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Only one way to Salvation By Richard Wilson

Psalm 2, which is that great passage that refers to the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the hand of God.
And then the other one, which is a wonderful, or it's almost a psalm in itself, in Colossians chapter 1,
or just take the whole chapter there.
So those are the two passages I want to look at.
But the one that I want to particularly give attention to is that famous passage that says,
Yet I will set my King on my holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me,
You are my Son, today I have begotten thee.
Now that passage is a direct quote that was uttered by the Father at the baptism of Jesus our Lord.
And also it was directed at the temple just before his crucifixion as well.
And we find the same kind of words that were used at the epiphany, at the transfiguration of the Lord.
And it was a time of the declaration of the Father about the Son as being fully God.
It says here, Today I have begotten you.
So let's take those two passages from Colossians also.
Well, if I said anything about that it would detract from the grandeur of that passage.
Let us turn to the passages before us in Ephesians chapter 4.
And as I left our considerations last Lord's Day,
I believed that there would be probably several sermons in this particular passage that we have here,
but at least I would apportion time to yet another one from this portion of God's Word.
The apostle says, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily
of the calling which you were called.
With all lowliness and gentleness and longsuffering, bearing one another in love,
endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Therefore there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope of your calling.
And the passage I want to look at today is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
He is referring to the Christians at Colossae as part of that great universal Church of Jesus Christ.
Now, as we look at these foundations of our unity in Christ,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
These are immovable foundations of the Christian Church.
This is the reason why the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church.
They will always be a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord himself will preserve that testimony throughout all the ages.
And Church history only has to be understood in a very cursory way to understand that reality.
And the reason why the Church is that, it's not because we've had great leaders,
we've had great leaders, it's not because God has chosen to move in a great manner
in times past and even in times present.
It's because of the finished work that Christ has established once and for all,
where he has established himself as one Lord.
He is ascended from the heaven after make atonement for sins
and he sits at the right hand of the Father,
making the last enemy of no effect any longer, death.
He has established an irreversible principle
that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
who was sent according to that covenant of redemption between the triune God,
that he would fulfil the promises of the Old Testament
and having finished that work as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,
he ascended on high as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords,
making intercessions constantly on behalf of his Church
and gathering to himself the full number of the elect.
And in all this, he has completed the basis of our faith.
He says there's only one faith, there's only one basis of truth
and that is the Word of God in the canon of the Scripture
and that Word of God that is expressed in that Word that has become amongst us,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
Now this basis is on the basis of a baptism
that he himself underwent a baptism in death,
a baptism that we can participate in,
being united to Christ and we are in Christ and our union with Christ
is the essence of our baptism
and that we have been baptised by another person of the Godhead
that has applied all that Christ has accomplished on our behalf to our souls
and we have been baptised by the Holy Spirit himself in the Spirit.
Those are the fundamental foundations of our faith.
They cannot be moved, they are set in eternity
and anything that happens on earth
shall not in any way remove those foundations.
Not even God can change those, for it is his own work.
And therefore I want to say without any equivocation
there is only one way of salvation.
It can be only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
It cannot be through Mohammed,
it cannot be through inner light that has guided some in Buddha,
it cannot be by ourselves and it's no good saying
as many people say when I go to hospital when people are about to die,
are he suffering, may he be released from his suffering,
I wish I could say without being rude,
look he is suffering now but the suffering he goes to is far more excruciating
than any suffering that has gone on his side of his life
because he does not know Christ.
The stupidity of such wistful ideas
is but an expression of the folly of man's unregenerate heart.
There is only one that can give life because there is only one
that was appointed by God to bring about the redemption of our souls.
He is the only one that can pay the price,
the ransom price for our soul,
he is the only one that could justify us before the frowns of the law of God
and the condemnation of the law of God.
And in that we must hold with our own life
as Christ held with his own life.
He did not compromise, he was tempted,
may this cut pass me by,
but he refused to drink of some kind of release
that would not accomplish the covenant of redemption in his life, in our lives.
And so this is the basis by which we will have the kind of unity
that is essentially part of our lives
the moment we are actually converted and came to know the Lord.
And when we came to know the Lord
a work of God was established within our lives
that in principle and precept
and life itself has given us an essential unity to everyone else
that has also experienced this redemptive work of Christ upon the cross
and his ruling over our lives.
There can be no other way
and yet we find constantly people saying that there are many ways to God.
Scripture gives no such echoes to such sentiments.
Very often we find in the days of decline within the church
the institutional denominational structure
can unwittingly be a divider of the body of Christ.
It was Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones that developed the book
as a result of some bitter experience
that the servant of God Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones came to.
Many of his evangelical friends that were in institutional denominations
that were basically corrupt to the core
were far more loyal to the denominations
that were under the condemnation of Christ anyway
and they failed to have real fellowship with the other believers
as they should have had.
It was on a cursory, perfunctory sort of basis
and he says why don't you get out from among them
and strengthen the body of Christ so that there might be a work of God amongst us
and the servants of God would be released and freed
to be able to preach the Gospel unencumbered of denominational structures
that have become so encompassing upon the Gospel and its ministry.
And people like J I Packer and people like John Stott
are refused to hear the call
and as a result in many ways their ministry has been impeded.
Very often we need to be able to unloose ourselves
so we can be involved with genuine believers on in a constructive way
so we can express and maintain our unity.
So here we find that the basis of this
if it is all mucked around with, often the church has become the Lord
rather than the Lord Jesus Christ.
The spiritual unity has been impeded and assailed and attacked.
In that book you might be able to get hold of evangelicalism,
evangelicals divided and that was the very problem.
You will find within every church there is a rank liberals,
there is the traditionalists that do not have anything to do with the Gospel
except just mouthing off general platitudes
but essentially their faith is in the church and not in the Lord Jesus Christ,
in the institution and not in the Lord Jesus Christ
although they would hotly deny it
but in practice that's what happens.
And then you've got a very small group usually in days of decline
a warm hearted evangelical people in each of those churches
and there is a lateral sort of staging of that in any denomination.
Those are the people that should be having real fellowship
outside that denomination
and strengthening themselves in the Lord.
This is one of the reasons why the Reformation Fellowship
has been set up in Queensland.
That there might be those opportunities of genuine fellowship amongst believers
and we need to avail ourselves to such opportunities
as well as in our own congregational life.
Now as we look at this, this word one Lord
and I've said it quite clearly before
it's a declaration of the absolute sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before in the Old Testament there was a sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ over all things
but there is one thing yet to be accomplished.
The redemption that was promised right back in the Garden of Eden
and the old devil would use that bondage of death and sin
as being his dominion and his principality and power
so that he would keep even those that were to be Christ's in the fullness of time
he would have them kept under the unchangeable law of our fall into death and sin.
Another was then to be provided and this was promised
that Adam and Eve was to be clothed in animal skin
and they were under seeing the illusion
that another would be sacrificed on their behalf
that would redeem their souls, that would be the ransom for their souls.
But that person had to be perfect, not an animal
although these animal sacrifices constantly re-inherse the faith
that they were to have in the one that would be provided in the fullness of time.
And when all things were laid aside and the fullness of time had come
Christ had stepped out of eternity into the virgin's womb
was conceived by the Holy Spirit and was fully man and fully God
and he became the sacrifice for us, he became the one who died in our place
and therefore he vanquished death, that's why it says in Corinthians
Where is your sting?
Before that happened, death had a great sting.
It was a great hurdle that had yet to be transversed
and it could only be transversed by the Son of Man or the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And the great thing about it is, and it was a great catch cry
and the basis of all preaching in the apostolic church, in the book of Acts
that Jesus has risen from the dead.
We have attested that he has risen from the dead
and it's unassailable that even his enemies could not deny it
although they tried to lie about it.
And we see a vision in the book of Revelation
of him seated at the right hand of the Father
and the church knew absolutely these things.
So the absolute sovereignty of Christ now, not even death has its sting.
Sin has no longer any grip over us because it's been counselled
and there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
And in his work of redemptive work he has established his Lordship
not only over the general creation but also now in the work of salvation.
It is complete, it is finished, it has been accomplished.
That is an immovable fact that cannot be removed by any.
We see that the Lord himself who sits on the throne of heaven
as is re-inherse for us in Psalm 2.
He says, no wonder we can say in the book of Revelation 4 and verse 11
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power
for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created.
What a declaration!
He says also in Psalm 103 verse 19
The Lord has established his throne in the heaven
and his kingdom rules over all.
The absolute sovereignty of God has been established.
And no wonder we can say with Paul the Apostle in the 11th chapter of Romans and verse 33
O the depths and the riches both of wisdom and knowledge of God
how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways are past finding out.
The mystery of the Gospel has been revealed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That which is unsearchable in the Old Testament has become revealed to us in the New
with the disclosure of Christ to us.
And no wonder we can say with the Lord that salvation is of the Lord,
says Job in the belly of the fish.
Salvation is of the Lord.
And we can say also with the writers of the book of Acts
Now there is salvation in no other,
for there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
For him and through him and to him you are all things,
to whom be the glory for ever and ever.
These are the kind of passages we have that reaffirm that our Lord is one Lord.
Not many Lords.
Not the principle of death any longer, it has been vanquished.
Not the principle of hopelessness any more,
it has been consumed in the victories of Christ upon the cross.
In Christ the Old Testament leaned toward the New Testament
promising the fullness of his glory to be fulfilled.
Christ in the New Testament announced Christ as the only Redeemer
and therefore the only Saviour.
For he says in another place as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 verses 5 and 6
Forever if there is so-called gods,
whether in heaven or on earth,
as there are many gods and many lords,
people making offerings to gods and lords,
people are under the bondage of false religion everywhere.
Yet for us there is one who are over all things,
and through him we live.
And also he said in 1 Timothy 2 verse 5
For there is one Lord and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all,
to be testified in due time.
There is no room for addition to this work.
The Roman Catholic Church actually declared
that the Virgin Mary is co-redemptrix with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What utter blasphemy!
Christ's complete work is one that has expressed his soul lordship.
To think that the Virgin Mary could do anything to save anybody is preposterous.
There is one Lord and one Lord only,
and therefore surrender yourselves this day to that one Lord
and give your heart to him alone.
Don't ever think that there is any that would brook him
in his authority or in his power or in his salvation on our behalf.
He goes on and says there is one faith.
Now we can look at this in two ways.
We can look at this as what happened in our own hearts.
There can be only one true faith,
that faith that arises out of being and receiving the gift of eternal life,
or out of being born again from above,
as we are those who are renewed in our hearts,
and the old stony heart has been replaced by a new fleshy heart
that pants after the things of God
that seeks to do the will of our Father in heaven.
We cannot but do anything else but to honour the Son
and to glory and bask in the graces of the Holy Spirit.
Can we do anything else than that?
And there is only that kind of faith that will justify you
and that you are able to see that there is no condemnation toward us any longer.
We have a Father that has provided a Son
and he has become the propitiation for our sin.
There can be no condemnation in the Lord Jesus Christ
and we know in the witness of the Holy Spirit that this is so in our lives
and we give glory and honour to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That kind of faith arises out of new life
that has been given to us as a free gift in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has done that sovereignly and graciously
as the work of God would be done on a patient that had to have a heart transplant.
We have all had heart transplants if we are genuine Christians.
That's good, isn't it?
And arising out of that the first signs of genuine new spiritual life that has come upon us
is that we begin to put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
who is the author and the finisher of our faith.
And we cannot dishonour the Son both in word, actions or deeds.
Our thoughts are captured by the Lord Jesus Christ and his Word.
That is fundamental to the Christian faith.
Anybody that would tear the Word of God down and call himself a Christian is but a hypocrite,
has no path in the Kingdom of God, for he does not honour Christ as Lord.
Faith requires us to be a Christian and we will honour Christ in every way.
If I ever have any one of the kids besmirched the name of my Saviour in a classroom at school,
that kid will never feel safe again.
He will be told clearly, and that happened just last week,
he will be told clearly,
don't ever talk about one whom I love in that way.
I never talk about your mother that way.
It's just as well your mother loves you, the way she does.
And that's the sort of ardour that we must see emerge in our hearts.
But apart from that subjective area,
and we must be those who have that kind of spirit within us,
that one faith that leads to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's only unique among Christians, it cannot happen among non-Christians.
Non-Christians will use the Lord Jesus Christ,
they will identify with him but they won't live by faith in him
because they haven't got a new heart, they've not become a new creature in Christ.
That's why they can't do it.
What they need to do is get right with God first,
so that their heart is established as a new creature in Christ,
then the fruits of true faith and penitence and all the other graces
will come as flowing out of a new heart.
But there is an objective side of this as well.
Christ is the truth as well.
And he is the one that establishes the spirit of truth amongst his people.
As it says in Jude 3,
Beloved, while I was with you,
I was very diligent to write to you concerning the common salvation we have.
There's just no doubt about it, there's a common salvation we all have.
I found it necessary to write to you exalting you to contend earnestly for the faith.
He's not talking about faith here that is something subjective,
he's talking about the objective, the faith,
which was once for all delivered to the saints.
Now he's not referring to an elite group of Christians,
but he's referring to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
They are the holy ones of God,
they are the separated ones for the things of God.
He says, it has been once delivered to you this faith, the faith.
Now of course we find that this faith is an infallible word from heaven.
It is without error in its delivery through the prophets and the apostles.
It has no errors whatsoever in the original autographs of the word of God.
This is a deposit of the truth and this is unchangeable.
The Lord Jesus said, not a jot nor a tittle shall pass away from my word.
Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but not one jot or tittle shall pass away from this word.
And so we find that this deposit of truth,
this complete canon of scripture that has been closed
by the Lord Jesus Christ himself through the ministry of the apostles
and when they passed away the complete word of God,
the whole covenant of the testament was closed.
No need for any further additions to it.
There are no more prophecies that are going to bring about the word of God about.
And when a church begins to say, we prophesy in the name of Jesus,
they are false because the word of God has been closed.
The rule of God's word is now complete.
It's not telling us everything that can be known about God.
It's not intending to say.
But what we have is a complete rule of truth.
There are many things in the general revelation of God
that this word is a key to give us understanding.
Some of the greatest scientists have been Christian people
who have been devout followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
People like Paschal, Newton.
And because they came to know the Lord Jesus Christ,
they were given greater wisdom to unlock the unfathomable riches
of God's knowledge in creation as well.
And the knowledge of the Lord has come to light
and greater sense of civilisation has been given to mankind
as a result of such insights of wisdom
that has been granted by the Lord Jesus Christ
that sits at the right hand of the Father.
Now, when we say this, the apostolic faith that we refer to,
and the old Reformers were so paniticky about this,
particularly John Calvin, when he actually said
we are not saying anything new in this teaching of the Reformation.
Indeed, we want to take the sum of the Apostles' Creed,
which was not inspired, but a summary of the faith.
And he actually used the Apostles' Creed as the chapter headings
within the institutes of religion that he wrote.
And he developed that and always on the basis of scripture.
Now, the apostolic faith has often been summarised
in doctrinal structures that have been very helpful for us.
Now, we who live by the Holy Spirit now belong to everyone
that's lived by the Holy Spirit and has got certain knowledge
and understanding in past ages.
We are not an island, but we're on a continuum of understanding.
And as a result, you see the work of God
opening up the scriptures more and more
as wisdom is granted to the Church and to believers.
That's the benefit of being able to read and understand and develop.
The Church did not fully understand the Trinity until 350 years afterwards.
But as we worked through and the Holy Spirit taught the Church more and more,
we began to understand and formulate the understanding of the Trinity.
The word Trinity is not found in the word of God.
But every believer understands the Trinity to be part of the apostolic faith.
We now are living in days when the Westminster Confession
that were written at the time of the Reformation,
at the afterglow of the Reformation,
is able to summarise the faith into doctrines that truly express the faith.
Now, the faith itself is apostolic.
It is the understanding that the Apostles had of the Old Testament.
Remember, the Old Testament says nothing new.
In the New Testament it was saying nothing new about what God had revealed.
What they had revealed is that they understood and disclosed
the Lord Jesus Christ's understanding of the Old Testament,
so that we would...
Now, obviously I've run out of time and I haven't got to one baptism
and I'll come to that next week.
It's probably worth us dealing with that
and I certainly won't undercut our various views about water baptism.
That's not my intention at all.
That has nothing to do with this at all, except an outward understanding of it.
But we find that the history of revival particularly bears us out.
The characteristic, if you read the histories of revival,
whether it be written by some of the great leaders of the Church in the past,
whether it be under the name of Athanasius,
or in the name of Augustine, or in the name of Luther,
or in the name of Calvin, or John Knox in Scotland,
or Capito, or people like this,
or Jonathan Edwards in America,
the same characteristic is always seen in the Church.
The good old doctrines of the Scripture are come to the fore again.
In the power of the Holy Spirit, they are the old foundations of the faith.
As Jeremiah says, they went back to the old days
and they dug deeply the wells of Abraham
and they saw the freshness and the newness of the unencumbered truth of God
and they saw the Scripture alone, by grace alone,
and there was another alone, one Lord I suppose,
but they maintained this stance.
Whenever true revival comes, the old doctrines of the Scripture,
the old doctrines of predestination, and of election,
and of effectual calling, and justification by faith,
and sanctifying work of God's Holy Spirit in holiness,
and the doctrines of adoption all come to the fore in such times.
The theology of Jonathan Edwards is identical to the theology of Augustine.
And John Calvin's theology was identical in terms of its faith as Augustine.
And Augustine was identical to Athanasius and so on,
because they expressed they had no disagreement
about what the fundamental doctrines of the Scripture was,
because there's only one faith, one Lord and one faith,
and one betide our generation that has moved away from such a faith,
moved away from the Scriptures and replaced it with the inventions of men,
rather than the work of God and the revelation of God.
We must come to the One Baptism next week,
and we will deal with this more fully.
It deserves more than just a passing ten minute look at it at the end of a sermon here.