Combatting Worldliness Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, “The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”? But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” James 4:4-6 (NET) How do we combat worldliness? In James 4:1-6, James has been addressing a church at war with one another (v. 1-2). Long term fights and conflicts were happening within the church. Why was it happening? The problem was that the church was worldly. In James 4:4, Jame

Perseverance of the Saints / Eternal Security Can true believers lose their salvation? There is considerable debate over this topic. Those who believe that believers can lose their salvation point to passages where it at least seems as though a believer has lost his or her salvation. For example, John 15:1-2, 6 says: “I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch that does not bear fruit in me. He prunes every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit… If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and are burned up. Jesus is the vine and there are branche

Sanctification After the simultaneous events of regeneration and justification, believers begin the process of sanctification. Since the term sanctify means “to set apart,” sanctification means “setting apart to holiness” or “making righteous.”[1] God is the primary one who sanctifies believers. Second Thessalonians 5:23 says, “Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Also, Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace … equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ.” God sanctifies us through the Holy S

Justification Justification simply means “to declare righteous.”[1] This, like regeneration, happens at the moment of a person’s conversion. An easy way to remember justification is “God makes us ‘just’ as though we never sinned.” There are two parts to justification. (1) It includes God forgiving our sins because of Christ’s death on the cross to pay the penalty for them. (2) It includes God declaring us as righteous based on Christ’s righteous life. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.” On the cross, Christ was our substitute. God declared that our sins were his and punished him in ac

Regeneration (Being Born Again) There is considerable debate over the placement of regeneration in the order of salvation. Scripture describes unbelievers as dead in their sin and rebelling against God and his Word (Eph 2:1-6, Rom 8:7, 1 Cor 2:14). But when a person is regenerated, God raises the spiritually dead to life through the Spirit (John 3:5-8) and his or her hearing of the gospel (1 Pet 1:23, Jam 1:18). The Greek word translated “regeneration” or “new birth” is only used once in Scripture to refer to a believer’s salvation. Titus 3:5 says, “he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing

Elements of the Gospel Message What are the elements of the gospel message? It must include both the information of the gospel and an invitation to respond to it. The fundamental aspects of these are represented below: 1. Every person is a sinner, who has failed to live up to God’s holy standards. Romans 3:23 says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” 2. Every person is under God’s judgment for his or her sins and, apart from salvation, will spend eternity separated from God’s blessing and grace in a place of torment called hell. Romans 6:23 says, “For the payoff of sin is death…” Revelation 20:15 says, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that pe