God's Plan for Salvation

xt38 this is a response to a question and Brethren what shall we do then Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost the next verse says for the promises unto you will save that for another day I want to speak to you this afternoon on God's Plan of Salvation please be seated keep your Bible close keep your heart open the mission of Atlanta West Pentecostal church is to lead people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and then develop them into fully devoted followers of him was the command of Jesus to Go Make Disciples of all Nations first bringing them to a conversion experience teach them how to be saved baptize them with the spirit and water and then teach them how to live that is the mission of the church we've been commissioned by Jesus Christ to go into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature to every human being amen now the word gospel means good news and refers to God's Plan of Salvation this Plan of Salvation is universal it is for everyone everywhere every culture in the world this is not an American religion religion this is God's religion this is God's message to save the world Amen but this message is also exclusive Jesus said no man comes to the father but my me I am the way the truth and the light amen this message is exclusive and that although it is for everyone no one can be saved without it it's an essential message of Salvation so it can save anyone but without it no one can be saved Acts 2 38 is the way we respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ then Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost now we emphasize this verse as a concise Plan of Salvation but it is not a standalone own verse by the way it's in every Christian Bible it is not a Pentecostal verse it's a Bible verse it is not a Pentecostal brand of Salvation it is God's Plan of Salvation my goal today is to help you understand clearly God's Plan of Salvation and see this pattern of Salvation throughout the word of God the Lord illustrated The Salvation process through lessons in the Old Testament God wants you to know for certainty how to be saved and that you are saved when Luke wrote his gospel to address to Theophilus he said I want you to know the certainty of the things that you have been instructed in I want you to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that this is not an emotional experience it is God's Plan of Salvation it is biblical salvation now I want to walk through several examples in the Bible that give this pattern of salvation the Deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage the Tabernacle plan the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the application of the Gospel by obeying Acts 2 38 that throughout every age of time faith is the underlying Factor beneath salvation without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is that he exists and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him faith is always expressed in obedience to God's Plan of Salvation Noah could have said I believe there's going to be a flood but his faith had to turn into action to build an ark which was God's Plan of Salvation for Noah's generation faith is always demonstrated in obedience to God's word saving faith is not just accepting that Jesus died on the cross for your sins but saving faith is also applying the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to your life by repenting of your sins by being baptized in Water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and then receiving the promise of the holy spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in other tongues a language you never learned that is God's Plan of Salvation but let's walk back through these illustrations that God gave us in the Bible the Old Testament are examples they are types and shadows this is the way God designed his word the Bible said that the Old Testament the law was a school Master to lead us to Christ and Paul was the one who said that these things in the Old Testament were written for our examples now Israel spent 430 years in Egypt most of those years they served as slaves under Egyptian task Masters they cried to God for deliverance just like a sinner cries out in their bondage and their addiction and their sin and God heard the cries of his people in Egypt he sent them a deliverer the Old Testament savior Moses who had stand before pharaoh and say let my people go and Pharaoh said no he would not let God's people go why would he release a Workforce of 2 million Jews 600 men plus 600 000 men plus women and children so God demonstrated his power on the Egyptians with nine plagues that crippled the Egyptians and revealed his power to them Pharaoh waffled but his heart was hardened finally there was a tenth plague God's Grand Finale to deliver his people from Egypt he would pass through the land in this tenth plague and he would destroy the firstborn of every child of every livestock and the entire land of Egypt the Israeli people would not be exempt except God gave them a Plan of Salvation amen the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron to the people he said this month is going to be a beginning of months it's going to be the first month of the year I want every man every family to take a lamb if your house is not big enough to consume the entire lamb then share the Lamb with your neighbor it has to be a lamb that is without blemish a male of the first year I want you to take this lamb and keep it to the 14th day and then in the evening you are to kill this lamb Exodus 12 and 7 and they shall take the blood and strike it upon the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses whereupon they shall eat it you can see what these people of God the Jewish people did they took the blood and they applied it to the top the lentil and the doorposts of their house now in next it is 12 the Bible said you're going to do this and be ready to go I'm going to Smite the firstborn of the land of Egypt Exodus 12 and 13 and the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are when I when God says when I see the blood I will pass over you death is coming to Egypt but when I see the blood the angel of death will pass over your house and you will be spared death I don't know about you but if I would have heard that promise I would have killed the lamb gathered his blood I would have taken the hyssop branch and applied the blood to the doorpost of my life it doesn't matter how much you believed it you had to do what God Said faith is always demonstrated by obedience amen I have to jump ahead to apply it I'm glad that the blood of Jesus Christ has been applied to my life and when I was facing the Judgment of God for my sins that almighty God saw the blood of Jesus Christ applied to my life when I stand in judgment my way into heaven will be that the blood has been applied to my life when I see the blood I will pass over you [Applause] oh it is not by works of righteousness that we have done but it is by the precious blood of Jesus Christ that we have been redeemed but that blood and God's looking for blood to be applied so they obey the Lord histop Branch dipped in blood in a basin Struck it on the lentil side post and God passes through the land and smites the Egyptians sees the blood on the lentil on the two side posts by the way I didn't even notice this but Exodus 12 23 that's the verse I'm looking at now not on the screens but the Lord said on the side post and on the lintel he said I want it everywhere we thought well you know I just need a little blood here and a little blood there but the Lord said on the two side posts and upon the lentil and the Lord will pass over the door and will not suffer the Destroyer to come into your houses to Smite you what an amazing promise why did God do this well because he's God how about that and throughout the Bible he established this Blood Covenant all the way back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned God killed animals took the coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve with tunics of skin when Cain and Abel were to offer a sacrifice God accepted and respected the blood sacrifice of Abel when God made a covenant with Abraham he told Abraham to take animals take a heifer a goat a ram turtle dove and pigeon you're going to cut them up you're going to kill them and I will pass through the pieces in a covenant with you Passover is still followed by Jewish people to this day the Bible said in Hebrews 9 22 I believe that without the shedding of blood there is no remission amen blood was God's way of forgiving sins throughout the Old Testament you were to not drink the blood or eat the blood the life of the flesh is in the blood it was something sacred to almighty God the blood is applied and now they're headed out of Egypt pharaoh and his people are shell-shocked by the death of the firstborn everywhere a great cry went up in Egypt of the death that was there the Judgment of God for their sins against God's people and Israel is fleeing and there appears before them a pillar of cloud at night it turns to a pillar of fire Exodus 13 21 and the Lord went before them by the wet day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them look at what it did to lead them by the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night day or night God guides them there's a whole lot about that in the Bible and he took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of Fire by night from before the people it's an amazing thing can you imagine you know six hundred thousand men plus women and children the number of Jewish people that escaped Egypt I'm saying 2 million we don't know for sure it could have been more there's a lot of people leaving but they need guidance they need protection and so here's the shade and here's the protection that God gives them in this Pillar of Fire but now Pharaoh regathers himself and rallies his troops and he is now pursuing after the people of God the Israelites as they are fleeing Egypt Pharaoh's Army is behind him there are mountains on either side of them and God leads them into a an impossible situation to the shores of the Red Sea pharaohs closing in on them but the cloud that is before them now goes behind them it is Darkness to the Egyptians and light to the people of Israel and then God I'm simplifying a lot of amazing stuff in the Bible God says to Moses stretch out your Rod over the Red Sea and God does and when he does Exodus 14 21 and Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong East Wind all that night and made the sea dry land and the waters were divided and the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left what an amazing thing that God has led us to a place of human impossibility but God makes a way where there is no way you don't know how you're going to escape your life of sin but God Can Make A Way in in the wilderness in the desert and in the sea amen he Parts the waters and they go through on dry ground until they pass through the sea they are not separated from their past but the Red Sea now closes back but it doesn't just close back Pharaoh in his army are pursuing the Israelis God lets their wheels get stuck the sea closes over them the next morning God's people look on the seashore and they see their enemy dead everywhere and those that had power over them yesterday have no power over them today baptism is more than getting wet it is a line of demarcation that separates your past from your future amen we are buried with him by baptism amen praise God see becomes salvation to them according to First Corinthians 10 1-2 Paul looks back on this experience that blood has been shed there's the cloud and there's the water and Paul says moreover brethren I would not that you should be ignorant how that our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea now he'll warned him in this chapter about going back on God but now we're seeing how they were saved and we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea that process of blood and spirit and water was God's Plan of Salvation to get his people out of Egypt and traveling toward the promised land amen God's Plan of Salvation that cloud protected them the fire by night it guided them through the Wilderness it was God's means not just of getting them out but guiding them through the treacherous Wilderness toward the promises of God the Holy Spirit that comes in your life is not just a feeling it comes with a feeling it is the sign of the spirit of God's taking up residence in your life it is Christ in you the hope of glory but it guides you from here to Heaven through all the Unseen path of life God works in you so let me give you a snapshot summary Egypt is a type of sin the Passover the blood a type of repentance the pillar of cloud a type of a spirit coming into your life the passing through the Red Sea a type of baptism Paul plainly tells that as I just read the next example I want to discuss is the Tabernacle in the wilderness it is the Tabernacle plan and you can find this all through the Old Testament but Exodus 26. God's going to give Commandments Ten Commandments and he'll now give plans for a church it's going to be a tent later it will be a temple a permanent place but now it's the tent that will go with them to their wanderings set it up take it down God's presence will abide there it will be in the center of the camp everybody will Camp around it church is in the middle in the center not at the circumference of their life I'm not sure where it is in my life and yours but it was designed to be in the center of your life Exodus 25 8. and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them according to all that I show thee after the pattern everybody please say a pattern of the Tabernacle and the pattern of all the instruments thereof even so shall you make it have you ever noticed that God is pretty particular no I built a boat whatever you feel I'll like it Moses built a tabernacle use your own judgment nope that's not how God works Hebrews 9 speaks of the Tabernacle in the wilderness that was made a Candlestick a table a table of show bread a second Veil the holiest of all it's overlaid roundabout with gold and golden pot and cherubims of glory and a mercy seat and like Paul I'm going to say to you today from Hebrews 9 and 5 of which we cannot cannot now speak particularly Paul said I'd love to go into more detail but for the sake of time I'm just going to leave that alone for now there there's a lot about the Tabernacle it's fascinating but relative to Salvation I want to point out several things to you today the first piece of furniture that you would come to when you came into the Tabernacle through this outer Court was a a brass altar a Brazen altar Exodus 27 1 New Living Translation for the English measurements using acacia wood construct a square altar seven and a half feet wide seven and a half feet long and four and a half feet high make corns for each of his Corners so that the horns of the altar Are All One Piece overlay the altar with bronze this was an imposing structure made of brass and it was on that altar that animals lost their lives and shed their blood that was then gathered and applied in the Tabernacle that animal would be tied to the horn so it would not Escape sometimes when you make a commitment you have to tie yourself to the horns of the altar so you don't crawl off that altar nobody likes to die to self but it's necessary the animal part of it is eaten part of it's burned the blood is saved amen now according to what I've read the prescribed yearly sacrifices that the law required numbered one thousand two hundred seventy three a year according to numbers 28. if those sacrifices would have been regularly observed from the days of Moses to the day of Christ there would have been over two million sacrifices that had been offered that doesn't take into account the millions of personal sacrifices in addition to the public sacrifices that were offered the Bible gives us this Brazen altar as this first piece of furniture encounter it was imposing it was unavoidable just as repentance is for us if you come to God you must come to God turning from your sins in Repentance and the original language of the New Testament the Greek the word is metanoia it means a change of mind if you come to God you've got to make it about faith on your life of sin you've got to turn lordship over to Jesus Christ amen that's repentance it's a place of death death to sin death to self it's a harsh Place made of brass it's not a pretty Place made of gold or other places in the Tabernacle were amen fire would come from Heaven consuming the sacrifice when you move past that Brazen altar there is a second significant piece of furniture that is called the labor of water Exodus 30 18. you shall also make a labor of bronze but to space also a bronze for washing you shall put it between the Tabernacle of meeting and the Altar and you shall put water in it the Bible goes on to talk about this this flavor of water that it is there that Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and their feet it is before they go inside the holy place or the most holy Place Exodus 30 21 they must always wash their hands and their feet or they will die the previous verse says the same that this labor of water is not an optional piece of furniture you can't start off asking God to forgive you and jump all the way past water baptism it is an essential social part of the process made of bronze and a conspicuous place and if you avoid it as I said you would die it's amazing that in the days of King ahaz he took the Brazen Altar and he moved it to a different location in the temple he took that labor of water he cut the feet off it and lowered that labor down to the ground I've known people that tried to minimize repentance and they tried to minimize water baptism in the name of Jesus Christ they say just accept Christ as your personal savior well that's a good thing but I need blood applied to my life I need the washing of baptism I need to be clean before the Lord it's not so much me accepting him it's him accepting me that I'm worried about [Applause] Brazen altar labor of water the holy place that are two partitioned areas and the most holy place you'll see both of them in the outer room there's a golden candlestick there's a table of show bread there is the altar of incense that I will make not take time to go into detail with with you today and then there is the veil you see an outer Veil you see an inner Veil before you go past the holy Place into the most holy place Solomon built a temple it was after this model that Temple was destroyed and rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah the second temple that I preached about recently it was partly destroyed it was renovated by King Herod that's where Jesus went into the temple there when Jesus died at his death that inner Veil that curtain that they say teams of oxen could not pull apart that veil was torn from the top to the bottom not the bottom to the top not side to side but from the top to the bottom God tore that Veil giving access to all of us into the holy presence of God that's what we were singing about a while ago that we can go into the very throne room of God into the presence of the Lord [Applause] let's talk about that most holy place we could just keep that up there now inside the most holy place is the Ark of the Covenant that rectangular piece of Furnishing inside of it were the tables of stone the golden pot of manna and Aaron's Rod that budded the law of God the provision of God and the power of God in their lives on either end of the Ark of the Covenant were two imposing cherubim with their wings outspread their faces looking down into the law the Bible sees the imagery that angels have desired to look into what is this that God has in mind what is this Plan of Salvation the lid of that Ark of the Covenant it's called The Mercy Seat it was there that blood that was shed all the way back at the Brazen altar blood sprinkled at the Laver of water bled through the outer place the holy place and then into the most holy place that blood was sprinkled on The Mercy Seat it was Mercy over the law Mercy did not do away with the law but the mercy of God met the righteous requirements of the law it was the blood that covered our transgressions and made us right in the sight of God that was there in the most holy place The Mercy Seat the Bible said that God dwelt between the cherubim Exodus 25 and 22 speaking of that inner chamber the most holy place the Lord said in there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat and between the two cherubim which are upon the Ark of the testimony of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel there is a Plan of Salvation there is a plan that starts at a Brazen altar it goes through the labor of water it goes into that place of worship in life and bread it goes into that most holy place and here is what I want you to understand today why in the world would you stop at the Brazen altar why would you stop at the labor of water why would she be content to not go into the most holy Place into the presence of God the process the plan is not consummated until you're in that Holy place where the Lord said it is there that I will meet with you after you've been to repentance after you've been to baptism then the holy ghost in your life will make you holy and I will meet with you I will meet with you on that Holy Ground it's a little snapshot Tabernacle plan praise and altar place of death labor of water place of washing and cleansing Most Holy place where Mercy triumphed over judgment where God met with them it is typical it is an example of God's Plan of Salvation I want to take you to the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ This is a little more familiar territory to many of us the Apostle Paul gave us a summary of The Gospel in First Corinthians 15 1 moreover Brethren I declare unto you the gospel the good news which I preach to you which also you received and in which you stand you like that I preached it to you you received it now you're standing in it by which also you are saved if you hold fast that word which I preach to you let me pause right now that means not one saved always saved but if you stay in a right relationship the gospel you heard and received and are standing if you'll keep standing in it it will save you to the very end if you hold fast a word which I preach to you unless you believed in vain for I delivered to you first of all that which I received that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture there are three things that he will mention here that Christ died everybody say he died verse 4 and that he was buried please say he was buried and that he rose again on the third day according to the scriptures he died he was buried he rose again on the third day the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the good news that will save your soul amen foreign John 19 and all the gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John tell us of the death of Jesus Christ that in the end as he breathed his last breath he cried with a loud voice the Bible says and he said it is finished and then he yielded up his Spirit it was not it was not the weak faint expression of a man who had no strength he was dying certainly but with the voice and the Greek it's megaphone like a megaphone and it was with a loud voice that Jesus said it is finished he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and that which God planned from the beginning that's what he did in Eden and throughout the law all those sacrificial animals two million who shed their blood but now the blood of Jesus Christ is the perfect sinless sacrifice the Bible said it was once for all that's why we come boldly Before the Throne because we've entered to the veil that is the Flesh of Jesus Christ praise God everybody say he died say don't get so excited cannot help it what Jesus did for me he was buried in a tomb Matthew 27 57. when he came when even was come and came a rich man of Arimathea named Joseph he was also himself was Jesus's disciple he went to pilate and begged the body of Jesus and pilate commanded the body to be delivered and when Joseph had taken the body he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out of in a rock and he rolled a great Stone to the door of the Sepulcher and departed dead buried that's the gospel that Jesus died for our sins and then he was buried and there was talk that some of the Disciples of Jesus might come break into the tomb and steal the body of Jesus and fake a resurrection hide the body so pilate said seal it make it as sure as you can post a 24-hour shift of guards we're going to lock God in but Luke 24 4 1 says now on the first day of the week very early in the morning they and certain other women with them came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared but they found the stone rolled away from the tomb then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus these are people that really were troubled and you have to say they didn't think it was going to happen and it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this where'd he go that behold two men sit by them in shining garments then as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the Earth they said to them why do you seek the living among the dead he is not here but is risen remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee saying the son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again he died he was buried he rose again now there's something I preached about at Easter not that long ago that God did not roll the stone away so Jesus could get out he passed through walls he rolled the stone away so we could know that he is not here he has risen as he said he wanted evidence that demands a verdict that He Is Alive forevermore and has the keys of death and Hell amen death burial Resurrection that's what Jesus did for us the only way to be saved is to apply that blood to your life it's not enough to believe the word it's not enough to say the lamb died the blood was shed somebody's got to go get a basin and a hyssop branch and go to the doorposts of their life and apply the blood because if the blood is only believed in but not applied it God doesn't see empty Faith he doesn't acknowledge faith without obedience and action it is when you apply the blood to your life that you have demonstrated saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so let me review deliverance from Egypt there is blood of a sacrificial animal there is water passing through the Red Sea there's the cloud the pillar of fire the spirit you could say blood water and spirit and the Tabernacle plan there is that Brazen altar where blood is shed and an animal dies there is the labor of water the washing to be qualified to go into the presence of God there is the most holy place the presence of God where the Lord said it is there that I will meet with you there is blood and water and spirit and in the Tabernacle plan some people ask where is the blood applied it is applied all the way through the Plan of Salvation but to stop short of the most holy place is to not fulfill God's Plan of Salvation with Jesus there was death and burial and resurrection and when the Apostle Peter preached on the day of Pentecost how you should be saved what you should do do to be forgiven of your sins he says something that really encapsulates God's Plan of Salvation let's read it again with the understanding of what we've just covered then Peter said unto them repent a praise and altar a bloody doorpost a crucifixion a death to your old life a death to self a changing of your mind repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins just like they were baptized unto Moses in the sea just like the priests went to the labor of water just like Jesus went to a grave the Bible said we are buried with him by baptism and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost just like there was a cloud and the presence of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ we are raised to walk in the newness of life repent be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for media I'm jumping all the way to John 3 5. Jesus told Nicodemus John 3 5 verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God Jesus said in Mark 16 15 go into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature he that is he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned The Book of Romans says we're buried with him by baptism Colossians 2 and 12 buried with him in baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead Galatians 3 27 for as many of you has have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ the Apostle Peter said that baptism does also now save us so when you repent you identify with the death of Jesus Christ when you are baptized in water in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it is for the remission of sins it is not an outward sign of an inward work it is not a step in joining the church it is burial with Christ it is spiritual circumcision of your old sinful nature it is joining Christ in his death and when you repent and when you are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ then God has promised you that he will fill you with a gift he will baptize you with the spirit with the Holy Ghost and when you receive that Spirit he will change your life from the inside out that River of Living Water Jesus spoke about will flow out of you amen you will speak in a language that you never learn as the Holy Ghost comes in you that's when you go into that most holy Place stand on holy crown communion with almighty God he meets you there [Applause] it is God's plan of salvation not just some random obscure pick a verse out of the Bible and build a church on it from the beginning to the end God had a plan and he made a plane so anyone he wants to be saved can so if you're spiritually thirsty it's the answer it will satiate your spiritual thirst if you're miserable stuck in sins and can't find your way out just like Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage God will deliver you God will deliver you from any sin that holds you captive right now sin cannot hold you back if you will follow God's Plan of Salvation there's power in the blood of Jesus Christ there's power in the spirit of the Lord to set you free from the son has made free is free indeed this plan of salvation is for you today