone all things whatsoever I have commanded you, because Jesus certainly expressed the will of the Father. So first of all it's those who do the will of the Father. If you tell me that someone is converted and I look at their life over the long haul and I say I don't see them doing the will of the Father then I have a right to suspect whether they're the few.
Go to verse 24. "Therefore, whosoever hears these sayings of mine, the things I have said and does them I liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock, the rain came down, the flood rose, the winds blew, beat on the house, it didn't fall. It was founded on a rock and everyone that hears these words of mine, teachings of mine and does not do them is like that foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down, the floods arose, and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it and here is the second characteristic of the few.
Characteristic number one they do the will of God. Number two they obey the teaching of Jesus and they're really one in the same, aren't they? They're really one in the same. The will of the Father expressed in the teaching of Christ. The few are recognizable because it's in their heart to do the will of God. It's in their heart to do the things that Jesus taught and that becomes characteristic of their life and that is how the reality of their conversion is ascertained.
So let's sum those two up and just say the few are those who obey God. The few are those whose lives are marked by obedience to the will of God and the teaching of Christ. You show me a person who has little or no regard for the teaching of Christ, show me a person who has no desire to do the will of God, and I'll show you a person who doesn't qualify by the very standard Jesus established with his own words. And may I hasten to say to you folks, it isn't that we always do the will of God and it isn't that we always do everything that Jesus taught, it is that that is the burning desire that we have in our heart. It's there and sometimes it gets clouded but when we fail to do the will of God and fail to do what we know what Jesus taught we suffer for that, the guilt of going against the grain of the new creation.
Let's go to chapter 10. We can't cover them all but chapter 10 and let's hear what Jesus said again in verse 32. Again we're asking the question who are the few who enter the kingdom? Who are the few who come in the narrow gate on God's terms? Verse 32, "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father who is in heaven." That's interesting isn't it? What that says is that true believers make public confession. Verse 33, "Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to send peace," and now he launches into what he means by this. You say, "Well that's easy to confess Christ for me," but for some folks it's a very high price to pay. And that's what he approaches in the next section.
He says, "I didn't come to send peace on earth. I came to send a sword rather than peace. I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes will be the people in his own house." What's he's saying here is germane to the audience to which he speaks because they are all, of course, steeped in traditional Judaism and the religion of their culture and calling them to salvation, to faith in himself, is to call them away from everything and everybody that's dear to them. And so the price is high and the cost is profound. But what he is saying is if you're not willing to publicly confess me no matter what the cost, then I'm not going to confess you before my Father. There is an element in true faith of courage. It not obeys but it has the courage to take a public stand. Jesus said that. And if you love father and mother more than me you're not worthy of me and if you love son or daughter more than me you're not worthy of me. And if you don't take your cross and follow me you're not worthy of me.
What does he mean by that? He means if you're not willing to leave everything that's dear to you an even loose your life, don't get mystical please about taking up your cross. I get very exercised in my spirit when I hear somebody talk about taking up the cross as if it was some mystical experience. It was a very very concrete objective concept to take up a cross to those people had nothing to do with mystically identifying with the cross of Christ because that hadn't even happened. What it had to do with was very simple. People who carried their cross got nailed to it and what Jesus was saying is if you're not willing to leave your family and leave the people that are dear to you, and loose your life for me you're not worthy to be my disciple. That's what he said.
"And if you're concerned about holding your life," verse 39, "rather than loosing your life, then you're going to wind up," what? "Losing it." This is strong stuff. But Jesus is saying, as we saw in chapter 7, the few are those who obey. And here he says the few are those who will confess Christ at any cost. You say wait not everybody will do that. Then the people who won't do that aren't experiencing the powerful transforming work of the Spirit of God in their life. Because when the Spirit of God transforms a person there will be a willingness to leave home, to leave parents.
It always is curious to me to study the martyrs and to study missions history and see that throughout history there have been people who have been willing to give their lives in confession of Christ, get this, who were far less mature than all of us, who were far less instructed than all of us. You say to yourself, "Boy I don't know if I have the courage to do that." But I'm telling you at the point when the Spirit of God is saving you and transforming your life the work of the Spirit of God will make that severance at any cost in your behalf. That's the power of God. That's what Jesus said. It's pretty clear.
Let's go a step further to chapter 13 and all we're doing is following the teaching of Christ. And in chapter 13 you know the parable of the soils, verses one to nine he gives the parable and he talks about the fact that a sower went out to sow, very common in that part of the world and he sowed and of course they would throw the seed with their hand and it would land some of it on rocky ground, some of it on a wayside, some of it on weedy soil and some of it on good ground.
There's six soils mentioned here, not four, but six. Three are bad and three are good. Three bad ones bring no fruit three good ones bring fruit, 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. And typically in Palestine the land is uneven. The Rabbi's used to say when God dumped rocks on the earth he made a mistake and unloaded them all in Palestine. Well if you've been to Israel you know a little about that. But the soil can be variegated and there can be good ground to the point of producing 100-fold, which is really kind of hyperbole, that's a lot to expect 10,000 fold. There's good ground that can produce 60 and good ground that can produce 30. There is some soil that has underlying weeds in it and when the farmer tills it he doesn't get down deep enough to get those roots of weeds and when he begins to work the soil and water the soil and all the weeds wind up growing faster than the plant and they choke its life out. There are some soil where beneath where the plow touches there's rock bed and the plant goes in, the seed decomposes, sends down its little roots and hits rock bed so all the energy coming into the plant shoots up and it booms up and looks like a bumper crop is going to come. The problem is there's no way the roots can get water. The sun comes out scorches it and it dies. The other kind of soil he mentions, the first one is the hard-beaten path where sometimes the wind will blow the seed, it lands there, the little covey of birds that probably flew behind every farmer who ever sowed a field fly along and pick it up, and the other gospel record tells us that what the birds don't pick up is trampled under the feet of people.
Now the picture here is very graphic, very very graphic. There are some soils that bring forth no fruit. The issue in the parable here is fruit. That is the significant issue. The first soil is hard beaten path, the word hits it, and we know it's the word if you go over the interpretation starting in verse 18, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom," verse 19. So it's the word of the kingdom, the kingdom is basically the message of how to enter God's kingdom by faith. So when anyone hears the message of entering the kingdom by faith that means that the seed is the word of the kingdom, the gospel to us. When they hear it, they don't think about it, they don't understand it, the wicked one snatches it away, that's the hard ground. That's the wayside. And there are people where you throw the gospel seed and it doesn't penetrate. They don't think about it. It makes absolutely no impact. Right? You've thrown some seed on hard ground haven't you? I have.
And then he says the second is the rocky soil. It's not that there's rocks on the top, it's rock bed underneath and the word comes in. Boy they respond to hear the word, immediately rejoice and they're all excited about the word and we've all had that too. Have you asked yourself where those folks are that you baptized six months ago? Where those people that were so joyous and came to receive Christ and you can't find them anymore?
As one pastor said to me one time, he was pointing to a man in the church, he said, "That's one of my converts." I said, "Oh that's great." He said, "No it's not great. He's one of my converts, not the Lord's." And I think we all have a string of converts that we can't explain how it is that they fell out because everything looked so good when they started.