The Plan of Salvation

Opening Scripture. John 3:16.

Lost and don't know it. Have you ever gotten lost and didn't know it? (GPS and the airport incident.) This is the road many people travel. Their destination is "happiness" and their tracker, the guide, the GPS, is leading them the wrong way. This does not just happen in the world, it happens in Christian churches as well. It may be your experience. You are following a gospel teaching that you believe is true, and do not know that it's a false gospel. And, yes, there are false gospels out there. Many of them.

Three lost states. In reality, there are three lost states. (1) You are lost and you know it and don't know how to get back. (2) You are lost and don't know it. And, (3) you are lost and know it and know how to come back.

Not everyone wants to be saved. The plan of salvation is not for everyone. Not because it's not offered to everyone, but because not everyone wants to be saved. In fact, the Bible tells us that this is the majority. The majority prefer the wide gate, broad road, and easy way, the road that leads to destruction, and that's the way they want it. They are like the rich young ruler who came to Jesus, unwilling to give up the wealth of this life, for the riches of the life to come. For others, they are not willing to give up some cherished sin. They are not willing to give up chocolate. Chocolate is their downfall. Or, maybe it's pride or lust or some other sin. Something you know you shouldn't do, but you do it anyway and can't seem to stop.

In fact, that *IS* the problem with sin. Men are enslaved to it. They want to do what is right, but sin lies close at hand. And they continue to do wrong. They come back to it, over and over. Like a moth drawn to the flame. They keep coming back and getting burned until they are ultimately destroys. Sin leads to death...eventually. You may have fun along the way, but its end is death--sorrow, disappointment, frustration.

Salvation on my own terms. For others, salvation is accepted, but on their own terms. I accept Jesus, but I also accept some things of the world I don't want to give up. They have one hand reaching out to God, and one hand in the cookie jar. They have one eye looking this way, and one eye looking the opposite way. The Book of Revelation describes it as a lukewarm condition. They are half-saved and half-lost. The truth of the matter is that they are completely lost.

Merit system. Another version of this is salvation that is merit-based. If I meet a certain set of religious practices and requirements, then I'm saved. Catholics certainly practice this through ritualistic practices, and so do many Adventists. The idea is this: If I have all the doctrines right, if I have the "truth", then I'm guaranteed salvation. After all, didn't Jesus say, "And you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free." The problem with this is that are two types of knowledge. There is head knowledge and heart knowledge. Heart knowledge can also be thought of as relational knowledge. The Jews had the truth in Jesus' day. They kept the Sabbath; they kept the Law of Moses. At least, they thought they did. But while outwardly they were righteous, inwardly they were corrupt. Jesus described them as white-washed tombs. Outwardly white and clean, but inwardly full of dead men's bones.

Many paths to God. I'm sure you've heard, "There are many paths to God, and many paths to heaven." But is that true? It would be pretty sad if, in the resurrection, you look around and find yourself among the lost. And, up ahead you see the New Jerusalem and the gates closed. You thought you were saved, but you were actually lost. I'm sure many Muslim suicide bombers are going to get the surprise of their lives in the resurrection, when intend of 70 virgins waiting for them, they meet Sadam Hussein and his 70 henchmen. And what about Hindus when they find out there is no reincarnation. A lot of people are going to be surprised where they end up in the resurrection. But that should happen to you. The Bible says you can have a high degree of certainty where you will end up.

Procrastination. Finally, the idea of some is to postpone their decision. They know what it takes to be saved, but they intend to wait until the last minute, and then they'll give over their hearts to God. It's the mentality of getting on the bus or the train, just before the doors close. Maybe that will work, but maybe it won't. The problem with this idea is that you don't know when your last minute of life will be. It could come tomorrow. It could come today, as soon as you walk out that door. You don't have your future in your hands. You don't know what will happen tomorrow.

My salvation journey. (1) Baptized as 12--accepting the doctrines--then backslid. (2) Converted at 17--accepting that it was a matter of the heart--then backslid. You can love someone and marry him or her, then a few years later divorce that person. Why is that? Because a loving relationship is not a one-time event. It is cultivated. It is nurtured. It must grow. You have to work at it. (3) Fully converted at 20 and held on.

Two aspects to the gospel as taught by the Bible. This plan has both an extrinsic and intrinsic aspect. The extrinsic aspect is found in the major part of the outline in your bulletin. And we will go over it shortly.

Chiasm form. As you can see, the plan of salvation is in chiasm form. It's beginning and ending are similar. It begins in heaven with the sons of God and ends with the glorified sons of God on earth. It is important to understand this extrinsic plan, because it has intrinsic value. That is, what God has done and will do, has a lot to do what he can do and and will do in your heart if you are willing for God to help you. We first discuss the macro view, before the micro view.

Basis of revelation. First, we need to declare and clear up our basis of revelation. That is, we believe this is God's plan for the salvation of man, because we believe the Bible to be God's revelation of himself and his ways. He revealed himself largely by human words through prophets led by God's spirit. This is why it's called the Word of God. Actually, it's more like God speaking by his spirit, which men translate in their own words. God's word is actually his spirit voice, not the words themselves but the essence. Adventists believe in "thought" inspiration, not word-for-word inspiration.

The Message of God. Words communicate a message. Let me explain this in a way you may not have heard of before. In an odd way. Do you know what is the longest word (in any language)?

• The longest word. According to Guinness World Records, the longest word in any language is a 195-letter Sanskrit (compound) word that describes a region in India. The word is transliterated into 428 letters in English. It is one word, but it is very descriptive of that region in India.

DNA molecule. Yet, this is not the longest word. With all due respect to the Guinness organization, they overlooked a word that is far longer by orders of magnitude. This word is 3.4 billion letters long, made up of an alternating sequence of four letters (i.e. guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine, abbreviated by the letters G, C, A, and T), arranged in two strands, helically twisted, in a right-handed coil. What I'm talking about is the human genome, the DNA molecule. This is the longest word we have ever discovered.

• When Francis Collins stood beside the president of the United States and announced that they had decoded it, he said, "This is the language of God." He even wrote a book on it, giving it the same title, "The Language of God."
• There, in our genetics, in the 10 trillion cells of our body, this word is found. It is this word that defines biological life as we know it. The beginning of all life, from creation to the present, is this word. Not only does it define life, but it also defines its management. It is involved in every aspect of biological life on earth, including reproduction, homeostasis, metabolism, growth, adaptation, response to stimuli and more.

The word of God. And, as is true in the natural world, so it is true in the spiritual world. To live a spiritual life and see the kingdom of God, the Bible tells us that one must be born from above (John 3:3). “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above’” (John 3:6-7).

• To be spiritual, to be sustained spiritually, to have spirit life, you must have the Word. It must be "in" you; it must be in your heart and mind. It must occupy your thoughts, sanctifying your emotions, and guiding your decision making process, the will.
• The Word of God communicates the gospel.
• The Logos. Reason (Wisdom or Plan). In ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.

The source of life. So, we have the word of life in Biology: the DNA molecule; and we have the word of life in the spiritual world: the Bible. This is the source of knowledge and of spiritual life when it comes to the plan of salvation, which is the plan to restore man to life, eternal life. One studies the DNA molecule and all that derives from it, to understand biological life. And, one studies the Bible and that it reveals to understand spiritual life. Both DNA and the Bible were authored by God, and both define life, each in its own sphere. The life of the flesh and the life of the spirit.

[Cover the Plan of Salvation outline/handout]

The Sinner's Need of Christ

Man under the power of evil. All men have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Sin entered the world through Adam, death follows sin, death comes to all men, and all men sin because they inherit the sinful nature from Adam (Rom. 5:12). Man’s nature is so weakened through the act of sinning that it is impossible for him, in his own strength, to resist the power of evil.

Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. Jesus said, “Except a man be born from above,” unless he receives a new heart, new desires, purposes, and motives, leading to a new life, “he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The idea that it is necessary only to develop the good that exists in man by nature, is a fatal deception. “The natural man does not accept what comes from the spirit of God, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it because it is spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). It is not enough to “know” the goodness of God.

It is not enough to discern the wisdom and justice of his Law, to see that it is founded on the eternal principle of Love. Such knowledge is not enough. “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave to sin” (Rom. 7:14). Paul longed for the purity, the righteousness, to which in himself he was powerless to attain, and cried out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).

Christ, the means of restored communion with heaven. The vision in the night that Jacob received in his flight from Esau foreshadowed a coming Savior. It was a vast set of stairs that seemed to lead upward to the very gates of Heaven, and on them angels of God were passing up and down; while from the glory above, the divine voice was heard with a message of comfort and hope. This revealed to him the way by which he, a sinner, could be restored to communion with God. The mystic ladder of his dream represented Jesus, the only means of communication between God and man. Jesus affirmed this interpretation in his conversation with Nathanael when he said, “you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). Through Christ, earth is again linked with heaven. By his own merits, Christ has bridged the gulf which sin had made, so that the ministering angels can hold communion with man. Christ connects fallen man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power.

APPENDIX

Sanctuary

• Two problems:
• (1) Sin problem
• (2) Death problem
• God choose to deal with these two problems.
• First, God choose to reveal how he would do it and it was through the types found in the Sanctuary service.
• God dwelt with Man, but it was through a Sanctuary system. To have access to God, an Israelite would bring a Sacrifice. That Sacrifice made it possible to access God. You came to God with a Sacrifice. No Sacrifice and no access.
• The way the sacrifice was processed was symbolic as well.
• So, the key component of the sanctuary system was the sacrifice. And the key aspect of the sacrifice was the blood. The blood symbolized the life.
• Sin and Death were solved with Life and Resurrection.
• The whole system was symbolic of a reality that would occur when Jesus came as the Son of Man.
• Key in the Sanctuary service was death and blood. An animal, typically a lamb, would be killed and in the process of killing it, blood would be collected and sprinkled in at least two places.
• In the Day of Atonement, it was sprinkled on the people.
• Exodus 24:8: Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yehovah has made with you concerning all these words.
• How many were allowed into the Tabernacle or Tent within the Sanctuary.
• How many were allowed into the Most Holy Place? Only one person in the whole year.
• The Israelites lived in "tents" and God lived in a "tent" called the Tabernacle
• The covenant (with reference to the Law) in the OT was blood sprinkled on the people.
• The (new) covenant that Jesus had with his disciples with "wine" (grape juice). "This is the blood of my covenant". So, whereas blood meant life in the OT, wine meant life in the NT. In the OT, the blood was sprinkled "on" the people; it went on the horns of the altar; it went on the veil in the Tabernacle. In the NT, the wine went "in" the believer. He drank it. It became part of his person.
• The bread represented Christ's body which was broken for you. It represented life in a difference sense. It was substance; the wine for energy, the bread for substance. It represented the Resurrection. His broken body was resurrected as an immortal body; our broken, mortal bodies will also be resurrected immoral. "For this mortal body will put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:??).
• When you see the OT sacrifices, the blood was sprinkled and the flesh of the animal was burned or consumed (eaten).
• "God with us." A body was prepared for Jesus in which he was to dwell as God's Messiah.
• Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in 3 days.
• Our bodies become temples of the spirit of God. Our bodies are sentenced to death, but our life is brought back in the resurrection with new bodies.
• Jesus the spirit - Nader Mansour:
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNB4Ak7272o

EGW

• DA 759.2: It was God's purpose to place things on an eternal basis of security, and in the councils of heaven it was decided that time must be given for Satan to develop the principles which were the foundation of his system of government. He had claimed that these were superior to God's principles. Time was given for the working of Satan's principles, that they might be seen by the heavenly universe.

Science

• "A knowledge of science of all kinds is power, and it is in the purpose of God that advanced science shall be taught in our schools as a preparation for the work that is to precede the closing scenes of earth's history. The truth is to go to the remotest bounds of the earth, through agents trained for the work. But while the knowledge of science is a power, the knowledge which Jesus in person come to impart to the world was the knowledge of the gospel.
• CE 83.3: The plan of salvation had its place in the counsels of the Infinite from all eternity. The gospel is the revelation of God's love to men, and means everything that is essential to the happiness and well-being of humanity. The work of God in the earth is of immeasurable importance, and it is Satan's special object to crowd it out of sight and mind, that he may make his specious devices effectual in the destruction of those for whom Christ died. It is his purpose to cause the discoveries of men to be exalted above the wisdom of God. When the mind is engrossed with the conceptions and theories of men to the exclusion of the wisdom of God, it is stamped with idolatry. Science, falsely so-called, has been exalted above God, nature above its Maker, and how can God look upon such wisdom?

Notes

• Hymn #340: Jesus saves
• Hymn #338: Redeemed! how I love to proclaim it