Praying for a Monumental Movement part 1

I'll be honest with you during worship, we kept going, I kept saying to myself, "I like this one better." "No, I like this one better." "No, I like this one better." There's so much truth that was before us in those songs. I love one of the phrases that we sang earlier with the first song that we sang, "Take your truth and plant it deep in us." And that's what we want, whether we sing truth or read truth or we hear the truth of God's Word explain to us, that's what we are, people of the truth of God's Word. I think that's very fitting, all of what we've sung is very fitting for where we are going this morning.

I appreciate those leading us in worship. Well, take your Bible and turn back with me to Romans chapter 3, those passages that we read earlier, Romans chapter 3. We will be in verses 21 to 25 primarily, but I will reference a few other verses in Romans. I'll ask you to turn to Romans chapter 1, that'll be easy for you. And then over to Romans chapter 5, that'll be easy for you as well. And any other passages that I refer to, maybe you jot those verses down so that you can follow along in the message. As always, we take our notes and we go back and study on our own.

If you ever have any questions about some of the truths that we look at, I'm always open to sit down with you and help you wrestle with God's Word and the messages that are put before you so that we can get all that the Lord wants to give us. And I look forward to this message as well as others forming us into the people God wants us to be. Now I believe that all throughout our summer series, God has been doing a work in us. He's been doing a work in our church. Of course, you know that our summer series is out of that running series, messages from the pastor's heart. I picked that series up from time to time.

That leads me to an important question that some can ask when it comes to this series. Some may ask this question, why do I revisit this series ever so often? As pastor, the one who is entrusted with the responsibility of preaching and teaching regularly, weekly, there are times that I strongly feel the need to address certain spiritual needs and subjects within the life of the church. Now, just look back with me over what we've been looking at all summer. We started off with the exegetical testimony of Peter on June the 2nd. That was kicking off the series at the beginning of the summer. We looked at Peter's bright future.

He had a monumental future. We saw that great work of sanctification and I kind of use that as a personal testimony for myself and for us. I believe God is sanctifying our church and purifying our church and growing our church for a great future, a monumental future, just like Peter. And then we took two messages to explore 1 Peter 5, verses 1, 2, 5. I called it Peter's exhortation to the elders. It was my desire to go through those passages and show you the standard for elder leadership in the life of the church. I don't say this arrogantly, but I've been leaving those verses out before you for quite a few years. And that is the standard.

That is who we are as elders. The Lord of God to lead the church, the shepherd and the overseer and to govern. And then to be honest with you, this was my favorite message out of the series. We looked at a monumental man for a monumental work. We looked at Stephen. He is our standard for the layman in the life of the church. I believe that that message raises the bar of lay leadership for the men within the life of the church. I believe that is one we'll go back to throughout the years over and over and over. And I challenge you, if you have not heard that message, you need to go back, maybe get my notes.

He is a model for all of us, elders included. And then we took two messages to look at what I call the monumental ministry to a monumental generation. We pulled some principles out of Titus, some examples out of Titus chapter two. We have a responsibility to pour into the different age group within the life of our church, children, teenagers, and not just our young people, but all of the age groups. Titus had that responsibility and we saw that ministry within the churches there on the island of Crete.

And I believe these messages are speaking to us in different ways, but all of these messages are preparing us for the future and who God wants us to be. Now as your pastor, I'll say this again, if you've not listened to any of those messages, they're available on the church website. If you need help with that, you go back and you listen because I think it's imperative for all of us to get this information, but not just the information to get the work that God wants to do in us. And I challenge you as well, if God has done a work in your life and some of these messages, share them with others. Share them with myself and Brother Keith.

If you have any questions, you come because we want the Lord to give us all that He wants to give us and we want this work to be thorough in us today and in the future. Now this brings me to the subject for this morning's message. Whether you know it or not, we have a tremendous need within the life of our church right now. We have quite a few people within our church that are struggling with their spiritual condition. They may be Christian by profession, but they are coming to the understanding that they are possibly lost and undone before the Lord. Some seem to be under great conviction while others are not quite there yet.

Several, quite a few of counsel with the elders of the church, myself, Brother Keith. Some of the teenage girls have counseled with some of the women in the church. Some have counseled with parents, that's good. Those parents have talked to myself, talked to Brother Keith. Brother Keith and I feel that God is working in this. We definitely see the working of the Spirit of God to bring lost sinners to faith in Christ. Now this morning I seek to give some important instruction. I will answer a few big questions for some and I will help you understand overall the big picture of what we believe concerning these things and what we should do.

And of course this is all biblical teaching. As I say from time to time, good preaching, good teaching, stirs up questions and this will stir up some questions. Now some pastoral advice here. Don't discount the message because it's a topical message. This will be thoroughly textural. I'm taking a topic that we see in the life of the church in need and we're going to the scriptures and I won't answer all the questions. I'll stir up quite a few. But this will point us in the right direction. Point us in the right direction and this will help us today in the days and weeks and years to come.

Now this morning we're going to explore two statements. Two statements. We're going to look at what we believe and then we're going to look at what we preach. And this will be a part one and a part two because truthfully I really had to divide the message in half so that we would have an adequate amount of time to look at this subject and to take care of this need properly. So you see before you what we will explore this morning where we will go this morning. We will look at what we believe and then we will look at what we preach. Now I have explained those statements a little more on the screens before you.

What we believe and that is justification by grace through faith and then also what we preach and that is the power of God for salvation. Now as you're writing that information down preparing for the message I want to give a disclaimer here. This is not exhaustive. I know I'm repeating myself. This is definitely not exhaustive. There's a lot more that needs to be said on this subject. I'm sure in the years to come we will continue to visit this subject. We wish to speak more to the need this need on an individual basis.

And what I mean is after this message is taught after next week's message is taught if you have the need for us or counsel for your children your teenagers in your own life you speak to us. We need to take this information deal with this need on a personal basis as we have been throughout the weeks and months and even over a couple of years with some. Now let's start off with our first major truth in our outline and that is what we believe and that is justification by grace through faith. Now we will be dealing with this subject out of our Romans chapter 3 verses. We'll pick up in those verses here in just a moment.

But before we get into the biblical teaching on justification by grace through faith we must understand three realities. First the historical significance of the teaching. Second what justification by faith by grace through faith is and then third what it means to us today. We will cover the third reality in our application and then in the middle of what we're looking at I will give you an overview of the doctrine which will help you understand what it is. But first we must understand that justification by grace through faith was at the heart of the great struggle within the church during the Protestant Reformation.

This is the historical background that you need to see. There were great men that God used during the Protestant Reformation. Men like Martin Luther and John Calvin and many many others. Those are just two of the preeminent figures. They rediscovered justification by grace through faith through careful study of the scriptures. The Roman Catholic Church had abandoned this doctrine for a system of religious works. And as these men studied the scriptures they began to stand against the false teaching of the Catholic Church. And if you know your history you know that this led to a great battle.

A great war erupted within culture and in the church. And it was through the rediscovery of this doctrine that Martin Luther himself was even converted. He was a religious, a monk within the Catholic Church during that time. And it was through this teaching of this doctrine that the church was rescued from heresy and even death. Luther himself believed and he wrote extensively that the doctrine of justification by grace through faith was the doctrine by which the church stands or falls. And I most definitely wholeheartedly agree.

But also we must not confuse this term justification with other doctrines that are associated with man's salvation. Justification is a legal declaration whereby man is declared to be right before God. Justification is not regeneration. Justification is not repentance or faith or sanctification. Now they are all related but they are all different. When a person is justified he is declared to be made righteous before God. Now the Bible theologian Wayne Grudem gives a very understandable definition of this term justification.

And I'm quoting, "Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which he, number one, thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us and number two, declares us to be righteous in his sight." Now I want us to quickly look at the doctrine within the verses that we looked at. Whether you know it or not, one of the most definitive portions of scripture that pertain to this doctrine are found right in front of us. And then there are several observations that I want us to make out of the verses. So let's go back to the verses. I want to read them again starting in verse 21.

But now Paul says, "Apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed or manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all those who believe. For there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God." Verse 24, "Being justified," there's that term, "being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation or an atoning sacrifice in his blood through faith." Now like I said, there's several observations that I want to make here.

We're just going to move through these verses rather quickly. But the first observation I want us to see is the backdrop. The backdrop of all that is being taught here starting in verse 21. The entire backdrop of these verses is everything that Paul teaches from Romans chapter 1 all the way up to Romans chapter 3 verse 20. And the backdrop of everything from these verses is this one little word, sin, the sinfulness of all humanity. It seems that Paul is wrapping up this argument from chapter 3 verses 1 to 20, wrapping up this argument of the sinfulness of man. Look at verse 1 of chapter 3.

"What then, advantage, has the Jew, or what is the benefit of the circumcision?" There's no advantage. Jew or Gentile, he is lumping Jew and Gentile together. And then we go on down to verse 9 of chapter 3. "What then, are we better than they?" Not at all. For we have already charged. This is the teaching prior to chapter 3. We have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin. So what are we seeing here? The entire backdrop of verses 21 to 25 is the sinfulness of man. And Paul took great detail and great time to teach the sinfulness of man. But then the second observation is the righteousness that God provides.

This righteousness that God provides. Look at verse 21. "But now," now that's a transition there, "but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God." Now this phrase that I just read at the beginning of verse 21, but now it is a key phrase. It shows that Paul is changing the direction in his argument. Here Paul says that God's righteous plan all along was to provide a means to justify people. This was done apart from the law. This is different from a man personally keeping the law because we know that that is impossible. God did this through Christ. Now Christ Jesus did not abandon the law, but he kept the law in every way.

He is the righteousness of God which was made known. Go back to the verse, "But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested or made known." And see this plan was spoken of all throughout the Old Testament writings. Go back to the verse, "Being witnessed by the law and the prophets." What is Paul saying? This righteous plan through Christ was spoken of all throughout the Old Testament. So this is the righteousness that God provides.

And then move on our third observation, "A righteousness for all who believe." Look at verse 22, "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all of those who believe." Now this righteousness spoken of here in verse 22, it's not an attribute or characteristic of God. This is the plan of God. This is God's plan to justify men or justify people. This is kind of a repeat of what we see in verse 21, but Paul adds a layer here in verse 22. Next he says, "For all of those who believe." Now this word "all" in the original language, it is in the emphatic. And that means that there is an emphasis here.

Paul is stressing that there is no distinction between man with God. All are under God's holy law. All are under God's just law. And all are guilty. Go back to the verse, verse 22. "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus for all of those who believe for, for there is no distinction for all of sin." So what are we seeing? We see the backdrop, which is the sinfulness of man. We see the righteousness of God, which is Christ, He was made manifest. And then we see the righteous plan of God for all of those who believe. And then we move on to the fourth observation, this justifying work. This justifying work. Look at verse 24.

"Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." Starting in verse 24, this is where we get under the hood, if I can use that language, of this justifying work. This is where we get into the inner workings of this doctrine. Again, what is the backdrop? The universal sinfulness of man. Again, what do we see in verse 21? God's righteousness was provided, it was made known, it was manifested through His Son. And then God's righteous plan was for all of those who believe. But this justifying work is explained in verse 24. So let's break this verse down. Notice, man is justified before God.

Go back to the verse, verse 24, "Being justified." You need to note that word. Now justified means being seen as righteous as if man had kept God's holy law perfectly. This word justified is used in different forms 30 times within the book of Romans. And it is concentrated from Romans chapter 2 verse 13 on into Romans 5 verse 1. I believe God's trying to say something here with that. Now remember Wayne Grudem's definition. Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God in which He, number one, thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ's righteousness belonging to us. And number two, declares us to be righteous in His sight.

So what do we see here in verse 24? Man is justified, declared to be right before God as if he had kept God's holy law perfectly. But then notice, this is a free gift. Go back to the verse, "Being justified as a gift." Now the King James uses the word freely. This word freely or the phrase as a gift, it means just what it says. A free undeserved gift. This is set in opposition to something which is purchased or bought or earned. So what do we see? Man is justified before God and this is a free gift. It is unearned. Man cannot work for it.

And then notice, he continues, "By His grace." Go back to the verse, "Being justified as a gift by His grace." This term by His grace means by His favor or undeserved mercy. This is totally apart from man's works or man's merit or man earning this gift. So what do we see? Man is justified, declared to be righteous before God as if he had kept God's holy law perfectly. And this is a free gift and this has been given to him by grace.

But then notice another layer, "Through Christ's redemption." Go back to the verse, "Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." This term, Christ's redemption, is only used ten times within the New Testament. This speaks of a price which was paid maybe for a prisoner, a prisoner of war, or a slave. It is a picture of liberation from captivity or bondage. Quite a few commentators say that the imagery behind this word is that of a slave being bought off of the slave block. Now notice how this is unfolding. This justifying work, man is justified before God.

He is declared righteous as if he had kept God's holy law perfectly. And this is a free gift by His grace. It is not earned in any way. And it is through Christ's redemption that we have been purchased off the slave block of sin. And then the next layer, "By His sacrifice," verse 25, "Whom God displayed publicly," that's the cross, "as a propitiation in His blood." Again, we return to this word which we studied last week. Here we see that all this comes about when God Himself put Christ Jesus forward as His propitiation or atoning sacrifice. Christ was the atoning sacrifice of God.

He was the substitute which satisfied the wrath of God against sin. God's wrath was satisfied or appeased in Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross. Now what do we see here? Truthfully we've had a quick overview of the doctrine of justification. We saw how man is justified before God. We saw how man is legally made righteous before God. This is done only through Jesus, who is God's righteous plan for justification. Through Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross, God justifies man freely by His grace. This is taught all throughout the Scriptures. A pretty famous verse from Paul, the Apostle Paul, Ephesians 2, 8, 9.

Tell me if this doesn't ring with familiarity. Why? Because it just echoes what we've learned right here in Romans 3. Notice Ephesians 2, 8, 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God. Verse 9, "Not a result of works, so that no one may boast." What have we seen right here? This is justification by grace through faith. This is what we believe, and we must anchor every doctrine of the church to this central doctrine. This doctrine can only be upheld if we live and die by the sufficiency and the authority of the Word of God. This is justification by grace through faith.

Not just a historical doctrine, but a biblical doctrine. If you do some study in church history, you will know that during the Protestant Reformation, this was the preeminent doctrine, but yet right behind that doctrine was the church moving back to what? The sufficiency and the authority of the Scripture. And that's where this comes from. And that's why I continue to ring the sufficiency and the authority of the Scripture. Because oh, when we move away from that, what do we do? We move away from doctrines like justification by grace through faith, and then we move right into church tradition.

There's a word that came to my mind in studying, even this morning, in the word "rescue." During the time of the Reformation, this doctrine rescued the church from heretical doctrine and heretical works. The true church was rescued from this heretical doctrine of works. What about today? The church is littered with decisionism, this dreaded profession of faith. Men and women and young people are taught that they can accept Christ in any way and in any time of their own efforts and of their own agendas and for their own reasons. This is man-centered, and this is completely disjointed from what we see here. Man cannot come to Christ on his own.

Man cannot pray and receive Christ any time he wants. No, that is just another doctrine of works, and that's what's going on today. And the church desperately needs to come back to this doctrine. Truthfully, we need to study this doctrine in great detail in the future, and we will. What do we see? The church lives, breathes, dies by this doctrine. We are justified by His grace through faith, faith in His Son, Jesus. Now, let's move on. I want us to see our second major truth, and that's before you. I want us to see we preach the power of God for salvation. We preach the power of God for salvation.

Now we must see where the power comes for the salvation of man. We've talked about being justified by grace through faith, but we must see where this power to transform a man comes from. God's salvation does not come from bloodline or heredity. John chapter 1 teaches us, "Man's salvation does not come from the efforts of man that is within the man that is of need, nor does it come from the efforts of other men for the one who is of need." The power of God for salvation comes from one source. I'd like you to turn over a page to the left, and that is to Romans chapter 1, verse 16. Romans chapter 1, verse 16.

Paul has already introduced himself to this Roman church. He really shares his heart early on in the chapter. And then what does he say? "For I am not ashamed of the gospel." And notice what he says, "For it," this is the gospel, "for the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek." Here we see that the message of the gospel, it contains the omnipotent power of God. This power is capable of overcoming man's inherent sin nature and to impart unto him new life in Christ. The message of the gospel has the power to bring salvation to man.

Now this word "salvation" in verse 16 is a key word. It is seen all throughout the book of Romans. Now its basic meaning is to be rescued or to be delivered. Now this deliverance is from the slavery of sin, the just penalty of sin, and the eternal punishment and separation from God. That is salvation. It is to be rescued. It is to be delivered from slavery to sin. And it is to be delivered from the just punishment for our sin. This is salvation. Now what is important for us to see in this basic message of the gospel? There are two basic parts. I've used a coin to illustrate the two sides of the gospel.

It's a good illustration for us to remember, especially for young people. But we must see the two sides of the gospel message. First that is the sinfulness of man. I would encourage you to write that down. The universal sinfulness of man. Sin is universally sinful and separated from God. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 says, "For all of sin and fall short of the glory of God." That is a summary of all that Paul had taught from Romans 1 to Romans 3 verse 20. Now I would invite you to look back at chapter 3 with me. Look back at chapter 3 starting in verse 10.

Now your Bible may italicize or note that these are direct quotations from Old Testament scripture. What does Paul say in verse 10? There is none righteous, not even one. What is that? A quotation of Psalm 14 verses 1 to 3. There is no one, verse 11, who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned aside together and they have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one. Again, that is a quotation of Old Testament scripture. Verse 13, "Their throats, their open grave, and their tongues they keep deceiving." Again an Old Testament quotation.

And all the way down to verse 18, Paul is declaring the universal sinfulness of man right out of the Old Testament. So what do we see? The first message of the gospel. It is the sinfulness of man, the universal and full sinfulness of man. Some call this the bad news of the gospel, man's sinfulness. He is sinful by nature and he is sinful by deed. We need to mark Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Paul goes on to say, "Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man," that's Adam, "and death through sin. So death spread to all men because all men have sin." So what do we see?

On the first side of the corner of the gospel is the sinfulness, the universal sinfulness of man. But then the second side of the gospel is that Christ came to die in the place of sinners. Christ he came to die in the place of sinners. Romans 3, 21, the verse that we read earlier. It says the righteous plan of God was made manifest in Christ. Romans 3, 25 says that Christ was the atoning sacrifice for sin. The fact that God sinned his son as the atoning sacrifice for sin is the second message of the gospel. Now some call this the good news of the gospel.

We see this in the familiar verse, John 3, 16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son." First Peter 3, 18 says, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous that he may bring us to God." Simply God sent his son to die for sinners. That's the good news of the gospel. So in summary, what have I shown us here? The true and full message of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation. The fact that man is sinful and God provided a substitute for man. That message contains the omnipotent power of God within it.

Not to create mountains, not to scoop out the oceans, not to throw more stars into the heavens. No, the message of the gospel contains God's power to save sinners from sin and the eternal punishment that they deserve. So what do we preach? The power of God for salvation. This is our pattern. This is our message. And listen, we will never shy away from this two-fold message. If we do, then we lose this power for the salvation of sinners. We substitute God's power with something that man can do. And I'm so afraid. That's what so many churches do. There's a trap that some fall into. They begin to emphasize one above the other.

This is a big trap. And then when you move into emphasizing one over the other, then you take one step further and then you emphasize one at the expense of the other. You forget one. And this is what it always comes to. When a church or a minister or a people get to that place, they preach the goodness of God, the good news of the gospel, and they rarely mention the bad news. We must start with the bad news. We must preach the bad news. We must always stay true to the gospel message, and that is man is universally sinful. Man is sinful and in need of this Savior. Now practically, how does this work out?

We always deal with our children properly. Listen, our little boys and our little girls are not good kids. Our little boys and our little girls are born in the image of Adam with the sin nature of Adam and they act out on that sin nature and we need to tell our children that they are sinners. They are sinning against God. We need to be truthful with our teenagers. We need to explain to them that by God's standard, they are not good young people. They are sinners against God's holy standard. They lie and they're selfish and they cheat and they steal and so on and so on and so on. Why?

Because they are acting on that sin nature and we must deal with our children and our teenagers properly, but not just with our young people. Those who are outside of Christ, sir and ma'am, if you've not been born of God, you are a sinner and you are outside of the grace of God and you sin the way you sin. Why? Because we are being true to your nature and we must be true to the first message of the gospel and that is men and women and young people are universally sinful against the holy standard of God. And look, the world says that that will run people away. The world says that that will cause your crowd to go down and it may do so. Why?

It happened to Jesus. Then, then we preach the good news. Then we preach that Christ died for sinners. Then we preach that he is our atoning sacrifice. Now we've been dealing with Paul's writing in Romans, but what about Paul's example? I'd like you to write this first down, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We know the story of the Corinthian church. It was Paul who founded the church. It was a great work of the spirit, but yet they did struggle with lots of immaturity and sin. Just to put it bluntly, Paul had a hard time straightening these folks out.

But in the beginning of 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we see Paul's method and notice what he says here, verses 1 and 2 and then verses 4 and 5. For when I came to you, brethren, Christian, born again people, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom proclaiming to you the testimony of God. What does he say? I did not come to you with great gifts, great oratory skills. No. "For I," verse 2, "determined to know nothing among you except Christ Jesus and Him crucified." What is that? That's the gospel. He said, "I came to you preaching the gospel and not necessarily in a very eloquent manner." And what does he say in verse 4?

"For my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power." And what does he say? Back in Romans chapter 1, the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation. The gospel. And what is Paul saying to the Corinthian church? I brought you the gospel, the bad news of the gospel and the good news of the gospel. And it is the gospel that saves. And that must be our message. We must never get over or past preaching that the power to save lost sinners is found in the gospel. Again, this is not the power that throws stars into the sky or scoops out the oceans.

This is the power to save lost sinners. Now if we take a few steps back, what have we been seeing here this morning? The biblical, and I emphasize biblical, the historical doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ as God's substitutionary atonement for the sin of man. Man is declared to be right before God only by grace through faith in Christ. Only by grace. And how does this take place? This takes place through the message of the gospel, the power, God's power within that gospel message. The bad news of man's utter and total sinfulness and the good news that God provided a substitute to die in our place.

And the message of the gospel is, it is the power of God for salvation. The power of God to save sinners is unleashed through this message. And it is God that does this work in the center and for the center. Why? Why would God do this work for us and in us? It is so that God's love and grace and mercy may be made known to lost humanity throughout the world. It is so the attributes of God's love and grace and mercy may be made known through people and ultimately that is for God's glory. And all of this must be seen together. We are justified by grace through faith through the power of the gospel message. Now let me remind you of our context.

In the life of our church, we have quite a few that are seeing their sinfulness. Quite a few have sought counsel and expressed that God is showing them their sinfulness. They see themselves, many of them, as lost and undone and in sin. Now some see this intellectually. It's in their mind. But yet some seem to be more broken and burdened. And they see that they are in a destitute situation. Now based on what I have presented to you this morning, what should be our response? What do we do? Three points of application and trying to help us to know what to do. First, we must see that the work of salvation is a grace gift.

Oh listen folks, I can't say it enough. We must see and embrace the fact that salvation is a grace gift. Oh when this pastor got to that place, I was liberated by man's efforts and all that I thought I could do. We are justified before God by grace through faith. Again, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not as a result of our works. This rescues us from any effort. This doctrine prevents us from resorting to what we can do. And so what is our response? We need to examine and evaluate our past experiences.

For some of you, if you examine your past experience, you will see that your salvation is something that you have done. You've done it. You've done it. You've not been born of God, born of the Spirit. You do not have a grace gift that can only come from God. But then also what we do with others, if we evaluate our past experience, we will see that we've been taught that we can help them and we can counsel them and we can tell them how they can find Christ. No, listen, we must trust not the doctrine but the truth in the doctrine. It's not the doctrine, it's the truth. And this pastor takes great comfort that salvation is a grace gift.

It is a work of God. And we must thunder the gospel, yes, the bad news and the good news. And so we must believe and receive that this salvation that we desire to see fleshed out in others, it is a grace gift. And that frees us. It rescues us from what we can do. Second, we must see the power for salvation of these souls. It rests in the message of the gospel. The power for salvation comes through this message of the gospel, both sides. And look, our human nature is to shy away from the bad news. We don't want to look at our young people and say, "You are bad. You are corrupt.

You are fully sinful from the inside out." We want to rush to the good. We want to say the positive. And what must we do in response? We must be honest. We must be honest. And if it causes some to turn and walk away, we must be honest. Every time Jesus was honest before the Jews, there were some that turned and walked away. And look, we must trust in the gospel. It is His gospel. It is His gospel plan that is bound up in the gospel and in His Son Jesus. So we must trust the power of the gospel to save. And then third, we must pray. This is what we do. We must pray. If salvation is a gift from God to the sinner, then we must pray.

We must pray and beg God to do what only God can do. And this leads me back to this word trust. We trust God and we trust in God's methods and God's plan, which is before us in the truth of God's Word. So this should catapult us to prayer and to seek the Lord and to go before Him and ask God to do what only God can do. So as we close, what do we see? What we believe and what we preach. Justification by grace through faith. And the power of God is bound up in His gospel message. It is the power of God to bring lost sinners to faith in Christ. Now I have yet to give you the title of the message.

I know that sometimes throughout this series in the summer, I have given you the title at the end of the message that might frustrate some of you. But notice what we have here. We have praying for a monumental movement. Think about that. Praying for a monumental movement. Isn't that what we're doing? We're praying for the movement of the Spirit of God. We're praying for God to do what only God can do. And listen, when God saves, it is a monumental work in our life that we never get over. We never get past. We're always bound to that work that God did in us. You know I can't help but be personal here.

I think you should always hear the pastor's testimony. I was lost. Lost as a teenager. Lost in my junior high and high school years. Rebellious against God and the things of God. Oh, I wasn't very religious. See for me, I never had to get through a lot of religion to get saved. I'm very thankful for that. That's one of the biggest difficulties for us as ministers of the gospel is to get people to wade through their religion. But see God had a plan. By His good grace, God was working. And there were people in my family that came to faith in Christ. And they began to pray for me. And they began to witness to me.

I'll never forget the first time someone opened up a Bible and shared the bad news and the good news. And they thunder the bad news. They let me right in the eye and said you were lost and you were headed to hell. You were in your sin. And I hated that message. But that message was the crack in my facade. It cracked the hard exterior that I had over my life because of sin. And God was working. And God brought me to that place where I did attend a Christian event. Yes, it was a Christian concert. But at the end of that concert, that man opened up the Word of God and he taught through the gospel of Matthew. And the gospel was presented.

And God did what I could not do. God moved on my heart. God imparted His righteousness, Christ's righteousness to me. And God saved me. It wasn't a decision. It wasn't a promise. It wasn't a commitment. It was justification by grace through faith. Did I understand all of this biblical teaching? No. But I knew I was saved. I knew I went from darkness to light, a rebel against God, to loving God, hating everything about God and in God's Word, to loving the things of God and the people of God and the Word of God. I became a new creation in Christ. And listen, the power of God was unleashed through the gospel in my life, in me.

And it was a monumental movement. A monumental movement of the Spirit. And anybody who is converted of God will say it was a work that God did. So what are we doing? We're praying for a monumental work of the Spirit. A monumental work of the power of God to save lost sinners, not become religious or join the church or get baptized. Being baptized is good. It's obedience. Joining the church is great. It's a part of it. But first, we need this work that only God can do, not as saving lost sinners. Let's pray and then we will dismiss.