hello I'm Professor Timothy Moore this is the course Christian spirituality it's unit four and we're going to be talking about what happens the moment we believe and in all of the units in this course um the categories the theological categories that we're touching on I think it's important that you know uh before we launch this particular lesson um theological categories that we're discussing and once you know them you'll be able to understand uh which part of theology um or the stream of theology that we're dealing with and so the first stream is soteriology um soteriology
uh comes from the Greek word soos you've you've heard that before which is salvation and um the the last part of the word theology part of the word means the study of the logic connected to and so soteriology is the study of the parts of Salvation and the second category of theology is numy and that's from the Greek word Numa which means spirit and so patology is the study of the work of the Holy Spirit especially as it relates to Salvation so it's kind of going back behind the scenes and seeing what the Holy Spirit
has to do in order for us to be able to respond to Christ and then the third stream of theology or category of theology is ontology from the Greek word ontos which means essence or being and ontology is the study of our human Essence the essential parts of what it means to be a human being and specific Al a human being created in the image of God and um we move from two parts to three parts we move from what's called a dichotomy two parts to a trichotomy three parts After we receive Christ as Savior
because there's a part of us that's brought to life there's a part of us that's dead and then it gets resurrected when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ and so so theology patology ontology and we're moving on now to what happens uh the moment we believe um the first thing that I want us to focus on the focal passage is Ephesians chapter 1 3-8 and here the Apostle Paul says all praise to God not some praise that's important all praise to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the Heavenly Realms because we are united with Christ even before he made the world God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ this is what he wanted to do and it gave him great pleasure and so we praise God for the Glorious Grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear son he is so rich in kindness and Grace that he purchased our
freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins and he has showered his kindness on us along with all wisdom and understanding let's pray together father you are deserving of all glory and all praise because before you created this Earth you had us in mind and you knew what was necessary to rescue us from the effects of our sins and restore us to perfect relationship with yourself thank you for sending the Lord Jesus to live as our perfect example to to die in our place and to conquer death so we could be rescued
from the effects of our sin and restored to Eternal relationship with you father thank you for adopting us into your family through Christ and showering upon us your grace and your kindness through our relationship with Christ in whose good name I pray amen we want to um begin at the surface level at the experiential level and understanding the gospel and how it's shared with people and what it looks like when someone responds to the gospel and then go deeper go below the surface to the foundation of what makes all of this possible and so first
uh let's focus on the gospel in the essential parts of the Gospel we're going to look at a at a brief video it's less than two minutes and this video touches on the essential parts of the Gospel there are three essential Parts represented by the three circles in this video so we live in this world and it's characterized by Brokenness we don't have to look very hard to see there are things like disease disasters Wars there's a lot of pain pain in this world but this is not God's original design God has a perfect design
and the way that we have gotten ourselves into Brokenness is through something that the Bible calls sin sin is turning away from God's design and pursuing our own way and that leads us to Brokenness Brokenness eventually leads us to death and this death will separate us from God forever but God doesn't want us to stay in Brokenness so he's made a way out and that way is Jesus Jesus comes and he enters into our Brokenness and the death that we deserve for pursuing Brokenness Jesus Takes our place and dies on a cross and his body
is broken for us and three days after he dies he rose from the dead and he made a way out of Brokenness and people try many things to get out of Brokenness things like religion things like success or relationships education or drugs and alcohol but none of these things can get us out of Brokenness is the only way out is Jesus and if we turn from our sin and believe that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead we can leave Brokenness and grow in a relationship with God and pursue his design and more
than that we can go we can be sent just like Jesus back into Brokenness to help others come through him to pursue God's design now there's two types of people in the world there are people that are pursuing God's design and there's people that are still in Brokenness we have to ask ourselves where are we so where do you think you are that video can be found online uh on YouTube at three circles sharing the gospel the house church and what I'd like to do now is go a little bit deeper uh to touch on
the the soteriology and not just the 1 minute and 48 second expression of this but uh but break down each part of this biblically and and we have this explanation on an app and the app is called life on Mission it's a free app and it has the three circles and it says the three circles is simply a way to have gospel conversations you can tap through the slides and and it will give you the Bible verses it will give you an explanation and you can actually just use this to have a little more extended
conversation with people about what Christ has accomplished for them and how they can respond to it and so I'm just going to use this like I was having a conversation with someone and uh go to the first part which is God's design and and it simply says we see beauty purpose and evidence of God's design all around us the Bible tells us that God originally planned a world that worked perfectly where everything and everyone fit together in Perfect Harmony and God made each of us with a purpose to worship him and to walk with him
the Bible says God saw all that he made and it was very good that's Genesis 1 131 and then Psalm 19 and verse one it says the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky proclaims the work of his hands and so God's design was very good his world was in Perfect Harmony everything declared the glory of God and then something happened and that something is what the Bible calls sin sin is doing things our way instead of God's way and life simply does not work work when we ignore God and His original design
for our lives when we selfishly insist on doing things our way instead of God's way we are sinning and distorting God's original design and the consequence of our sin is separation from God in this life and in the next life and so separation from God now and separation from God for eternity the Bible says in Romans 3: 23 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and in Romans 6:23 it says the wages of sin is death now that death that it's speaking of is the Greek word thas which means separation from
God when we die physically there's a separation there's a separation of the soul and the body and when we die spiritually there's a separation between us and and God and so that's why it says the wages of sin is death it's separation from God this sin leads to Brokenness we see this all around us and it's in our own lives we feel it when we watch the news we see news about crimes we see news about war there there is Brokenness in relationships Brokenness exist all around us and the Bible teaches that Brokenness in the
world is the result of human sin when we realize life is not working we try to find a way out and we tend to go in many different directions trying different things to figure it out on our own instead of looking to God for a solution ution and so Brokenness does lead us to the place of realizing that we need something greater something to restore us and the Bible says in Romans 1125 we exchange the truth of God for a lie and worship and serve something created rather than the Creator we have a tendency to
look for any way other than God and what he supp lies Us in Jesus Christ to heal our Brokenness but no matter what we try it's not a good enough remedy the Brokenness still still exists but there's good news the word gospel means good news because of his love God did not leave us in our Brokenness because Jesus God in human flesh came to us he came into our Brokenness he lived perfectly according to God's design and he came to rescue us to do for us what we couldn't we we could never do for ourselves
he took our sin and our shame to the Cross he paid the penalty of our sin by his death and he was raised from the dead to provide the only way for us to be rescued and restored to a relationship with God the Bible says in John 3:16 God loved the world in this way he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life in Colossians 2:14 says he erased the certificate of debt and he's taken it out of the way having nailed it to the Cross
so what should we do in response to this as you see in the three circles there's the word repent and believe simply hearing the good news about Jesus is not enough we have to admit our sinful Brokenness we have to stop trusting in ourselves we don't have the power to escape Brokenness on our own we need to be rescued and so we must ask God to forgive us turn from our sin and Trust only in Jesus this is what the Bible means when it says repent and believe believing we receive new life through Jesus and
God turns our lives in a New Direction Mark 1:15 says repent and believe the good news and Ephesians 2:8-9 says you are saved by grace through faith and this not from yourselves it's God's Gift not from works so that no no one can boast Romans 10:9 says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved and so once we've responded to the gospel and we put our trust in Jesus and ask him to come into our lives we move
back toward God's design when God restores our relationship to him and we begin to discover new meaning new purpose in a broken World we're still living in a broken world but we can pursue God's design in every area of our lives and even when we fall we understand God's Pathway to be restored and it's the same good news of Jesus God's holy spirit empowers us to pursue his design and assures us of his presence in this life and for all eternity the Bible says in Philippians 213 it is God who is working in you enabling
you to desire and to work his good purpose and in Ephesians 2:10 it says we are his creation created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them so when someone hears this message what should they do God wants those people to respond to him to talk to him Romans 1013 says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and so a person can call out to God using words like these to express that God my life is broken I recognize it's because
of my sin and I need you I believe Christ came to live die and was raised from the dead to rescue me from my sin forgive me Lord I turn from my selfish ways and I put my trust in you I know Jesus that you're the Lord of all and I'm making the decision to follow you Romans chap 10 and verse 9 says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved and in Romans 10:13 as we said is
that promise that when we call out to the Lord we will be saved what a beautiful promise and we've seen many people respond to this message and um I want to share one particular story with you many years ago I I needed a part to fix something electrical in my house and so I went to an electrical supply store and I didn't see anyone else in the store there was a young lady behind the counter and so in the course of buying that part seeing there wasn't anyone else in the store I felt prompted to
ask her a question and I I just said um there's something that's made a real difference in my life and I wondered I wonder if I could take two or three minutes just to share with you this thing that that really changed me for the better and she said sure go ahead and so ask if she had a piece of paper and a pen and she did so I drew out this diagram of the Gospel of the good news and I shared with her how she could respond to this and ask her if she wanted
to and uh she said very frankly no I I don't I don't think I believe this and I I don't think I want to respond to this and I said that's okay I said I I'll be praying that at some point in your life that you trust in what Christ has done for you and I thank you for letting me share this with you and and so I left I went about my life about 6 months later the mayor of that town who happened to have an electrical business invited me to go to lunch and
so we I I I went over to his office and um I got there he wasn't there yet his secretary was there and so I had a similar conversation with her and I drew out a diagram like this of the the gospel message and in the course of drawing that out and explaining it to her uh she let me know that she was a Believer um as I was finishing this explanation and this diagram with her the mayor of the Town came in who's he home the electrical business he came in with one of his
electricians and so they caught the tail end of that discussion and so I uh I turned to them I knew the mayor was a follower of Christ but I didn't know about his electrician that worked for him and so I I said did you hear what I was sharing with uh with the secretary and he said I sure did I said did it make sense to you and he said yes it did and I said um do you want to respond to that and put your faith in Christ and he said actually you already helped
me do that and I knew I had never seen this man before and I saidh how did I help you do that he said well I was actually um behind some materials he was looking at some materials in the store 6 months earlier and I didn't see him and he heard the conversation that I had with the young lady there at the counter and when he heard her say no I don't I don't want this and I I actually told her she could keep the the diagram of the Gospel if she wanted it um he
walked over to her after I left the store and said are you going to keep that and she said no I don't I don't think I am and he said can I have it and so when six fast forward six months I'm sitting there in the office having this conversation and and after he said you help me understand this he pulled the diagram out of his pocket because he had kept that with him every day for six months he opened it up and he said that day I decided to UST my life to Jesus receive
him as my savior and I carry this with me in my pocket so that I can share with others what you shared with that young lady that day and so so not everyone will receive the message of Christ but God works miraculously I mean Romans 1:16 teaches us that um all who believe in the gospel are saved are rescued and um and the work of someone believing is actually the enablement of the Holy Spirit and we're going to see that um the moment We Believe let's FOC focus on what happens to enable us to open
our hearts to Christ because apart from the work of an outside agent an outside being we are incapable of responding to the Gospel of Jesus we're going to see that in the scriptures and this is new myology it is studying the work of the Holy Spirit and how he enables us and so our response to God and our ability to respond is the sole work of the Holy Spirit In Our Lives it's not the work of any other thing of any other agent or being it's the work of the Holy Spirit we're going to see
that in scripture David Garner a the Theologian who writes for the Gospel Coalition says this about the Holy Spirit he says as the agent of Salvation he calls the Holy Spirit the agent of Salvation the holy spirit gives Christ and all the Redemptive blessings he has secured to the people of God the Holy Spirit applies to the church what Christ has accomplished for the church and so when we talk about salvation responding to those three essential pieces of the gospel and receiving Christ into our lives the scripture teaches that it that is purposed by the
father it is accomplished by the son Jesus Christ and it is applied to our lives by the Holy Spirit without the holy spirit's agency and salvation and by agency I mean involvement his involvement in that process all that Christ has accomplished brings absolutely no value to us the scripture uniformly presents the spirit the Holy Spirit graciously effectively and permanently giving us Christ Jesus and every blessing that Christ Jesus has secured for us our Salvation is in in Christ alone but our Salvation is by the Holy Spirit alone he's the only one who can apply what
Christ has accomplished to our lives he is the only one who can enable us to respond to what Christ has done for us so we're incapable of coming to God if the Holy Spirit does not intervene and so again in Romans 310-1 18 we see the predicament the true predicament of human beings apart from the holy spirit's work in our lives in verse 10 it says as the scriptures say no one is righteous not even one no one is truly wise and no one is seeking God all have turned away all have become useless not
one does good not a single one and someone would say to me Timothy are you telling me that not one person in the world is good I I know that I've seen good people I know I've seen people do good things and I know I've seen people do horrible things but it seems to me that there's that balance there there's good people and there's bad people and and the response is we're going to look at what the bible teach teach us about how we actually do good things and apart from the holy spirit's work in
our lives we as Fallen human beings simply do not have the capability um the desire the energy to do good things good things happen because there's a good God and the Holy Spirit of God is at work in our lives going on in Romans U 313 it says their talk is foul talking about the whole human race apart from God their talk is foul like the stench from an open grave their tongues are filled with lies snake venom drips from their lips their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness they rush to commit murder destruction
and misery always follows them they do not know where to find peace and they have no fear of God at all so this is the picture that's painted if the holy spirit is removed from the world this is what the world would be like some people think that the holy spirit's work is just in the life of the believer but the holy spirit's work is actually referred to in theology also as the common grace of God the common grace of God is the work of the Holy Spirit as it extends to all people and the
the work of the Holy Spirit restrains evil in the world because if there wasn't the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit everything in the world would look like Romans 310 through 18 and so the fact that we can experience good that we can experience blessing the fact that it Reigns on the just and the unjust like God's blessing and his uh work to cause crops to grow and people to be able to eat is actually connected to the work of the Holy Spirit but in particular we're talking about the holy spirit's work in Salvation today
and so in soteriology Salvation the patology is um is contained in these verses so the Holy Spirit awakens us to the fact that we're Sinners we can't know that we're Sinners and need God unless the holy spirit's at work awaken awakening us to that fact in John chapter 16 Jesus talks about the ministry of the Holy Spirit and what he does and so in verse eight starting in verse eight it says when he comes this is Jesus speaking of the Holy Spirit and he doesn't call the Holy Spirit it or a force he says when
he comes he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and the coming judgment Jesus doesn't refer to the Holy Spirit as in it because he is the third person of the Holy Trinity that makes up God God the Father God the son God the Holy Spirit and in verse n it says the world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me this is Jesus talking he says righteousness is available because I go to the father and you will see me no more judgment will come because the ruler of this world
has already been judged the ruler of this world is Satan verse 12 there is so much more that I want to tell you but you can't bear it now when the spirit of truth comes that's one of the titles for the Holy Spirit the spirit of Truth and Jesus says he will guide you into all truth he will not speak on his own but he will tell you what he has heard and he will tell you about the future and so the Holy Spirit enables us to see that we have done things our way instead
of God's way that we need to be righteous and that there's a judgment coming if we're not rescued from our sin it's it's the work of the Holy Spirit the holy spirit is the one that guides us into truth the truth that sets us free it's very interesting that he that Jesus says he will not speak on his own but will tell you what he's heard um because Jesus said I don't speak on my own in John chapter 5 he says I only say what the father gives me to say and so we see a
beautiful difference um difference is um even when you're equal to someone you walk to a door and you open the door for someone and you say after you Jesus is in deference to the father when he is here on planet Earth he's always in deference to the father and he says I only say what the father gives me to say and then when Jesus ascends to heaven the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and the holy spirit's in deference to Jesus and so the role of the holy spirit is to m magnify Jesus we're going to
see that and the Holy Spirit doesn't speak his own words to us while we're here on planet Earth he speaks and reminds us of the teaching of Jesus Christ so the Holy Spirit magnifies Christ John 16:14 Jesus says he the holy spirit will bring me Glory by telling you whatever he receives from me so the Holy Spirit receives from Christ and he communicates that to us verse 15 all that belongs to the father is mine Jesus talking this is why I said the spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me even though the holy
spirit's equal to Christ and Christ is equal to the father there is a difference where Jesus speaks to us the words of the father and the spirit speaks to us the words of Jesus the Holy Spirit enables faith we cannot exercise faith in God unless the Holy Spirit Works in our lives and Philippians 2:13 says this for God is working in you giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him now where's the where's God the Father the Bible always teaches that God the father is on the throne in the Heavenly Kingdom where's
Jesus Jesus has ascended the Bible says to the right hand of the father so both the father and Christ are in the Heavenly Kingdom that is where they physically exist where's the Holy Spirit the Bible teaches that when we open our hearts to Christ the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our lives he's in our lives he's the spirit of Truth in US us he's the life of God in us he is God working in us to give us the desire and power to do what pleases him now the word for desire here in this
passage in the biblical language of Greek is thma and that means your will your wishes your desires and so the holy spirit says the scripture says the holy spirit is giving us these desires and so when we come to Christ when we have the desire to come to Christ or to do anything that is good and brings glory to God the holy spirit is working in us to give us that desire and it not only says that it says he gives us the power to do what pleases him and the word for power is in
Argo where we get the word energy and so if we have a good desire including the desire to open our hearts to Christ it's because the Holy Spirit has created the desire within us and if we have the energy to act on that desire it's because the Holy Spirit has given us the inero the energy or the power to act on that thma that desire and so salvation ation is the work of God it's the work of the Holy Spirit it is done to the glory of God and Ephesians 3:20 says now all glory to
God if you don't understand new mythology if you don't understand that it's the Holy Spirit working behind the scenes to give us the desire to do God uh good and the power to carry it out then we might react with well some glory to God and some glory to us this is some kind of partnership where we do some of it and God does some of it and so we deserve some of that Glory but the Bible never says give some glory to God the Bible always says give all glory to God that word all
is pontone it means everything and so all glory to God verse 20 Ephesians chapter 3 who is able through his mighty power at work within us what's the power at work within us that's the Holy Spirit and so through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think why is God able to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think in our lives and through our lives because in our lives is the very creative energy of God the person of the Holy Spirit who is not powerful
he's all power powerful he's not wise he is all wise he's omniscient he knows all things and he lives within us and so when we tap in to the Holy Spirit within us we can do more than we could ever ask or ever think because the Holy Spirit dwells within us giving us the desire giving us the energy or the power to do those things verse 21 of Ephesians chapter CH 3 says glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever amen salvation is the work of God it
is the work of the Holy Spirit and therefore we have to give all glory to God not just for our own salvation but when we share the gospel with people and they respond positively it is the work of the Holy Spirit I had the privilege um the past few days to be in Uganda Africa in fact um I just got back and I am pretty jetlagged right now so you're getting jetlagged Professor Timothy but when I was there in Uganda I got to share the message of Jesus physically in several Villages and people responded to
the gospel they gave gave their lives to Christ and I was able to baptize them in a small River well not only that several times on the radio the main radio station for Uganda and it reaches into Kenya and the Congo is called the voice of the people and several times while I was there in Africa I got to share the three circles that I shared with you here in this class on the radio and and people called into the radio station so people heard the gospel people responded to the gospel and the reason I'm
telling you this is because uh just sharing the gospel is not enough and I didn't in any way save those people when they recognized their need for Christ and they responded by praying to receive Christ as Savior I know that that is a result of the work of the holy spirit in that person because before they come to Christ if you read Ephesians chapter 2 it says they are spiritually dead they cannot respond to the gospel message unless the holy spirit is at work in their lives resurrecting their Spirit human beings are Body and Soul
we are physical and we are immaterial but when we come to Christ we become a tri Unity God is a Trinity Father Son and Holy Spirit and when we come to Christ we're made whole and we are also a trunity a body a soul and a spirit with our bodies we experience the the Earth the material world we're given senses most people know the five senses sight smell hearing touch and taste there are more than five senses that are hard to express like the sense of space and the sense of time but we uh most
people can relate to those five senses well those are in our body and it's through our body that we connect with all physicality in the world our soul relates to motivations heart matters um our mentality and so they're they're more immaterial things things but it's not relating to God it's relating to the world of thought and motivation but when the Holy Spirit enables us to respond to Jesus our spirit which is Dead comes to life and now we are connected with God forever so our body relates to the physical world our soul relates to thought
life and motivations and then the spirit relates to God and always desires the things of God when we believe the moment we receive Jesus three blessings happen automatically that happen immediately and those three blessings number one is forgiveness Colossians 213- 14 says you were dead again dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away then God Made You Alive with Christ for he forgave all our sins he cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross in this way he disarmed
the spiritual rulers and authorities and he shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross there's an enemy and there are evil intentioned Spiritual Beings that do not want human beings to know the good news they don't want human beings to go from spiritual death to life because these Spiritual Beings hate God the things of God and the Bible teaches at one time they were cast out of the Heavenly Kingdom when Jesus died for us on the cross he disarmed those Spiritual Beings and it says he shamed them publicly over his with his
victory over them on the cross and then the beautiful thing about the Cross of Christ for us is all of our sin all of our shame as though it were a book of accounts were placed on Jesus and it says in verse 14 through the cross through his death for our sins he cancelled the record of all those charges against us it was taken away and figuratively it was nailed to the cross with Jesus and so that is a beautiful concept and beautiful truth and when when the Holy Spirit enables us to believe in Jesus
that happens immediately we receive the benefit of that and our sins are forgiven how many sins well how when how old were you when Jesus died for died on the cross none of us had even come into existence that happened roughly 2,000 years ago so Jesus didn't just die for the sins that you commit from the time you're born until this day Jesus died for all sins for all eternity and when we come to God through Christ all of our sins are forgiven all the record of debt that is against us in the mind of
God is nailed to the cross that's the magnitude of the good news the second thing we we receive automatically is eternal life with God in heaven again John 3:16 God so loved the world world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life and Jesus said this in John 14 1-6 he said don't let your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a
place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also and Thomas who was known for doubting said how can we know where you're going how can we know the way and Jesus Saidi am the way Thomas I am the way I am the truth I am the life and so an eternal home and eternal life with God belongs to us the moment we receive Christ as Savior and the third blessing that we get immediately is
the presence of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the holy spirit in our lives gives us the possibility of an abundant life there are many people who receive Jesus who don't live an abundant life however it is a real possibility when we come to Christ Galatians 5:116 says yield yourself to the Holy Spirit and when we yield ourselves to the holy spirit that can be as simple as a prayer Holy Spirit I'm yielding myself to you right now Galatians 5:22 and 23 Define that Abundant Life Jesus said he came so that we could have
it John chap 10:10 the thief comes to steal kill and destroy but I've have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly and in Galatians 5:22 the Abundant Life is described as the fruit of the Holy Spirit which is love and joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control and then in Romans 15:13 the last fruit is Hope and so living our lives with those 10 things full of those 10 things is what it means to have an abundant life here on this Earth and we can have that yielding ourselves to the
Holy Spirit and allowing him to make his adjustments give his assignments and Empower us for the good things God planned for us before he created the Earth if you receed Christ as your savior your adopted into God's family you're forgiven of your sins you're given a home in heaven and you have the Holy Spirit within you those are the promises of God and that's all possible because the father had the purpose Christ accomplished the plan and the Holy Spirit applies it all to our lives that is soteriology that is new myology and that is ontology
from a Biblical perspective
