The Landmark of Salvation

 Temple Baptist Church - 2-18-2024

Genesis 4:1-7; Hebrews 6:1

 

Introduction:

 

A.  I have been preaching on the subject “Remove Not The Ancient Landmark, Which Thy Fathers Have Set” over the past three weeks. 

 

1.  Spiritual “landmarks” define boundaries and are points of reference from which all our doctrines are measured with the Bible being our Benchmark.

 

2.  We are not as many who corrupt the Word of God by making it conform to our doctrine, but we are those few who continually mold our doctrines to the Word of God.

 

B.  This morning, I want to look at the “Landmark of Salvation.” 

 

1.  This may sound strange to many as we live in the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt.  Churches all over this county, both in the cities and also the rural areas.  As you go into the crossroad settlement of Hickory Tavern, a sign greets you with the list of app. 20 local churches in that one rural area.  On every country road, at every stop sign, you will find diverse church signs pointed in all directions. 

 

2.  Yet most people here do not know how to get to heaven!  Many go to churches who preached a perverted form of salvation that will not save.  Paul spoke of this perversion of the gospel in Galatians 1 and the gospel and Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 11.

 

2 Corinthians 11:2-4  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.  (3)  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  (4)  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

 

A salvation that is by grace through faith alone with no mixture of personal merit or good works.  Good work to be saved or good works to remain saved.  Many teach a salvation that cannot secure but only place one on probation.  If you are saved and sin, you still get to go to hell.

 

3.  They are dishonest!  If I remotely thought that you could be lost after you are saved, when I witnessed to someone, I would tell them that once saved, they can still be lost and go to hell.

 

4.  In the Bible belt, Christianity is the best hidden truth in the Bible.  NO ONE EVER witnesses to me, hands me a Gospel Tract, or invites me to church.  I will ask you this morning, “How many of you have received the Gospel this week from someone else in the county?”

 

C.  Genesis 3 and 4 declare that salvation is through the coming of the “seed of the woman” and requires the shedding of blood.  Genesis 4 shows both the acceptance and rejection of a blood bought salvation.  The account of Cain and Abel is profound:

 

1.  It Refutes Works for Salvation – God rejected Cain’s offering!

 

2.  It Refutes Ways for Salvation – God accepted only His Way!

 

3.  It Refutes Self-Righteousness for Salvation – God required blood!

 

4.  It Refutes Pre-destination for Salvation – God gave Cain a second chance and would have accepted him.  Cain’s problem was not election, it was rejection and, therefore, a sin problem!

 

D.  Then there are so many people who do not have full assurance of their salvation.  The problem is ignorance of what the bible teaches and or the teaching of self-merit!  People actually get saved and then, because they still have an old nature to go along with their new nature, doubt their salvation because they still commit sin! 

 

E.  This morning, my message will be simple because salvation is simple!

 

1.  The Bible says, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”  Our Lord said that the only way to heaven is through the new birth. 

 

2.  In these last days, the New Birth is looked down upon and its recipients are maligned and mocked.  The “Landmark of Salvation” is still Repentance and Faith!  Now, let us allow the Bible to define these two terms.

 

F.  Salvation defined:  Hebrews 6:1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

 

G.  The context of this verse is found in chapter 5, one of the 5 warning sections of the Book of Hebrews.  Let us read Hebrews 5:11-6:1. 

 

1.  These verses are not written to the unsaved but to those who saved who refuse to plant their salvation in the Word of God and go one to spiritual growth.  If you are saved but doubt your salvation, you will never be fully functionable or useable.  GET IT SETTLED AND GET IT SETTLED IN THE BIBLE, not in your feelings or emotions.

 

a.  In chapter 5:12, we find these words: “ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.”

 

1.  “Oracles” simply means utterance of what God has said.  Christ Jesus spoke a pure gospel and how to be saved in John, chapter 3.

 

2.  “The principles” means foundational or fundamental with the phrase using the definite article “the” which means one and only one of a kind.  Precedent or commencement, or (concrete) chief (in various applications of order, time, place, or rank): - beginning, corner, (at the, the) first (estate), magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule.

 

3.  “First” means FIRST!  Coming before all others in time or order; earliest; first. as it establishes salvation as the one and only first step for the unsaved!  Foremost in position, rank, or importance.

 

4.  These saved believers chose to remain willfully ignorant as they were taught again and again the truth of salvation coupled with blessed assurance!

 

b.  Again, in chapter 6:1a, we find these words: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ.”

 

1.  The word “Therefore” shows the continuation of context as chapter 6:1 is tied to the former verses.

 

2.  “Leaving” means to walk on or to move forward; to not remain spiritual doubters.

 

3.  “Principles” we have explained: the first fundamental of salvation.  Get it settled, then MOVE ON!

 

4.  “Of the doctrine” means a topic, tidings, treatise, utterance, word, work.  A belief or set of beliefs held and taught by the Bible.

 

5.  “Of Christ” means that these fundamentals of the faith dealing with salvation come through the Bible, the Inscribed Word of God that were taught by the Incarnate Word of God, the LORD Jesus.

 

2.  Now, for the later part of Hebrews 6:1b  “leaving the principles … let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.”

 

a.  “Let us go on unto perfection” or spiritual maturity.  It does not mean sinless perfection because we will always, in this life, live in a sinful body and fail God.  It means get your salvation SETTLED AND GROW UP!

 

b.  “Not laying again the foundation” means to repeatedly try to get saved over again.  This is settled in verses 6:2-6.  Christ Jesus died once for all, and He will never be re-crucified.  He is not perpetually hanging on a cross.  He is a resurrected, ascended Saviour!

 

3.  Now, look once again at the word “principles.”  The word is plural as the foundation or salvation through Christ Jesus alone is found in multiple principles which are given in these words, “the foundation of (1) repentance from dead works, AND (2) faith in God!”

 

4.  I want to look at these two “principles” that make up the “foundation” upon which our salvation is established:

 

a.  Repentance FROM Dead Works.

 

Romans 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

 

Romans 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

 

Galatians 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

 

Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  (9)  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

b.  Faith TOWARD God.  Direction – Salvation is an act of God, not of man, and Salvation is ALL of God.

 

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

 

1 Corinthians 15:1-4  Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;  (2)  By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  (3)  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  (4)  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

 

5.  Biblical Salvation:

 

a.  It Is A Singular Salvation - Proverbs 16:25  There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 

 

Isaiah 43:11  I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.

 

Acts 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

 

John 10:9  I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.

 

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 

 

b.  It Is An Eternal Salvation - John 10:27-28  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

 

John 3:14-16  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

 

John 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

 

Romans 8:35-39  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

 

1 Peter 1:3-5  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

 

c.  It Is A Life Changing Salvation - Acts 20:21  Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 

Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

 

Matthew 5:16  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

 

d.  It Is A Universal Salvation - Luke 24:47  And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 

 

Romans 10:12-13  For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.  For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

 

2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 

 

1 John 2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 

 

e.  It Is A Gracious Salvation - Ephesians 2:8-9  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

 

Ephesians 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

 

Titus 3:5-7  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 

 

Conclusion:  The Landmark of Salvation has been removed from many churches and the result is confusion.  People rely upon everything else other than the finished work of Jesus Christ: His death according to the Scripture, burial, and resurrection according to the Scripture.  There is no other way!

 

Acts 16:31  And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

 

Romans 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.