DISCOVER THE BIBLE

   But this is not the first time things have gotten so bad.   4,000 years ago. . . .

   The human race had become a continual source of sin.   The men and women responsible for it enjoyed their sin, and reveled in it!   But...looking down upon it all was the Almighty Holy Creator of the universe - and He hates sin!

   God had seen enough: His holiness was about to collide with man's sinfulness:

   The countdown started.   Mankind had 120 years (Gen. 6:3) to repent and get right with God before the whole sinful mess would be wiped clean.   The human race was marked for total destruction...

   The BIBLE says "Noah walked with God" (Gen. 6:9) so God graciously told Him HOW TO BE SAVED from the coming destruction:

   No doubt Noah warned those around him of the coming wrath as he preached, "REPENT!"   But after 120 years no one else had REPENTED and TRUSTED the ark to save them.   The flood waters came and...

   When it was all over, Noah and his family had been saved, and given a promise by God:

   When will this judgment of fire come upon the Earth?   Jesus told us what to look for:

   As we look around us today we see "the days of Noah" all over again (Lesson 3).   Sin runs rampant throughout the world: lying, stealing, cheating, adultery, sexual perversion, selfishness, drunkenness, back-stabbing, dirty jokes, mail fraud, bitterness, lust, gossiping, greed, extortion, murder, drug addiction, rejection of God, rebellion, terrorism, swearing, torture, injustice, hatred, mail bombings, wife-beating, sodomy, political corruption, pride, legal corruption, immorality, bad mouthing, euthanasia (mercy killings), abortions, witchcraft, fornication, rioting, gangs, disobedience to parents, truce breaking, tax fraud, computer viruses, child molestation, prostitution, wars, gambling, pornography, envy, jealousy, laziness, lawlessness, rape, incest, gluttony, welfare fraud, divorce, hypocrisy, and every other perversion that flows out of the heart of sinful man.

   Mankind has not changed since the days of Noah and neither has God - HE STILL HATES SIN!

   It's only a matter of time when once again the cup of God's wrath will fill to its brim, and destruction will come upon mankind (Revelation 16:1).   But there is hope!   God is still as merciful and gracious as ever, once again giving man time to REPENT and TRUST the "Ark of Salvation" - Jesus Christ.

Q   WHAT IS REPENTANCE?

   Repentance is a change of mind or attitude concerning sin and one's obligation to the will of God.
The word repentance is translated from the Greek word Metanoia (Met-An’-oy-Ah).   Meta means "to change", Noia means "mind".   With the change of mind comes a deep heart felt sorrow over, not just one's own sins, but sin in general.   This sorrow and remorse comes from the realization that we as sinners have offended a holy God.   A repentant attitude admits and confesses sin, which results in a change of direction as well.   In other words:

Q   DOES THE BIBLE TEACH THAT WE MUST REPENT?

   The answer is YES!   However there are those who do not preach the need for repentance.   They claim that to teach repentance is to teach salvation by works.   Repentance is not a work; it is simply a change of mind and attitude resulting in a change of direction.   A person does not repent in order to earn his salvation, but rather he repents because HE WANTS THE SALVATION THAT GOD IS OFFERING FOR FREE.   Repentance is BIBLICAL: we find it taught throughout the whole BIBLE.

JOHN THE BAPTIST - "...Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."   MATTHEW 3:1-2
PETER - "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out..." ACTS 3:19
PAUL - "God....now commandeth all men every where to repent:" ACTS 17:30

Q   WHY IS REPENTANCE NECESSARY FOR SALVATION?

   To answer this question we must go back to the beginning of man's existence and consider why he was created.   Man was created to fellowship with God and walk with Him in complete agreement.   The BIBLE clearly reveals that this harmonious relationship has always been the expressed desire of God:

   However, man chose not to fellowship with his Creator and rebelled against Him instead:

   Ever since his initial rebellion, man's attitude toward God has been:

   This rebellious attitude caused man to spiritually die (Lesson 4) making him a sinner in God's eyes:

   Consequently man found himself lost, condemned and heading in the wrong direction-away from God and toward an eternity in Hell.   Jesus Christ described this result of man's sinful rebellion:

IMPORTANT
   If God is to forgive man and save him from his horrible fate, man must change his rebellious attitude, seek forgiveness, and return to God.   In other words--he must repent!

   Many people are under the wrong impression that they can be forgiven of their sins without having to repent.   Yet it is unreasonable to assume that a sinner can partake of the forgiveness of God, if he has no intention of changing his sinful rebellious attitude toward God.   Throughout the BIBLE we find a repentant attitude preceding forgiveness:

   Some may even argue that God is merciful and gracious enough to forgive us our sins whether we repent or not; but again, we find a repentant attitude required to partake of God's mercy and grace:

   After all, to seek God's forgiveness without repenting is like saying to Him:

   Any reasonable person would have to admit that the above statement is absurd!   Yet this is exactly what many are saying to God when they try to accept God's gift of salvation without being willing to surrender their self-will to God.   Jesus said:

Real life testimony:     I was told that I was a part of the "one true Church".   Though I was proud of that, I didn't know why I was a part of it -- I didn't even know what we believed.   I looked around at others in my religion and knew that some were committing adultery; I looked across the church and saw people that I knew who were having pre-marital sex.   My friends and I sometimes went to church on Saturday so we could drink Saturday night and sleep in the next morning.   I had tried to stop swearing, but just couldn't; and when I did swear, I didn't feel bad about it.   I went to church because l felt it was the right thing to do; that it would help me get to Heaven - but to be honest - it was the biggest drag.   My favorite minister was the one who talked the shortest.   I looked at all this and wondered, "This is the one true religion?   Did Jesus or His apostles act this way?   Wasn't there a way to be religious, and like it?"     Though I couldn't stop swearing and though I got drunk, I was self-righteous because "there are others who are worse" and besides, I was told: "If you do the best you can and be sincere, you will make it."     Well as time went on, I tried to find a reason to believe what I believed.   I wanted answers.   The more questions I asked, the more I found that the things I believed in were just man-made traditions.   Then one day I got something in the mail at my college dorm, with a little quiz to test my knowledge of the Bible (Of course, I didn't know the Bible; my religion never taught it to me).   Well, I went to one of the classes, and for the first time in my life, I was getting my questions answered from the Bible.     One day, I heard a shocking statement!   I had heard the phrase before, but I never knew who was the first one to say it.   It was Jesus.   He said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God".   That surprised me.   Whatever this "born again" thing was -- without it, I wouldn't go to Heaven.   And if I didn't know what it was, then I probably wasn't born again.   Well, I started going to this church that preached only the Bible and taught how to get to Heaven according to the Bible.   The sermons weren't 10 minutes; they were sometimes 45 minutes, but I couldn't get enough.   I was 21 years old, and for the first time in my life, I was hearing the Bible preached.   I later asked someone to show me how I could know for sure I was going to Heaven.   He pulled out a Bible and showed me.   Every verse I read showed me that I was in big trouble.   I knew that I was guilty before a holy God.   I knew that my sins (sin nature I was born with) needed to be paid for, and the payment was Hell.   I realized that all the things I was trusting in couldn't save me: my good works couldn't save me, my church couldn't save me, my baptism couldn't save me.   I couldn't be good enough to get myself to Heaven (no one could), I needed someone to save me (everyone does).   I found that night, that God loved me and wanted to save me.   He was the only one who could; and He was just waiting for me to say the word.     On that night, April 10, 1988, I repented of my sins, turning from them to Jesus Christ.   No longer was I trusting in those other things to get me to Heaven; I put all my faith and trust in the One who left Heaven to die for me.   He told me He would save me, and He couldn't lie.   On that night I was born again, and I had a peace that I had finally found what was missing: it was a person -- Jesus Christ.   My life was instantly changed.   I no longer wanted to do the things I did before, and when I messed up (I was still a sinner), for the first time in my life, I really felt bad about it. D.R.D.

   Next we are going to study a subject as equally important as repentance.   While salvation is not possible without repentance, it is just as impossible without faith.   When it comes to getting saved, repentance and faith are inseparable.   They are two sides of the same coin.   In fact, it can be said that SAVING FAITH INCLUDES REPENTANCE, JUST AS GENUINE REPENTANCE INCLUDES SAVING FAITH.
Let us now turn our attention to FAITH.

Q   WHAT IS FAITH?

   One of the best ways to answer this is by studying the life of someone who was known for his faith.
One such person was Abraham, of whom the BIBLE says:

   To learn the secret of Abraham's faith, let's refer to a famous incident in his life that began with the following promise from God:

   The day arrived when Isaac was born, just as God promised.   When the boy grew to about the age of twelve, God commanded Abraham to do something very interesting...

   Abraham, known for his love toward Isaac, was known even more for His obedience toward God, so he did what He was told (Genesis 22:3-4).   Three days later, Abraham, Isaac and two hired servants arrived at the base of the mountain where the sacrifice was to take place.   It was here that Abraham said something very interesting...

   But how could this be?   Was he planning on disobeying God at the last minute?   Apparently not, because the BIBLE says that Abraham:

   How did Abraham know that Isaac would return home with him?   The answer is simple:

   Now, before we learn the secret of Abraham's faith, let us consider some erroneous views of his faith.

   Many today feel that if you have enough faith and believe hard enough, your wishes will come true.
But all the wishing and hoping in the world will not force God to fulfill our desires.   God is not a "puppet" existing solely to satisfy our wishes.   Faith is not based on wishful thinking.

   Some today think faith is positive thinking.   On the contrary, the final say in any matter is God's, no matter how positive a person may be or think:

   Many people go through life operating on "hunches".   Their morality is guided by what feels right and so is their faith.   Therefore they reason "if it feels right, it will turn out all right".   If this was true, Abraham would not have sacrificed his son, because his feelings against sacrificing his own son would have surely outweighed anything else.   Besides, feelings can change and produce uncertainty.   Abraham displayed no uncertainty in GENESIS 22:5 when he said "...I and the lad will...come again to you."   His faith was not based on a feeling.

   There are other ways that people define faith which also carry an element of uncertainty.   This is contrary to the BIBLE'S definition of faith.   God does not deal in uncertainties, He doesn't have to - He's God!   Instead, He deals in promises!   After all, God knows it all, can do it all, and therefore can promise and deliver anything, even salvation.   This brings us to the secret of Abraham's faith:

   The phrase "his seed after him" refers to Isaac's descendants.   God had promised that Isaac would live long enough to have children.   God promised it, and nothing could change that: not Abraham's knife nor even God Himself.   Since Isaac had not yet had any children (He was approximately 12 years old), Abraham reasoned that his son would either come back from the dead or not die at all.   Abraham realized that God had to keep His promise, because He cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18).

   Faith is TRUSTING IN GOD'S WORD.   When you consider how trustworthy God's Word is, faith becomes a very sure thing.   Throughout the New Testament we find various examples demonstrating that faith means trusting in God's Word.

q Our first example involves the centurion (military captain) at Capernaum:

   Jesus offered to follow him home where the healing would take place.   But the centurion, recognizing that God is trustworthy and all- powerful, said:

   Jesus, seeing the centurion's willingness to simply trust His Word, then responded:

q   Our second example takes place on a ship:

   Jesus had said they would go to the other side.   Obviously this implied that they were not going to die on the way there.   (Remember, this was God talking.)   The rest of the passage speaks for itself:

q   The next example involves a fig tree.   When Jesus came upon it He found no fruit:

q   Next we find another example taking place on a ship:

   Ordinarily there was no way that Peter could have walked on water.   But Jesus (God in the flesh) had told him that he could.   It was then up to Peter to trust what God had said:

Q   HOW DOES A PERSON OBTAIN FAITH?

   The answer is by trusting in God's Word.   This of course requires that one hears what God has to say first.   After all, you can't trust in what you haven't heard nor can you claim a promise that you don't know has been given.   That's why the BIBLE says:

   True BIBLE faith is impossible without first hearing about the promises of God from His Word:

   This truth cannot be emphasized enough!   Unfortunately a large number of people, not familiar with God's promises, are trusting in some religious work that God never promised would save them.   The result is tragic, as the following poem illustrates:

Q   HOW IS A PERSON SAVED BY FAITH?

   Jesus Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world and paid for them at Calvary (Lesson 5), thus settling the sin debt that each one of us owes to God.   In Lesson 6 we looked at some of the things that people are trusting to pay for their own sins.   We concluded from the BIBLE that none of those things will reduce our debt by even one sin: not good works, not baptism, nor any of the many rituals performed through religion.   Only the death of Christ can satisfy God's justice; therefore it only makes sense that we should put 100% trust in His death and shed blood as payment for our sins.   The following verses tell us to do just that:

Real life testimony:     Coming to college, I was quickly sucked into Neo- Evangelical "Christianity" and started attending an "evangelical" church.   The preaching assumed that all were saved and heavy emphasis was placed on "growth".   I never heard any man-made religious traditions exposed in the light of the Word, or sinners called to repentance with complete trust in Christ.   The most noticeable missing element was Holy Spirit conviction upon the hearts of the unsaved, exposing their lost condition before God:     "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him... " John 6:44 God certainly was not drawing anyone.   In my opinion, it is hard for people to truly get converted, when God is not working in such an environment.   After 3 1/2 years of attending that church, I attended a fundamental Bible preaching church and knew right away that I was not truly saved. After hearing the pure Word being preached for 5 months, I came to the end of trusting myself.   I truly repented and completely trusted Christ as my Saviour. A.T.N.

   Now that we have defined repentance and faith, we are going to show how the two work together.
Suppose that through a bizarre set of circumstances you happen to fall into the ocean while holding the last remaining gold bar on earth (the gold bar represents sin).   Considering its immense value, you naturally try to hang on to it until help arrives.   So, being the world class swimmer that you are, you tread water and try to stay alive while hanging on to your gold bar.   However, you can't keep your head above water forever because the heavy bar is pulling you under.   (Sin will do that: it slowly drags you down, and then drops you into Hell!)
   20 feet away, someone has thrown a life preserver (which represents Jesus Christ) and begins to yell:

   We see here a picture of BOTH repentance and faith working together to save us.
   But now, suppose you insist on trying to get saved by doing only one or the other.   Let's say you try to reach for the life preserver without letting go of the gold bar - you will end up drowning!   Likewise, if you try to put your faith in Christ without repenting, you won't get saved.   Simon the Sorcerer can testify to that predicament:

   His belief alone did not save him.   We find Peter, later on, telling him:

   His belief didn't save him because it was not accompanied with repentance.   (* see note on page 17)

   Now let's say you let go of the gold bar, but you never swim toward the life preserver and grab on to it - again, you will end up drowning.   Likewise, if you try to repent without trusting Christ as your Saviour - you won't get saved either.   Just ask the traitor, Judas Iscariot:

   His repentance alone did not save him.   While he regretted what he had done, he didn't turn toward Christ and trust Him as Saviour.   Instead. . .

   Repentance, by itself, didn't save Judas because his repentance was not linked together with faith in Christ as Saviour.   Repentance and faith must work together to bring about salvation.   Jesus Christ started His ministry by teaching this very fact:

   The Apostle Paul, addressing some who were still trusting in their works to save them, also stated that both repentance and faith were necessary:

Real life testimony:     I was 16 years old when I came to know Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour.   I had grown up in a good home, where morality and decency were taught to us from a young age.   My dad was in the military, so we moved quite often during my childhood; but everywhere we went my parents found a good Bible preaching church where we could go and hear from God's Word and be taught the truth.   (A Bible preaching church is one that teaches and preaches salvation and doctrine from the Bible, and not from man's traditions or teachings.)   Even though I grew up hearing the plan of salvation from God's Word, and even though I attended a Christian school, I relied on an experience I had when I was 6 years old for my eternal salvation.   At that time, I was told, in error, by a church worker, that I needed to pray a little prayer to believe in Jesus to save me.   I don't remember much about that time, except that everyone was telling me afterwards that I would go to Heaven when I died.   Years later, as I was sitting in a chapel service at my Christian school, I heard the speaker preach on "Dirty Pots and Pans", out of Matthew chapter 23.   He said that many people who say they are Christians are hypocrites, because they look "Christian" in front of other people, but they act differently when they are by themselves or with another group of people.   THAT WAS ME!   I was always looked upon as a "goody two shoes, with a spare pair".   I knew right then that my "experience" at age 6 had not changed my life.   After thinking about it for a couple of months, I realized what was missing -- "repentance toward God".   I had believed in Jesus, but I had never turned to Him in repentance.   In other words, I had never changed my mind about my sin and self-righteousness!     On Easter Sunday of 1982, I went to church and listened intently to the preaching; and the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin and my relationship to God.   After the service, I talked to the pastor and told him I needed to be saved.   I knelt and prayed to God, in faith, trusting Jesus Christ to save me, and in repentance, turning from my sin to the Saviour.   Because of what Christ did for me that day, I KNOW that I will go to Heaven and see Him when I die!         R.J.S.

   We hope that you have found these seven lessons interesting and informative.   While only "scratching the surface" of what the BIBLE has to offer, we have nevertheless tried to provide as good an overview of the BIBLE as possible.   In doing so we have rightfully dedicated over two whole lessons to salvation.   After all, if a person misses salvation, he has missed it all.   Jesus said it best when He said:

   Since salvation is so important, we would first like to address those of you who cannot point to a time and place when you received Christ as your Lord and Saviour.   As you have already learned, Christ died for your sins so you won't have to.   This means that you can know for sure (through repentance and faith) that you are going to Heaven when you die and you can possess a salvation that you will never lose.   Therefore the question is what would keep you from getting saved?   Is it worth going to Hell over?   We strongly encourage you to consider God's free gift of salvation.   If you would like more information about it, please feel free to let us know through the comment and question section of the worksheet.   We have more information available.

   Next, we want to address those of you that may have already made a profession of faith.   Perhaps you feel that you are already a Christian.   But whatever your personal testimony might be, the BIBLE says it is always a good idea to:

   And one of the best means of self examination is by considering the following verse:

   As mentioned in Lesson 6, true BIBLE salvation results in a supernatural transformation which causes all things to become new.   So please take the time to read the following section and examine yourself in light of what a new creature in Christ is like.   It could make the difference between Heaven and Hell!

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