Friday, October 30, 2009

God promises that you will work out your salvation

This week’s promise: God promises that you will work out your salvation

Luke 8:11-15 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Today I would like to look at another of our Lord’s parables. This is the parable of the sower which I’m sure we’re all very familiar with. In this parable the Lord tells us about how people receive the Gospel and how each type of person deals with it differently and what their outcome is.

Jesus says there are 4 groups of people who hear His Gospel. The first are the ones that never accept it or believe because the devil keeps them blind. We’re all familiar with this kind of person unfortunately. They usually think they’re very smart and intellectual. Sadly for them the only knowledge they have is the kind that’s worthless, for they only have the worlds knowledge and not the knowledge or wisdom of God.

The second are those who seems to be saved but then when the going gets rough they fall away. This group didn’t lose their salvation because although they seemed to be saved, they never really were. There are many people in this group. Some of them are great pretenders too. We often call them our brothers and sisters not realizing that they have never really been saved. These are the folks that renounce their faith and then cause all sorts of divisions in the body of Christ because they insist that they really were saved, when in fact they weren’t. They try to convince people that you can lose your salvation but God’s Word is quite plain and clear that someone who is really saved cannot lose their salvation. Therefore, those who renounce their faith, and those who fall away are simply among the group of people who were never really saved to begin with. I tend to think that this is actually one of the largest groups of all.

The third group Jesus says is a group that hears the Gospel, seems to be saved, but they never grow to maturity. They are to wrapped up in the world and what they see to take the Kingdom of God seriously. I think this is another group that is also very large. We often call the members of this group our brothers and sisters too, but again they are not really our brothers and sisters, for they too are not really saved. There is only one group according to our Lord that is really saved and that is the fourth group.

Notice what Jesus says about this last group who really are saved. He says that they hear the Word, retain it and persevere producing a crop. This is the group that grow to maturity and are really saved. None of the others are saved. None of them are our brothers or sisters in Christ. How very sad this is because when we look at the people who fill the churches today, even the pastors themselves, how many are really saved? It seems there are very few and that’s what saddens me.

Let’s look closer at what the difference is in this fourth group that shows that they are really saved.

Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. NIV

First the Lord says they retain His Word. Let’s look at that particular verse in a couple of other translations:

Luke 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. KJV

Luke 8:15 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. ESV

This makes it very easy to see that there is more to being saved then simply “hearing the word”. When we are saved, really saved, we “retain the word” or “hold it fast” or “keep it”. In other words, it’s more then just knowing it, we have to use it or perhaps another way of looking at it would be to say that we must obey it. When we do that, the last part of the verse comes into play, because it is only then that we bear fruit, or “produce a crop”. Of course here we are talking about producing fruit of the spirit which we’ve already discussed. This is how we work out our salvation as Paul called it. We hear the word and hang onto it for dear life, obeying it, and putting our Lord and His Word above everyone and everything else in our lives. It means that we study His Word, wanting to know Him better and know His Will better and that we reflect on it, and that we’re always straining toward the goal of our final prize, the redemption of our bodies at the rapture. We want to be more like Him who died for us, we want to please Him and we want that more then we want anything else. Let’s take a look now at how Jesus ended this parable we’ve been studying:

Luke 8:16-18 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.

Jesus is telling us here again to consider carefully how we’re listening to Him. If our lives do not reflect that we belong to Him, then we do not really belong to Him but are only pretending to. He warns us that if a person continues in that way, that they will be shown to be a false follower and everyone will know that they are not saved. He warns us that eventually what we really are will be revealed to everyone. His Word warns us too that we should regularly examine ourselves and our lives to make sure that we are living the way He wants us to.

2 Corinthians 13:5-6 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.

Galatians 6:3-4 If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,

Once again God’s Word has shown us that following Jesus is a lot more then going to church on Sunday. It means working out our salvation, which is another way of saying we need to grow to maturity in Christ. It is not acceptable to simply say “we believe” if our lives to not reflect that belief. Does this mean that we need to get ourselves busy doing “good works”. Not at all! What it means is that we need to make certain that we daily spend time with the Lord in prayer, spend time daily reading, studying and reflecting on His Word. When we do that, and we are actively listening to the Lord, then our outward lives will automatically reflect our beliefs and show that we are indeed saved and the “good works” that others talk of so freely will come automatically. We will see the fruit of the spirit in our lives more and more and we will find that we care less and less for this world and it’s attractions.

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