 How does a person get saved? And then after they get saved, how does a person stay saved? One of the great questions when it comes to salvation, especially for those who might even wrestle with this amongst themselves is, how do you get saved? Well, it's really not that difficult. It's pretty simple. The Bible says, according to the metric, let's go to a couple of passages, Acts 238, let's start there. The Bible says, Peter says, he says, repent each of you, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. And we spoke about this before, and there can be a little bit of ambiguity or unsureness as to what this passage is saying, but we see this use of the exegetical chai, and the word chai is where we get this word and here, in the Greeks, let's put it on the screen and the highlights so you all can see this. This word right here, kappa alpha iota, which is chai, but it also stands for not just and, but it means, namely, also even. The reason why that's important is because what he's getting at. He says repent, the Bible knows of no Christian who is not repenting. You cannot be a believer if you have not repenting. What does that mean? Well, first of all, it simply just means a change of mind. Does it mean that you've changed from sinning, that you have no sin left to do, you've used up all your sins, there's no more sinning you? That's not what it means. It's you have changed your mind, your feelings, your opinion about sin. In other words, sin bothers you no matter how great, how small, who sins bother you? Yours as well as the world, you don't like sin. Now, does it mean that you are perfect and you will not sin? That's not what it means, but your feelings toward it, it now bothers you whether it's yours or someone else. So he says repent each of you and be baptized. Now, the baptism is not what some may ascribe that you have to be water baptized or physically baptized to be safe. Remember Paul said, I'm sorry, John makes a statement when he says, I baptize you with water. But he says there's one coming after me, not many days forward who is going to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. And that's what he's getting at here, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the Holy Spirit. And this word, Kai the shoes here is you are going to, namely all of these happening, namely receiving the Holy Spirit. So Jesus Christ is gonna baptize you into the Holy Spirit that is you receiving the Holy Spirit. So repent, all of these takes place virtually simultaneously. Now I'm not adept enough nor is really anyone else actually definitively tell you what the order of salvation is. If repentance, baptism, faith, how far apart are they? Are they simultaneous? We can speculate, but the fact of the matter is they all are there. A Christian is someone who was repentant. A Christian is someone who has placed their faith in Christ, who has confessed. A Christian is someone who has been baptized. There's no such thing as a person who's a Christian who has not been baptized in the Holy Spirit. The identifying mark of every Christian is being baptized in the Holy Spirit. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, then you are not his. As a matter of fact, Paul says in Romans 12 that all of us have been baptized into the body, baptized into the spirit. And so therefore it's the identifying mark. If you are a Christian, all of these things are present. But notice if you look at other spots, other places in the Bible, you'll see the same question being asked about someone being saved and even Peter himself makes the same statement later on in Acts 16, 31. He says, believe on the Lord. When asked, what must we do to be saved? Peter says, believe on the Lord and you will be saved. Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say the same thing that he says in Acts 2. Why is that? Is he leaving something off? Well, no, that's not what he's saying. He says, believe. There's other passages that tell us that all we have to do is believe. There's passages that say that we have to be baptized. We have to repent. And what we see here is different ways of saying the same thing. Why? Because the only way to be repentant. The Bible says that the Lord grants repentance. This is a change of the heart. We'll get more into the mechanics of salvation just a little bit, but a Christian is someone who was repentant. So before I go forward, let's think about all the different ways that the Bible describes a person who was a Christian. One, they are repentant. Two, they are someone who's been baptized, who has the Holy Spirit. Three, another way someone who has confessed. What does the Bible say, what does Paul say in Romans 10, nine? That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised us from the dead, you will be saved. And so what's missing here? Some of the same things that are in other passages such as repent, such as be baptized. Why? Because the understands, we should understand that it's a different way of saying the same thing. If you believe, if you confess, if you repent, if you're baptized, if you are another word that we find in John three, if a person is born again, they are saved. Why? They all relate to the same thing. Now, I'll come back more to the whole issue about being born again, because being born again does not make you save, but being born again is a prerequisite for being saved. And it's an act that you don't do, but that the Lord does. So before I go any further, I want to explain what it means to have faith, what it means to believe. The Bible describes Christians as the believing ones, whoever it is that is believing. And I'm putting an emphasis on the ING, the participle, because that's how the Bible knows us, as someone who has entered into a state of believing, continual believing. That's why the participle is used there. Most often you'll hear me use this phrase in the Greek over and over again, the ha pistouans. The pistouan is the believing ones. And so those that are believing, which is literally what it says in John three, 16, that the believing ones in him will not perish. What does that mean to be believing? What does it mean to believe? Well, there is a superficial intellectual sort of faith, kind of a mental ascent, where you understand certain things to be true and anyone can, anyone can understand a certain set of facts. Doesn't mean that they're safe. For example, I can believe that this chair can hold me. I can have faith in it. I can even sit down, but it may not be that I have true faith in this chair. And I've used this example before and I'll say it again. True faith in this chair is what I do as I sit in this chair. That's how I demonstrate this true faith. It's not the kind of faith where I don't have full assurance in it. In other words, when I sit down in this chair, I do not get a wide base and brace myself just in case the chair falls. I do not grab hold of this desk and hold on with the wide base just in case this chair falls. I do not strap wire from the ceiling to hold the chair. While I'm bracing myself, while I have a wide base, just in case this chair falls. Rather, instead of what I do, I will relax in this chair. I will abide in this chair because I'm fully confident that this chair can hold me. And what can I do while I'm resting in this chair, while I have confidence in this chair? I can actually go to work. I can type on the computer. I can search things or I can do what I'm doing now. And none of these things that I'm doing now have I ever once thought about or gave any kind of concern or worry about what this chair is doing. That is an example of faith. I've got faith in this chair. The same thing about faith in Christ. After I have faith in Christ, I'm not worried again about me not having faith. I'm not worried about my salvation. Now my focus is my working in my salvation, which is what the pastor says. When he says some translation will say work out your own salvation, it's really in view of your salvation now work. But Corey, don't we have to abide? Sure we have to abide. Every Christian has to abide. The Bible knows of no person who stated that they had faith in Christ who understood what Christ did for them and did not abide, did not remain, did not keep believing, did not keep following. As a matter of fact, Jesus makes a statement in John 15.3. He says, you are already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me. Now, a couple of things. He's one speaking about them bearing fruit in him, but he also goes on to say that if you don't abide in him, then you will be cut off. If you don't bear fruit, you'll be cut off, thrown in a heap, withered up, gathered up and thrown in the fire. Is that to speak of a person not being saved and going to hell? Well, sure, I have no problem with that. The issue is, does that mean that if we don't abide, we will go to hell? Sure, but Jesus makes a statement later on in John 15. He says, you did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit and that your fruit remain. So now the issue is if you are truly a faithful believer in him, then your abiding is going to continue. You are going to continue abiding. You will remain, you will keep believing, you will keep following. Because he tells us in places like Jeremiah and Ezekiel that once his spirit is in us, then we will never turn away from him, nor will he ever turn away from us. As a matter of fact, if we go to Ezekiel 36, yes, this is speaking about specifically Israel, but this is also ascribed to us in John 1, but he says, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. So we will never walk away from him if we have the spirit in us. Now, how does that happen? How does a person get saved? Well, Jesus addresses, he says in John 3, he says, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Being born again comes from this Greek word, ganethi anothim, which we see here, ganethi, which is to be born, anothim. This in this case is born from above, born from heaven. This is a work, not a view, but a work of God. Once that happens, a person makes, places their faith in Christ, that person is secure. As a matter of fact, Jesus gives the parable of the seed and the soils and he tells us that there are those who the word of God, which is a seed, falls on bad soil. Or in other words, a bad heart. And they might believe temporarily, but that's not salvation. Those people are never considered to be saved. As a matter of fact, Matthew 7 tells about people like that where he says, I never knew you. But he goes on and tells that those who heard the word and receive it in a good heart, that's the good soil, then that person will be saved. The good heart comes from who? Not from you, but from God. So how does a person get saved? And this goes into the mechanisms about it, first, the Lord must fix the heart. The Lord must give us a new heart. In other words, the heart must be born from above, born of the spirit. And notice what Peter says in 1 Peter 1-3, he says, bless it be the God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, his own doing has caused us to be born again. That's not our work, that's his work. And so after that, we place our faith in Christ because we receive the word with a good heart that he has regenerated, that he has made clean, that he has caused to be born again. And then we will indeed abide in him. As a matter of fact, John tells us that because of that, he will cause us to overcome. He says, you are from God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he who's in you than he who's in the world. Who's the he? The Holy Spirit. Greater is the Holy Spirit than anything else in the world. I don't care what it is. As Paul says, nothing can separate you, not no trials, no temptation, not death, not starvation, not the sword, nothing can separate you from Christ Jesus. And he also says that he has caused everything to work for the good of those who love him. Think about that for a second. When anything you name it comes at you, even if it knocks you down for the moment, even if it causes some despair for the moment, even if it causes some pain, even if there is some sin. He says he causes all things, all means all, everything to work for the good of those who are the those, those who love him. So if you are in him, if you have placed your faith in him, if you have confessed, if you have repented, if you've been baptized, if you're a disciple, if that's you, everything is now gonna work for your good, maybe not the good that you think it should, how you'd like it. But according to how he does, he is the one that's working this out. And here is the truly good news. He says that if you, or whoever believes, this is where we get this word, ha pistuan, the believing one, if you say or whoever believes that person has eternal life, he says, okay, that's present tense. He has it right now. In other words, if you place your faith in Christ at 830, then there's no reason to believe that at 835 today or 835 next week or next month that you don't have life. He says you have it right now and you'll have it forever. Otherwise, the word eternal or life into the ages would not be used. So how do you get saved by placing your faith in Christ? How do you stay safe? That is going to be a work of him. Now, do we think about that as we're getting saved when a person places their faith in Christ? Do you say, well, the Lord has worked in me, has chosen me, has regenerated my heart, that way I'll get saved? No, you don't think about that. What you think about is your own fallenness. You are confronted with the fact that you are a sinner and you believe that you need saving and you can't do it yourself. You recognize how bad you are while at the same time recognizing how good he is and that he saved you. And anyone that places their faith in Christ, regardless if you believe you can lose your salvation or not, regardless if you believe that you were chosen or elected or not. If you do that, well, then fine. Now, once we go back and learn the mechanism behind it, what God is actually doing, because I think it's important to appreciate that he actually was the one that did the saving. Who would have thought he is the savior? The savior saves. And if he saves, he saves to the uttermost. If you are free, what does Jesus say? You are free indeed. So ladies and gentlemen, that's how you get saved. That's how you stay saved. And so then what do you do? You rejoice at the fact that you are saved. Amen.