Title: Discernment Part 8 The Essentials pt
Author: Darrell Ferguson
Last saved by: Vashti

Discernment Part 10    The Essentials pt.3    12-23-2001

In Jn.17:3 Jesus pointed out that to gain eternal life one must know the true God, and Jesus Christ whom God has sent.  
So a person doesn’t believe in the true God unless he believes in a God who is:
1.	Creator
2.	All-powerful (omnipotent)
3.	All-knowing (omniscient)
4.	Good and perfect in every way

As for Christ, you must believe Him to be the only true God, and believe all of His claims about Himself.

We saw last week that belief in His deity is required.  John points out that belief in this humanity is as well. 1Jn 4:2-3  Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. 

Particularly important is the resurrection.

That particular point is singled out as an essential.  When Paul gives a bare bones summary of the Gospel in 1 Co.15:1-5 the resurrection was part of it:
Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 
3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures… 
  
That is essential for salvation. Ro.10:9 if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

It is also essential that we believe in the Second Coming.  Jesus claimed that He will return and raise the dead and judge every person.  All that is essential (Rev.22:18,19).

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is Almighty God.  And the Holy Spirit is a person.   It is incorrect to refer to the Holy Spirit as “it.”  We should refer to Him as “He.”  He exhibits personality, volition (he decides things), emotions (He can be grieved), etc.  He is not a force or expression, but a person.

I’m not aware of any passage that specifically states that if a person is confused about the Holy Spirit, he is lost (like we see with the Father and the Son).  In fact, the Spirit seems to be left out of comments like that (In Jn.17 Jesus said eternal life is knowing the Father and the Son, but said nothing of the Spirit).

So perhaps there is a little more room for ignorance regarding the Holy Spirit.    

However, if someone is presented with the truth about the Holy Spirit and rejects it, you have to wonder if that person worships the true God.

One thing we know is an essential is that we not blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  You may not understand all the doctrine about Him, but you had better not resist Him, or you are lost.

So if you are going to come to God, that’s the God you have to come to.  You come to any other god, and you cannot be saved, because you are serving a false god.

You don’t have to understand everything about God.  But everything we have mentioned so far is essential.

So that’s the true God.  The second part is you must approach Him in the right way.

The question came up last week about what one must believe about Scripture.

The Right Way to Approach God

1. As a Response to Scripture
This makes a perfect transition into the second part of the essentials.  We have described the true God, now we begin to look at the right way to approach that God.  And the beginning point is this: you approach God in response to His revelation of Himself.

So our attitude toward God’s revelation of Himself is indicative of our attitude toward God.

You don’t have to read very far in the Bible before you are introduced to the concept of the Word of God – it shows up in the 3^rd v. of the Bible.

Often in Scripture the writers talk about the Word of God as if they were talking about God himself (Jesus is called the Word). 

Knowledge of God’s Word is knowledge of God. 
1Sam. 3:7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

That’s because God’s Words are the exact representation of Him.  That is not true of us.  We speak things that are not accurate representations of who we are, because we are dishonest, ignorant, and thoughts have been introduced into our heads by other sources.

But everything God says is perfectly true and accurate.  His words represent exactly what is in His mind.   And no thought has ever been introduced into the mind of God.  He never learned anything, he never had a new thought, (has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurred to God?).  So every thought he has originated in his mind.

So when we see, “And God said” we get a glimpse directly into the mind of the Deity!

For this reason it is a very serious matter to reject what God has said.

Jn.12:47-50  "As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. 48There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. 49For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. 50I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." 

In order for a person to be saved, he has to believe something.  That something is the Gospel, and the Gospel is revealed in the pages of Scripture.  

There is room at the margin for us to debate issues of accuracy in minor issues such as numbers or exact quotes, but generally speaking if you reject the message of Scripture, you reject God.

This is especially true of the words of the Messiah.  
Dt.18:18-20  I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.” 

I believe this is the first clear prophecy of Christ.

It is quoted in Ac 3:19-26    Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you-even Jesus. 21He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22For Moses said, `The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.’  

The NT is the record of Jesus’ teaching, and so in order to be saved one must generally speaking have an accepting attitude toward what is taught in the NT.

Jesus warned us consider carefully how you listen. (Lk 8:18)  The manner in which you listen to God’s Word determines your eternal destiny.  

That theme pops up again and again – especially in Hebrews. Heb.2:2-3  if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? 

Ignoring the OT is bad enough.  Ignoring the NT seals your doom for sure.

Heb.3:7-8   So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts 

Hardening your heart against what the Bible says is a reaction against His voice, which means it’s a reaction against Him.

Heb.12:25-26  See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 

The strongest warning in Scripture regarding our treatment of a prophecy is in the last chapter of the Bible. 

Rev. 22:18-19   I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. 

There is a lot of debate over what it means to add to or take from Revelation, but whatever it means, one thing is for sure – if you do it, you can forget about going to heaven.

I don’t think this curse applies to people who are willing to accept the Book of Revelation, but in spite of their best efforts misinterpret it.

I don’t think it applies to textual criticism.  If I study Revelation and I’m trying to decide between a short variant and a long variant, and I choose the long one (but I’m wrong), I don’t think I’m doomed to experience the plagues.

But at the very least it has to apply to anyone who would ignore the general message of the Book, or purposefully alter what it says.

As hard as I tried, I was not able to construct a sound argument that belief in the innerency of Scripture is an essential.  But that’s not to say it isn’t an essential – I may have missed something.

But as far as I can tell, while a person must have a high view of God’s Word, and must generally accept its message, I think it is possible for a person to think the Bible has some errors and still be saved.

So, the underlying basis of coming to God the right way is coming in response to the message of His self-revelation in His Word.  A person comes to God only when he hears the Gospel and accepts it.

2. Admitting the Truth About Yourself

When we approach God, in order to be accepted by Him we must begin with an understanding of who we are, and what our condition is before Him.

A. I Am Sinful
1Jn 1:8-10  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 
10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 

Helpless (unrighteous, and unable to make ourselves righteous – completely dependent upon God to save us)

Mt.5:20 unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

The Pharisees were unsurpassed in human righteousness. 

Ro.4:5   to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

This verse requires two things of a person who wants to be justified.  One is that you trust God.  What is the other?  (not working)

The person who trusts God and tries to work to partially earn his salvation cannot be saved.

Not only can you not earn salvation, but the very attempt to do so makes salvation unattainable for you until you give that up.

Ro.4:5 is another one of the “God who” statements.  If you are going to come to God, you must come to a God who is a justifier of the wicked.  That means you have to believe yourself to be wicked.  If you come to Him thinking you are pretty good, you can’t be saved.

There are two kinds of “works-righteousness” approaches.  There are those who try to approach God on the basis that they are already righteous and have worked and made themselves good enough to be acceptable to Him.  Those people are lost.

But there is another kind as well – people who think they can become acceptable to God by means of religion (ceremonies, rituals, sacraments, etc.)

Gal 4:8-11  Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. 9But now that you know God-or rather are known by God-how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? 10You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! 11I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. 

Gal.5:2-4  Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

3. Approaching God on His Terms (Salvation by Faith Alone)
This is the other side of the coin of the last point.  You can’t be saved if you believe salvation comes through human effort, or human goodness, law-keeping or ritual.  So if it can’t come through those things, what does it come through?

The answer is faith.  And the reference is the entire book of Romans.  If you believe in salvation by anything other than faith, or by faith plus anything, you are lost.

Faith involves believing the Gospel and entrusting yourself to Christ, and there are numerous implications to that.

Examples:
 1. If you believe that Christ is Lord, you will approach Him as your Lord.

Ro.10:9  That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

If a person claims to believe Jesus to be the Lord, but refuses to submit to His lordship over his life, he proves that he doesn’t really believe Jesus to be Lord.

 2. If you believe God’s is telling the truth when He says His way is best, you will turn your back on your own way, and follow His way (repentance)

If you summarize both Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s message in one sentence, what would it be?  Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is near. (Mt.3:2, 4:17).

The clear implication is that in order to enter the kingdom, repentance is required.  

When Paul summarized his preaching of the Gospel he said   I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. (Ac 26:20)

A person who will not repent is not saved.

1 Pe.3:10,11  "Whoever would love life and see good days …must turn from evil and do good;

And this attitude about sin must persist and continue and pervade the believer’s life.  Sometimes people develop a misunderstanding of grace, and think because of grace, sin is permitted for the Christian.  

That doctrine is referred to in the Bible as license, and it’s mentioned in Jd.4 as a characteristic of those who preach a false Gospel.   certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. 

Holiness is an essential mark of salvation.  (James, 1 Jn.)

 3. Worship
If you have genuine faith, you will worship God.  
Jn.4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

If you are going to approach God, you must worship Him, and you must do so in spirit and truth.  That means it must be genuine, it must be directed to the true God, and it must above all be internal (again – external ritualism won’t cut it).

 4. Love

True faith will always result in love for God and for people. 
1Jn 4:8  Whoever does not love does not know God, 

1Co 16:22  If anyone does not love the Lord-a curse be on him

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 

This is the antithesis of devotion to the world.  You cannot have both.  A person absolutely must make a choice between the world and God.  When we call people to salvation, we are calling them out of the world to God.
The strategy of modern evangelism that says, “Accept Jesus now, and give up the world later” is not the Gospel. 

1Jn 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Jas.4:4  friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

The call to salvation is not just a call to enter the light, but a call to leave the darkness and to enter the light.  The concept of coming to the light and only later leaving the darkness is ridiculous.

Eph.5:8-9  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 

1Pe 2:9 He called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 
but 1Jn 2:9  Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 

Ac 14:15  We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.

5. Humility 
Genuine faith is always marked by humility.  Scripture is loaded with passages that declare that the proud are lost, and only the humble are saved.  (Mt.18:1, Lk.18:9-14)

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What does a Gospel presentation like that sound like?

Ac 17:24-31
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28`For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, `We are his offspring.' 

29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone-an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." 

So there it is.  Paul says, “Let me describe a God you don’t know – a God who is different than all you gods, the one true God:” and then he goes on to describe a God who is the Creator, who is self-sustaining and not dependent upon anyone or anything, who exercises sovereign control over the world, & who is loving and holy and who requires holiness of us.

Then he calls them to turn to that God acknowledging that they are sinners, repenting in view of the coming judgment by Jesus Christ, whom God raised from the dead.

The Minimal Amount of Information

Some say, “You can’t possibly cover everything in one presentation of the Gospel.  Surely all that isn’t required in order for a person to be saved.”

First of all, I’m not sure that’s true.  You can’t cover much detail, but you can give the Gospel.  Paul’s sermon in Acts 17 covers a most of the essentials, and as we have it it takes less than 1 minute to preach.

So I think we could present much more of the Gospel than is usually presented.  However obviously you can’t give every point every time you listen – certainly not with very much explanation. 

So what is the minimum amount of info required at the moment of conversion?  Scripture doesn’t say.  

I think this is an area where we need to be very, very careful.  Obviously we know there is some cutoff, below which level of knowledge you cannot be saved (because the act of conversion is the accepting of a message).

And since we don’t know exactly where that cutoff is, we should be very eager to offer people as much of the Gospel as we possibly can.

If all you can do is offer a 2-minute presentation, then that’s all you can do.  But remember, the less a person knows of the Gospel, the greater the chance that that person doesn’t know enough, and perhaps isn’t even saved – even though they have embraced the part you have presented.

For example, suppose there is a person who is willing to accept the ideas that Jesus is our Savior, He died for us, and offers forgiveness of sins.  But that person is not willing to believe Jesus is God, or that God or that God is all-powerful.  

That person may pray to receive Christ, and yet is not saved.

So we should be in a big hurry to teach the fullness of the Gospel – especially to new converts.  You can tell if a person’s salvation is genuine by how he responds as he learns more and more of the Gospel.

Maybe you were saved with very, very little knowledge.  And ever since then, each time you learn some new aspect of the Gospel, you love it and embrace it.  That is evidence that your conversion was genuine. 

But suppose someone else was converted at the same time as you after hearing the same, incomplete Gospel presentation.  And that person has great joy over his conversion, but every time some additional aspect of the Gospel is presented to him, he recoils, objects, hesitates, doubts  – that is evidence that he was not truly converted.

Next phase of this class: we are going to assess the major religions and philosophies and apply our list of essentials to them.