Wait. There is a world of articles, books, and information out there when it comes to Christianity, but we are mostly stuck with rhetoric and double talk when it comes to our relationship with the Lord, our new identity as believers, and the security and finality of the work of Christ. Are you getting everything you need spiritually from your church? Or do you find yourself feeling hungry for more? Wake up. Join Lenny as he unpacks what Scripture really taught about our Lord Jesus Christ in context and why this matters to you. Wake up, wake up, wake up to grace.

Welcome back everyone. I hope you had some time to relax and enjoy time with your loved ones over the holidays. We're getting back into the swing of things today with a message on salvation that you may not be expecting. I ask you the question, is there a benefit of salvation now? Think carefully about this. When you were saved by Christ Jesus, what were you saved from? You were saved from your sin, weren't you? When did you become saved from your sin? You were saved right then and there. But I think we both know that you didn't stop sinning altogether. You weren't saved in this life from all sin. But what did happen in your life? What happens in the life of all Christians that receive the Spirit of God? Their attitude towards sin changes, doesn't it? It most certainly does. There's an immediate benefit of salvation. We see enthusiasm and a change of desire in new converts. Why is that? What causes this phenomenon? It's the Spirit of God that causes this, isn't it? But why the enthusiasm in new Christians and why does it seem to wear off so quickly? What is it that causes so many to lose the zeal they had in the beginning? There are certainly plenty of reasons for this, but I think there is one big reason lurking at the core of all of it. I always talk about how abiding, fellowship, standing firm all relate to belief. It's one belief that saves us, but that same belief also must sustain us. We live out our belief in order to benefit now from the eternal powers that we have within us. Grace living is an eternal blessing that we can partake in now in these temporal bodies. In the same way we benefit from salvation right now when we live by it. In Philippians 2 12 we read, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Did you notice that in this passage Paul is teaching his church to work out their own salvation right now? Yes, he tells them to work out what God worked in, doesn't he? The salvation is already ours to keep, but Paul calls us to work it out. Is this not exercising our own wills and desires through his guidance? And what is the driving force? Our deeds and works? No, it is fear and trembling. This means awe and reverence. We work out our salvation with awe and reverence for the Lord, because of what he has done for us and is doing in us. We're being instructed through our inner being so that we can benefit from salvation in this life. Why is this so important? Why in the world do we care? We have eternal life. It's because God's plan for salvation was not reserved for the heavenly realms. We need to be saved from sin and the deadly perils of this life that we cause on ourselves apart from the Lord's good guidance. This is why He gave us the counselor. Apart from Christ we can do nothing. It is right now that we need salvation from our destructive attitudes and behaviors, and this never ends. When we place salvation at the end of our lives, we miss the entire point and we drift away from all guidance that leads us into the Sabbath rest, in Christ that we're promised in the present. We get to experience the eternal benefit of salvation now. Jesus wants to live his life in and through you right now, not later. Our kingdom is not of this world, it is of the spiritual realm, but this world has a profound influence on those who live in it. This is why after Paul exhorts them to work out the salvation that God has worked into them, he continues, saying, Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. We see clearly here that Paul had an urgent desire for the Church to understand how dire the situation would be if they did not live by the salvation that they had received from the Lord. He didn't want them to be partakers of the crooked and twisted generation they lived in. What was crooked about their generation? In Matthew seventeen, and Jesus answered, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? In their generation at the end of the age, Israel had become corrupt. Their leadership was greedy and self seeking. From a corporate standpoint, Israel had become faithless and no longer sought out the will of the Lord. They made up their own rules, and by those they believed they were saved. Yeshua called that hypocrisy. Do we still see these things today? Can we apply this to our generation? I think so. Let's be honest, how many Christians out there are making up their own rules about God? We see the behavior among Christians and non Christians. Have you ever watched Ray Comfort interview people on the Living Waters show? It's very telling of what is on the minds of people in our society. It's disturbing. We could say it's staged, but when you ask people those questions for yourself, you find it's very real. When Christians say God is love, it's likely they don't really know what that means. Christ wasn't cute and cuddly, was he? He wasn't this hippie like figure going around sprinkling fairy dust on his disciples. When we read our Bible, we find a very different Jesus than the one we create in our minds today. I think people are afraid of this Jesus. This is probably why Christians don't want to read their Bible. It just doesn't fit their made up view. It's too challenging and stressful to seek the truth. They're afraid of the truth because of sin. This is why you need the truth. It's because of sin that we need to be saved, and truth is the only solution. We have to face our fears. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. When we face our fears about the true teaching of Christ Yeshua, we grow in his love. We're perfected in his love when we realize its depth. We love because he first loved us. What does that mean? It means the more we understand his love and truth, the more his will will work in our lives. In John eight thirty one we read, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Yeshua tells those who believed in him that the truth will set them free. I see this as foretelling the time when he would give them the gift of his spirit to dwell within them and guide them. Guide them to what, we might ask? John eight thirty four says, Jesus answered them, Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the Son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. Jesus would guide them by his love, a love that transcends above all human effort, a love that requires his guidance to partake in. This love sets us free unto eternity immediately, giving us the life of Christ. A life that had no beginning nor has any end, it's eternal. But we still live in a world with sin all around us, and this salvation includes the ability to live guided by his love. The love that exists in the core of our being. This is not based on our emotions, but based on truth. We can only trust emotions if our minds are renewed by truth. In 1 John 2 4 we read, Whoever says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. In this passage we see John must have been dealing with people who claim to know God but do not keep his commandments. This knowing would be intimate in a way of love. They claimed to love God, but they didn't live by truth. John's not referring to Christians here. He talks of the Christ rejecting Jews. But he writes to believers because they were being deceived. They probably followed their feelings. The deceiver's teaching felt right, so they were tempted to follow. But their feelings had drifted away from the facts about the teaching of grace. Throughout John's epistle, he calls the believers to live by the belief that they received at salvation. They believed and were saved, but they drifted away from the truth and into error. Their salvation would stop saving them if they stopped living by it faithfully. If we go into a works-based mode in our faith, we drift away from saving grace. We may have the eternal benefits of salvation, but we reap temporal suffering in our lives as we fade into a worldly lifestyle. This is not suffering for Christ, this is suffering for sin. We suffer for not believing that we need Christ to save us in our lives. We suffer because we made up our own rules on what love is. No matter how good a guide we have and how great his guidance will not help us if we're not seeking or responding. Living by the love of Christ brings us peace, but we're also promised tribulation. We may suffer for the love of Christ. The question is, would you rather suffer for good and have peace and love, or would you rather suffer for sin and have hopeless despair? We truly only have a couple of options here. Follow Christ and have peace and suffering, or follow the world and unbelief, which leads us into hopelessness. Does this sound difficult? Do you believe emotion, or do you believe Christ? Matthew eleven twenty eight says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, my burden is light. I promise you it is not difficult. When we live by grace, Christ does the heavy lifting. We don't have to be superstars. We don't have to be scholars and renowned philanthropists, and we can still have fun and enjoy life. Allowing Christ to love through you in your life is an exciting adventure that most will never enjoy. We seek all kinds of knowledge and let grace go by the wayside. In doing so, we don't partake in the benefits of salvation that we've been given for the purpose of this life. So we learn from our Lord that salvation is eternal and temporal. If we believe in one and not the other, we don't live by grace. We need a salvation that starts now and never ends. Life is too short and too difficult to live without knowing Jesus. Know your Lord and be set free. Know his teaching and be saved from this corrupt and twisted generation. We have all kinds of doctrines when it comes to so-called grace teaching, but only the message of full grace protects us in truth. We have those who teach eternal salvation as temporal. In other words, eternal life can be gained and lost. Then there are those who split sanctification, fellowship, and our right standing with God into two categories. These teachers tell you there is some kind of love gauge that we have to live by, and we can fall out of our right standing with God and into his wrath, judgment, punishment if we don't love enough. This is not the salvation that Christ provided and does not benefit us now. Interestingly, these teachers never seem to see themselves out of fellowship when they're less than loving. They just admit they could do better. And not a single person in the world has ever been able to accurately answer the question, how much love do we need to stay in fellowship? If we can't answer this question, we can't define when we are out of fellowship with the Lord that calls us to love. Therefore, without even quoting Scripture, that doctrine falls right on its face. This doesn't stop church leaders from preaching it day after exhausting day, though. Rest in his love. Be guided with a clear conscience. This is the answer. Stop trying to compete against yourself and start letting Christ do the work. Allow Christ to be your guide, let go of the reins. You've been sanctified by God, that means set apart. You don't fit in with the world anymore. Stop trying. Be honest about yourself. You're led by the King of Kings. You have Christ living in you. Love as he has loved you. Let his love heal you. What is his love, you ask? Well, I'm going to explore this next week, and I'd love to have you along with me. But for now, let's end with some passages in Scripture that address the temporal and less talked about side of our salvation. The salvation benefits that apply to the life we live now. Second Corinthians one six If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Second Corinthians seven ten. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. Ephesians six seventeen and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Philippians one twenty eight and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. Philippians two twelve. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Hebrews six nine. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Second Peter three fourteen. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace, and count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him. Can you see that the Lord is calling you to salvation now and forever? Can you see the urgency? Why wait? Start living a life guided by the Lord right now and experience the abundant life that is promised. I ask you the question that our Lord asked a layman at the pool of Bethesda many years ago. Do you want to be healed? See you guys next week. Grace and peace to you all till then. The content of this message can be found on my blog post at waking up to grace.com. My writings include linked references and visual aids, which will give even more valuable insight, and it's always free of charge. The comment section below each message is a place where we can share mutual encouragement and insight with one another outside of the social media net. My blog post is always a click away.