FACT #10: You must love the Lord–AND the Truth–to be saved
The Bible teaches us that people who would be eternally lost are those who “refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Th 2.10).
Therefore, we must love the truth to be saved. But we must also love the Lord to be saved. I repeat: not just believe in Jesus, but also love Jesus.
1 Corinthians 16.22–If anyone does not love the Lord–a curse be on him.
Can we be saved if a “curse” is upon us due to not loving the Lord? But there is more. It isn’t possible to love the Lord if we don’t obey Him and His Word.
John 14.15–If you love Me, you will obey what I command.
Luke 6.46–Why do you call Me “Lord, Lord,” and do not DO what I say?
And there is still more…we must also love Jesus’ teachings (not only His commands; there is a difference between commands and teachings. All commands are teachings, but not all teachings are commands).
John 14.23–If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Well, if that’s true, that means that faith alone–if it isn’t accompanied with obedience–is useless. No wonder James said this:
James 2.24–You see that a person is justified what he does and not by faith alone.
FACT #11: You must keep your teachings and doctrines pure to be saved
It is very important that we keep the facts “the facts” when it comes to His Word. The Bible sometimes calls the Word of God the Word of Truth, and it does so for a good reason.
Ephesians 1.13–And you also were included in Christ when you heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation.
It’s called the “Word of Truth” because it’s words are true, meaning that if we change them then they are no longer true.
1 Timothy 4:16–Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will SAVE both yourself and your hearers. [It is a salvation issue!]
We must also refrain from distorting the Word to suit our preferred belief systems. Distorting the Word of Truth will result in our spiritual destruction:
2 Peter 3.15-18
Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. [salvation issue!]
Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
So, when we open the WOG, let’s make sure that God hold’s us accountable for what His Word actually says. Some people were born, they were taught something, and that’s what they believe, and that’s what they’ll always believe–and that’s what they will defend to the death. And sometimes it matters little to them what God’s Word actually says. But we must not be that way. We must put aside all previous understandings, think-so’s and opinions–and let the Bible be the final say on everything we believe. It doesn’t matter if it offends our family. It doesn’t matter if it offends our Church. It doesn’t matter if it goes against our church’s favorite teachings or traditions. It doesn’t matter if contradicts the viewpoints of our favorite preacher. The Word of God must always be the final authority for our beliefs and practices.
Given these warnings, it’s no wonder Paul would write this in 2 Timothy 2.14-15:
2 Timothy 2.15—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.
2 Timothy 2.14—Warn them [the churches] before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. [Christians divide into factions.]
[Consider also 1 Timothy 6.3-4—If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.]
Notice that Paul strictly warned Timothy to make sure Christians did not spend their time arguing about “words” in the Scriptures, because doing so will ruin those who pay attention to it. Please notice also how that (in 1 Tim 6.3-4) that one characteristic of false teachers is that they stir up controversies about words that result in fighting and malicious talk and evil suspicions about others and are a constant source of friction, rather than peace, and involve people who are in it mainly for profit–as usual.
FACT #12: You must endure all the way to the end of your life if you expect to be saved
2 Timothy 3.12—In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…
1 Corinthians 1.8—He [Jesus] will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Revelation 12.10-12—Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”
Revelation 2.26—To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations…
Hebrews 11.35-40—Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated–the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Matthew 10.22—[Jesus spoke of a time when]…All men will hate you because of Me, but he who stands firm (endures) to the end will be saved.
Revelation 12:17; 14:12—Then the dragon was enraged at the woman, and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
…This calls for the patient endurance of the saints—those who keep God’s commands and their faith in Jesus.
CONCLUSION: De-emphasis on “man’s role” in his OWN salvation is nothing new
Again, a reminder of what Paul said:
2 Corinthians 6.1—As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
Popular myths and false teachings have reached serious levels in our modern Christian religious world.
Therefore it comes as no surprise that false teachers would choose to de-emphasize what the HS heavily emphasized in the Word–namely, man’s critical role in his own eternal salvation.
In the Old Testament, God condemned the “preachers” of that day as men who called “…evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…” (Isaiah 5.20). God said that the false prophets “dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace…” (Jeremiah 8.11).
The prophet Micah called the people of Israel a people “who hate the good and love the evil” (Micah 3:2), and what they really wanted was a preacher who “utters wind and lies.” He declared that “If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink’ [which can give one a false sense of feeling good] he would be the preacher for this people!” (Micah 2:11, ESV).
The Lord said in Amos 8:11: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD’.” Thus, there was the famine of hearing the words of the LORD, but there was no lack of priests who would preach – that is, for a price. “Her heads [leaders] judge for a bribe, her priests teach for pay, and her prophets divine for money; yet they lean on the LORD, and say, ‘Is not the LORD among us?” (Micah 3:16 ESV). Because of this, there is “… no knowledge of God in the land; but there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, committing adultery …” (Hosea 4:2). “Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who make my people stray: … The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them … For there is no answer from God” (Micah 3:5-7).
This casual, spiritually nonchalant attitude reeks among many of our own minister in our churches, whom I fear sometimes are oblivious to the realities of rampant lukewarmness in our own churches, which Jesus considered, per Revelation 3.14-22, absolutely disgusting, and requiring immediate repentance if they expected to be saved. Please note that these were the final words of instruction from our Lord as found in the Bible.
Therefore, the warnings of Paul to “not to receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor 6.1) are certainly worthy of consideration and reminding.
Paul also warned elsewhere that if we do not “hold fast to the Word [message of truth]” then we have “believed in vain” (1 Cor 15.2).
Yes, all that God and Christ have done for humanity will do no good for the person who ignores his own role in the salvation process.
It is certainly true that nothing we do can “earn” our salvation (by the way, faith doesn’t either, but we’re still required to have it!)—but that doesn’t eliminate our responsibilities to God.
People can readily recognize the absurdity of thinking that a person could “call upon the Lord Jesus” but not believe in Him and still be saved, or a person could implant the Word of God but never believe in Christ or obey the Word and still be saved.
But millions today can’t seem to understand that it is equally absurd to think that one can believe in Jesus and not repent of their sins, change their lives, be baptized, implant the Word and obey it, keep a close watch on their lives and their teaching / doctrinal beliefs, endure through hardships, lose their lives for Christ, and continue to long for the pure, spiritual milk of the Word of God.
All of these—along with the other requirements listed previously—are described by the Bible to “save us.” We are not permitted to simply “choose anything from the list of requirements,” and expect that alone to save us (for example, to choose faith alone and then ignore the rest).
Finally, these facts expose the “faith alone saves us” myth, because it’s clear that although faith certainly saves us in a sense, the sense that it saves us is no different than the sense that any other responsibility of man “saves him.”
Again, no part of man’s role “earns his salvation”—but every part of man’s role that the Bible says “saves us” is required for us to obtain God’s grace—not just his faith.
And that’s a fact that a lot of people today need to give serious attention to. Because in the end, we will be judged by what we have done, not what we claimed to believe.
Romans 2.5-11—God will give [eternal salvation or condemnation] to each person according to what he has done…
John 12.47-48—If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the Word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
Jeremiah 24.7—(Speaking of the exiles from Judah, God said…] I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
Man’s Critical Role in his Own Salvation:
Introduction
Verses
Facts 1-3
Facts 4-6
Facts 7-9
Facts 10-12 (Conclusion)