A New Beginning

Guest (Male): We live in the information age. Facts and figures fly at us faster than we can absorb. And opinions, suppositions, rumors, and innuendos come screaming at us from every form of media, especially social media.

Where do we find an escape? Today on *A New Beginning*, Pastor Greg Laurie points out our respite is right in the pages of God's Word. Not only do we find solace, we find a soothing salve of scripture. This is one of our most requested messages.

Greg Laurie: We're in a brand-new series right now that we're calling *Worldview*, and I'll explain it a little bit more in a few moments, but the title of my message is "The Biblical Worldview on Salvation." So I want you to turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 is our text.

Sometimes people ask me, "Greg, what happened to your hair?" but after that, they'll say, "Why do you do these crusades?" Because, honestly, they are a lot of work. There's months of prayer and planning, and more prayer, and more work and money, and more prayer that is involved. Our team works tirelessly, putting in hours and hours. Why do we do this? It's a very simple answer.

We do this so people can be saved, so people can be saved from their sin because, when it's all said and done, there's nothing more important than people coming into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Do you agree with that? I hope you do.

Nothing. Sometimes people will say, "No, the most important thing is feeding people who are hungry, or clothing them, or helping people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol to get off of the substances they're on, or maybe to put their marriages back together." All those things are very important, but the most important thing is having people change their eternal address from a place called hell to a place called heaven.

Here's the thing: if that happens, I believe all these other areas of life will sort themselves out. If you put Christ at the forefront of your life, he can heal your marriage, no matter what you're going through. If you put Christ at the forefront of your life, he can restore you and you don't have to be under the influence of any drug or any other thing.

So this is why we do what we do. I love the word "saved," "salvation," because that's exactly what happens. By the way, that's a biblical word. It is used many times. In fact, in Romans 10:9-10 it says, "If you will declare with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and you are justified, and it is with your mouth you profess your faith and you are saved."

When Peter was preaching on the day of Pentecost, he said to the people gathered, "Be saved from this perverse generation." Then later on in Acts 2, we read, "The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Then in Acts 2:21 it says, "Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved." Hebrews 7:25 says, "He is able to save completely those who come to God through him." It's a perfect description.

Because that's what it is. You're being saved. It's a phrase we would use if a lifeguard rescued a person, or if a firefighter ran into a burning building and brought someone out, we would say they were saved. And when we go and share our faith and someone believes in Jesus, literally, if they put their trust in him, they are being saved in the truest sense of what that word means.

Well, we're in this new series we're calling it *Worldview*, and the objective of this series is to help us to learn how to think biblically. Everybody has a worldview. There's no question about that. And your worldview is influenced by many things. It's influenced by culture, your upbringing, your education or lack thereof, the books you read or the lack of books you read, the media you expose yourself to.

A worldview is comprehensive. It will affect every area of your life, from your personal morality, to how you spend your money, to your politics, to how you vote even. It affects everything about you. And so what we want to have is a Christian worldview, and more specifically, we want to have a biblical worldview.

The only way to have a biblical worldview is by studying and memorizing scripture and spending time in it each and every day, so we run everything through a biblical grid and we ask ourselves the question, "What does the Bible say about this?" Because sometimes people have an emotional worldview. They base their views on how they feel.

You don't want to do that because your emotions can mislead you. Sometimes people will say, "Well, I just go with my heart because the heart wants what the heart wants." What the heck does that even mean? Let me tell you something about your heart. The Bible says it's deceitfully wicked above all things; who can know it?

So don't just go with your heart because your heart can mislead you. Don't just go with your emotions because your emotions can mislead you. Certainly, don't go with culture because that will mislead you. Go with the Bible. It will never take you in the wrong direction. Learn to think biblically.

C.S. Lewis said, and I quote, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." That's how we have to view life through the lens of scripture, through the eyes of a follower of Jesus Christ. And I want to talk about the biblical view of salvation. But let me take a quick poll: how many of you would describe yourselves as being saved? Raise your hand up. Okay, almost everybody. Very good.

It's very important that we're saved. Again, what does it mean to be saved? So I want to drill down a little bit into this because we throw the word around, but do we understand it? Back to Romans 10 again: "If you'll declare with your mouth 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart you believe and you're justified, and it's with your mouth you profess your faith and are saved."

One of the great benefits of salvation is God justifies us. What does that mean? That's a word we may use and repeat, but we don't necessarily understand it. One aspect of justification means that God has forgiven you of all of your sin, but even more, he's removed all of the evidence of your sin as well.

That's important because we've all done things we wish we had not done, right? We've all said things we wish we had not said, but God can forgive us of our sin if we repent of it, and not only does he forgive us, but then he forgets our sin. God says in Hebrews 10:17, "I will never again remember your sins and lawless deeds."

Let's understand God is omniscient, which means he knows all things. So it's not like God is literally forgetting things, but it means that he is choosing to not hold those things against you. Sort of like when you're having conflicts with your spouse in marriage and they bring up something you did like 30 years ago. Remember that time you said this to me? Seriously, that was 30 years ago. Can you just let it go?

That's what it means to forgive and forget, that you don't keep an account of all those things and bring them up over and over. So God says, "I choose to no longer remember that thing that you did that was a sin against me, an affront to me." I love this passage in Jeremiah where God says there'll come a day when you'll look high and low for a sign of Israel's guilt and you'll find nothing. Search nook and cranny for a trace of Judah's sin, you'll find nothing. These people that I've saved will start out with a clean slate.

That's what God does for us. That's what it means to be saved. I have a clean slate. My sin is removed. Now, if that's all salvation was, if that's all justification was, that would be more than enough. No wonder the Bible calls it "so great a salvation" in Hebrews 2:3. But that is not all there is, because in addition to that, God has placed the righteousness of Jesus Christ into my spiritual bank account, so to speak.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 3:9, "Being found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." You see, I am a righteous man. You say, "Well, Greg, I don't know, I saw how you drove earlier today." Wait, I didn't say I always do righteous things. But I am positionally righteous before God.

And this is true of every Christian, because the day I believed, he removed my sin, he forgave my sin, he forgot my sin, he removed every trace of my sin, and in the place of that, he put the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be justified.

Guest (Male): We know salvation is a gift from God. So what does it mean to work out our own salvation? Well, Pastor Greg answers that next.

We love hearing from our listeners, whether it's a short word or they take some time to let us know what's going on with them.

Pastor Greg, I listen to *A New Beginning* every night on my way home from work and truly get insight and blessings from your radio sermons. From what I've learned from you, I've been able to help lead my grandkids to the Lord. Thank you. I'd also like to thank you for your *New Believer's Bible*. I just ordered one for my grandkids to share. Thanks again.

How have Pastor Greg's studies touched your life? Would you let him know? Send him an email: Greg@harvest.org. That's Greg@harvest.org.

Well, today Pastor Greg is giving us a correct view of sin, salvation, and our standing before God. We're developing a biblical worldview. Let's continue.

Greg Laurie: Here's the problem: we know these things, we say these things, but do we live like saved people? Because sometimes you don't see the impact of one's salvation on a person's lifestyle or on their choices. They'll say, "Oh yes, I love the Lord," but they'll do things that seem to contradict that. They'll say, "Oh yes, I'm saved," but you wonder, are they really saved?

And I think if a person has really met God, there will be evidence in their life. If a person has really come into this encounter with Jesus Christ, you will see the results. And this is sort of the transitional moment of what I'm talking about here, where I want to talk about working out your salvation, which will bring us to our text in Philippians.

Here's an illustration that will help us to understand it. I read recently in *USA Today* that there's a lot of lottery tickets that have never been claimed. In fact, this article said there were $46 million waiting for people that bought a ticket and technically won some of that money, but never received it because they never brought their ticket in. They missed the deadline, and they say this happens every year.

They have millions of dollars that is never collected. A few years ago, there was a $25 million prize here in California that went unclaimed. And by the way, this is not an endorsement of the lottery. In fact, I hope you don't spend your money on lottery tickets. But I'm using this merely as an illustration.

I read about a man in Pennsylvania who read about time running out on a $20 million lottery prize and he wondered, "Wow, I wonder if I bought that ticket?" Apparently, he had bought quite a few. So he went through a bunch of old boxes and sure enough, he found the winning ticket and brought it in one day before it expired.

And in many ways, God has given us something, well, far greater than a lottery ticket. Worth far more than millions and millions of dollars. It's salvation. So what I want to do is I want to take hold of or live out what God has given to me. So let's look at Philippians 2:12: "Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence only, 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 do of his good pleasure."

Work out your own salvation. What does that mean? It means only you can work out your salvation. Wouldn't it be nice if you could hire someone to work out for you? You say, "You know what, I don't want to work out. Why don't you go work out for me?" But you can't do that. You have to go work out for yourself. So work out your own salvation. This is not something someone else can do in your place. This is something you must do for yourself.

It's a personal choice. But Paul throws in an interesting thought here in verse 12: "Therefore, my beloved, as you've always obeyed, not only in my presence, but more in my absence." So basically Paul is writing to the believers here in Philippi from a prison. He's been arrested, and he can't go and be with them as he was in the past. And so he misses them, and they miss him.

So basically he's saying, "Now guys, I'm not with you, but I still want you to work out your own salvation." I think the *New Living Translation* is helpful here where Paul says, "Dearest friends, you were always so careful to follow my instructions when I was with you, but now that I'm away, you must be even more careful to put into action God's saving work in your lives."

So here's what Paul is saying in effect: guys, you need to grow up spiritually. You can't build your spiritual life on me. Don't even for a moment think you guys can go into spiritual cruise control if I'm not personally there for you, because it's God that works in you, not Paul. I'm not doing the work in your life; God is doing the work in your life.

Now, I bring this up because sometimes we can allow people to take the place of God in our life. I'm not going to church if so-and-so isn't speaking. I only go when he speaks. Well, I'm not going to do that because I don't know that person and I only like this person. And we can become far too willing to put a person in the place of God. We can allow our hearts, as one said, to become idol factories.

A husband chooses to not go to church because his wife doesn't go anymore, or maybe the kids don't go to church because their parents don't go anymore. Listen, you need your own relationship with God. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You say, "But Greg, my parents were hypocrites," or, "I saw a hypocrite at church." Yeah, get over it. Grow up.

Put your faith in Christ and follow him. So Paul's saying it can't be all about me being there with you because I won't always be there with you, but the Lord always will be there with you. So work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Let's not misunderstand this. Paul did not say "work for your own salvation," because salvation is a gift of God.

And by the way, this is a gift that grows more valuable with the passing of time. Isn't it interesting how things that were so valuable on the day you received them have no value now, and that which didn't have as much value has become more precious to you now? For instance, you may have gotten a gadget—oh, it was the cutting-edge gadget. You were so excited when you got it. But now as you look at that cassette player, it makes a nice doorstop.

It's a nice nostalgic item, you know, or 8-track player, or whatever it is. See, it's outdated. But maybe that little drawing your child did for you that you just put away in a box has become more precious to you with the passing of time. Salvation is like that. The longer we live, the more valuable we see it is. It's not that it becomes more valuable—it always was, but we're just discovering the value of it.

Because the salvation God gives us saves us from our past, our present, and our future. First, it saves us from our past, the sins we've committed, the wrongs we have done. It's removed, it's taken away, it's erased. We've been given a clean slate, as I pointed out. But now it saves us from our present—the power of sin in my life. I have God's power to overcome it. And lastly, it saves me from a future judgment. So that's why the Bible calls it such a great salvation. You see the value of it more and more with the passing of time.

And so Paul says "work out" your salvation. Don't work for it. It's a gift to you from God. Ephesians 2 says, "By grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourselves, it's the gift of God."

Guest (Male): Pastor Greg Laurie with insights on the gift of salvation, but how we need to work it out in our lives. And there's more to come from this message here on *A New Beginning*, one of our most requested studies called "The Biblical Worldview on Salvation." Pastor Greg, as we've talked about salvation, maybe some have never said yes to God's free gift of eternal life. But that invitation is open to everyone, isn't it?

Greg Laurie: That's right. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So think of it this way: maybe you're out in a rip tide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you're in trouble, and you see a lifeguard. Call out for help, and the lifeguard will rescue you.

The same is true spiritually. You're drowning in your sin. You need help. Jesus will save you. He will rescue you, but you must call out to him. And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer. So let me just lead you in a simple prayer, and you can pray this prayer after me. You could pray it out loud if you'd like, and this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you. Just pray this:

Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, and I know you are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Now, Lord, I turn from my sin and I put my faith in you. Be my Savior, my Lord, be my God and my friend. I choose to follow you from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ himself has come to live inside of you. And I have a resource I want to send you. It's called the *New Believer's Bible*. So the *New Believer's Bible* is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believer's Growth Pack, but let me get this *New Believer's Bible* into your hands as quickly as possible. Here's Dave to tell you more.

Guest (Male): Yeah, we'll be glad to send it all your way free of any charge if you've prayed along with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the *New Believer's Bible* when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us anytime, 24/7, at 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to Harvest.org and click "Know God."

Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry. We're touching lives for eternity, and we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further. Isn't that right?

Greg Laurie: Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul? Well, let me personalize it: what's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son or your daughter, or your mommy or your daddy, or your best friend?

Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable. Well, listen, God says all souls are mine. God loves us and sent his son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sin so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission.

Guest (Male): Yeah, that's right, and you can make your donation right now at Harvest.org or call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number: 1-800-821-3300. Well, next time, more insight from Pastor Greg's message called "The Biblical Worldview on Salvation." Join us here on *A New Beginning* with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie.