Grace Explained 108_CRIBS

Today we will look at the 5 things that the Holy Spirit does to us the moment that we are saved.  

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Hello and welcome to another episode of Grace Explained. Today we're going to actually look at what happens to a person the moment that they trust Christ as their savior and the at that moment of salvation. If you will look at 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 1, 1 Corinthians 3 1. And some of you who listen to this and maybe have heard other preachers and other teachers, you may think to yourselves, wow, Keith kind of goes over a lot of verses. And honestly, I cut some of the verses down from when I was actually preaching. And part of that is, you know, I my messages were a little bit longer when I was preaching in in the church, but I try to make these 30 minutes or less. But for me, the only way to completely understand something or or to get a good example is through scriptures. I have sat through messages where a person will read a verse and then tell a story for 10-15 minutes. I'm not a great storyteller. Every once in a while I may have an illustration where there's a story, but overall, I try to can I try to compare verse with verse at times and I try to show the differences. I try to show some of the things that complement the verses, and I try to show the verses that shows the doctrine. So in saying those things, this is why if you if you kind of if you have your Bible out and you're trying to follow along with the Bible, you could always pause it until you get to that verse. If you don't and you're just listening, but you do want to go back and check, you can always go back and listen to the message and see the things. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 1, he says, and I, brethren, this is Paul speaking again to the saints at Corinth, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. So there's this term that Paul uses when he was talking to the saints at Corinth, where he said that they are carnal or fleshly, but he also called them babes in Christ. So when a person is newly saved, they don't have the understanding of someone who's maybe been saved five years or ten years or fifty years. You know, that person who's been saved 50 years and has been reading their Bible and studying and and and um teaching or even you know hearing other people teach them, um, they have a little bit more knowledge and a little bit more growth, and so they they grow and they're not a babe anymore. They can actually feed themselves. Um and so when you think about this, a person who can open up the Bible, read the Bible, and understand the things that they're reading, that's different than a person who's newly saved and now they're starting to read the Bible and they're like, I don't know where to read, I don't know where to start. Um, do I start in Genesis? Do I start in Matthew? What do I do? What do I what do I read? Um I would always tell someone to start in Romans and read through Philemon because those are the books that are written to us today as members of the body of Christ. Um but also they those those are the doctrines and the teachings that that we would need to help us grow. And so we're actually we're babes, we're we're we're young, we're we're we we need to, if you almost, if you will, be hand fed. And so um, as we look at this, there's five things that happen to a person the moment that they're saved. And so I bring out this verse about a babe in Christ because where do babies sleep? Well, if if I mean I'm having um uh a granddaughter that's gonna be born in the next probably, I guess, four months, and um, you know, she's gonna be put in a bassinet, but eventually eventually in a in a crib. And so babies sleep in cribs. So we're gonna use the acronym CRIBS to talk about the five things that happen to us the moment that we trust Christ. And these are the five things that the Holy Spirit does to us in that moment of salvation. So the first one is circumcised. What we are is we're circumcised. We're it's the cutting off of the flesh. That's what circumcision is. And we think about a real circumcision, a fleshly circumcision today. And um and what that is is simply the cutting off of the flesh. That's what circumcision is. Well, when it talks about this spiritually, it's the cutting off of the flesh spiritually. It's the cutting off of the old man or the cutting off of the old sin nature. So when we start talking about the cutting off of the old sin nature, this is what the spiritual circumcision is. So in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 11, Colossians chapter 2 and verse 11, um, he says there, in whom also ye are circumcised with the uncircumcision made without hands. So he's now he's talking to the saints here at Colosse about a circumcision, but he's not talking about the fleshly circumcision. He's talking about a circumcision that is made without hands. And he explains what that is. He goes, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So the moment that you're saved, you that sin nature that you have, you you Christ has died on the cross for all of your sins. All of your sins are forgiven, and that sin nature that you have that's kept you separated from God is now cut off. That's not something we do. We don't quit being better, we don't quit acting like like we're not sinners. We, you know, we don't we don't we don't say, oh, I'm gonna quit doing this, this, this, and this so I can go to heaven or this, this, that. It's not those things. These this is actually a work of God. This is something that the Holy Spirit does, and the Holy Spirit he'll he'll go ahead and at that moment of salvation, because of what Christ did on the cross of Calvary, the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh has been cut off. You're no longer a sinner. When God looks at you, and this is very important because a lot of people, again, the church that that I came out of before I started coming to understand grace and right division, was that they wanted you to feel guilty about everything they did you did. They wanted you to feel ashamed about everything that you did. They wanted you to, well, God doesn't look at you that way. God doesn't look at you as a sinner, God doesn't look at you as a sinner saved by grace. God looks at you as a saint. When God sees you, he sees his son, perfect and complete in his son, a full-grown, mature son of God. That's who you are in Christ. So the first thing that happens to us the moment that we're that we're saved, and all these things happen simultaneously, but the first thing that we're gonna remember in Cribs is circumcised. We're our our sin nature, the the body of the sins of this flesh have been cut off. And it's been by the Holy Spirit because of the circumcision of Christ. The second thing is we're regenerated. That word regenerated means a new birth or to be made alive again. Um, you know, you think about it, we have and down here in Florida, we have a lot of generators. Um, and a lot of people have generators because they're they're um when the hurricanes come along and and if you're gonna be in a direct hit, you want a generator for when your power goes off, because more than likely it's gonna go off. You want to have a generator to start your power up again. Well, that's what that's what that that term regenerate means is to be be made alive again, to to start again, to be made alive again. So in Titus chapter 3 and verse 5, Titus 3 and verse 5, he says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but by uh but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. So what we see is it's not by anything we have done. We have we we don't we're not a righteous person. There's nothing good that we have, there's nothing righteous that we have. So it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it's according to God's mercy that he saved us. And it's by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. This is an operation of the Holy Spirit that he does to us is he regenerates us, he makes us alive. If you'll look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, he says, and you, again, he's talking to the saints at Ephesus, so he's talking to believers, and you have he quickened. That word quickened means made alive. And you hath he quickened or made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. So the moment, so we are dead in trespasses, we're dead in sins because of our sin nature. Well, the moment that we're saved, our sin nature is cut off, and we are now made alive in Christ. We're we're we're regenerated. So we're circumcised and we're regenerated in Christ because of our faith in him and because of what he's done for us on the cross, and the Holy Spirit has done these this operation for us. The third thing in Cribs is I, which is and he indwells us. So people talk about me being indwelled, we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. If you will, look at 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16, 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16. Um, that word indwell is to inhabit or to live in. Okay, we understand what it we a dwelling place or someone indwells a place. So when when we when we talked about he indwells us, he lives in us. This is something that is again an operation of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 16, he says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of the of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Who is Paul speaking to? Saints at Corinth again. The one thing I want you to to a little side note here to remember, when Paul writes in Romans to Philemon, every word written is to believers. Now he may talk about unbelievers and about them or us being unbelievers and you know before, but his words are being spoken to believers. So when he talks about this, he says, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? So God we're the house, if you will, of God. God lives in us, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. So it doesn't matter where you are, it doesn't matter what you're doing, doesn't matter. The point is that you have God the Holy Spirit in you. Whether you want him in there or not, he's in there. The moment you put your faith and trust in Christ, God is indwells you. And he's with you no matter where you go. Again, the purpose of this is to know that that, you know, I hear about people talking about building a relationship with Christ, and I understand kind of what they're talking about in the aspect of learning about him more and fellowshipping with him, but and not a lot of that comes through scripture and prayer. But the point is, you can't get any more than Christ being in you. You can't get any more than you being in Christ, you can't get any more than the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. Um look at 2 Timothy and chapter 1, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 14. In 2 Timothy 1 and verse 14, he says, that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Scoly Ghost which dwelleth in us. And he's telling Timothy that the good thing which was committed unto him, so he's talking about the message, he's talking about the gospel. He says, That which is given unto you, and that which was committed unto you, he goes, keep by the Holy Ghost, which where does the Holy Ghost live? He indwells us, he dwelleth in us. So we see at the moment of salvation we're circumcised, our flesh is cut off, we're regenerated, we're made alive again because we were dead in trespasses and sins, and we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us. The fifth thing is we're baptized. That word baptized, and a lot of people when they think of baptism or they think of the word baptized, they think of water, water baptism. But this isn't this isn't the case. Um the the word baptize is to be identified with. So when you're baptized, you're identified with. When Moses brought the nation of Israel across the Red Sea, that there it wasn't wet, that was dry land that they walked on. That was a baptism. They were being identified with God as they as they fled the Egyptians. The little flock, um, when John the Baptist was out there and he was baptizing, he was using water. The water wasn't cleansing them, the water wasn't making them clean. The the priests, they uh in in the Old Testament, the priests would be baptized or cleansed with water. Again, for the purposes of identifying them as priests, and this is a whole nother study. It's a study in itself, and you can go look it up. But the whole purpose of the baptism was to identify them with someone, and the priests were identified as the keepers of the word of God, as does the priest for the nation of Israel. Well, the little flock was identified as that kingdom of priests, and that's why they were water baptized. It was just for the purpose of them going ahead and being identified as that kingdom of priests to the nations. So that word baptized means to be identified. Well, we are baptized, and if you look at Romans chapter 6, Romans chapter 6 and verse 3 and 4. Romans 6, 3 and 4, Paul speaking, and he says, Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. So this idea of baptism, and I know I've heard people do water baptisms and use this passage of scripture, but there's nothing about water in this passage of scripture. This passage of scripture is a spiritual baptism that happens with the Holy Spirit. And he's in the moment that you trust Christ, you are identified with Christ. You are identified, you are baptized into Jesus Christ. You become a member of the body of Christ. When God sees you, he does not see a sinner anymore. When God sees you, he sees his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you are baptized into Jesus Christ, you're baptized into his death. And since you're baptized into his death, you're also buried with him by baptism unto death. You're identified with his death, you're identified with his burial, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so ye also should walk in newness of life. Well, guess what? You are identified with the moment you trust Christ as your Savior, you're identified with Christ, and you are identified with Him in His death, you're identified with Him in His burial, and you are identified with Him in His resurrection. And the way you should live and the way you should walk isn't in the old ways you used to do it, but you should walk in newness of life. So this is the baptism that the Holy Spirit does. This is the operation of the Holy Spirit. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 12. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 12. He says, buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. So the baptism that we have is not a water baptism. The moment that we're saved, we are already baptized into Christ. We're baptized into his death, and we are we are also risen, or we are also raised, and he says, through the faith of the operation of God. A man doesn't do this baptism. This is a baptism that is done by God the Holy Spirit. And he has he has identified us with his death, burial, and resurrection. And the moment that that happens, we're righteous. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13. He says there in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, remember we're Gentiles. I may be speaking to someone out there who's from the nation of Israel, but we're Gentiles. He goes, so it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter if you're bond or free. Doesn't matter if you're a slave or you're a free person. He says, and have all been and been all made to drink into one spirit. You see, that baptism that we talked about, that identification is with Christ. He says, For by one spirit, the Holy Spirit, we're all baptized into one body. We're all identified into the body of Christ. We're all members of that body of Christ. Whether we're Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter your race, doesn't matter if you have money, doesn't matter if you're poor, doesn't matter if you're homeless, doesn't matter if you live in a mansion. We're all on the same level when we're lost. And we're all on the same level in Christ. And it doesn't matter. This is an operation, this is a job that the Holy Spirit does, and He baptizes us into or identifies us into or with the body of Christ. So we're circumcised, we're regenerated, our flesh is cut off, we're regenerated, we're made alive, God indwells us, He lives in us, we're baptized, we're identified with Christ. And then the last thing is we're sealed. That idea of sealed is is to stamp for security or per or or uh per or preservation. When you think about this, the the idea of of a stamp, I I think about the um some of the old movies from you know from what we call the medieval times. Um and you would have a king and he would write a note and he'd he'd he put his he put his stamp on it, he'd put wax, he'd closed that note up um so no one could open it, and then he'd put a um a um uh a piece of wa uh a a little little drop of Of candle wax on there, and then he'd put his ring in there and he'd seal that, and that note or that letter would be sealed. And when that person went to do deliver that to the person he told him to take it to, you could tell if it had been opened or not. It was there, that stamp was for security. So no one else could read that note or that letter other than the person that the king had written it to. So if you look in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 22, 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 22, we are sealed. We're sealed, and we're sealed by the Holy Spirit. He goes, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 22, he goes, who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts? So by the Holy Spirit, if you will, you see there that we have been sealed. Do you believe that a person is eternally secure? Do you think they can lose their salvation? Well, if I believe truly by grip that in grace, and I believe truly that we have nothing to do with our salvation, other than just putting our faith in what Christ did for us and the Lord Jesus Christ did all the work, and God is saving us by his grace and giving us the free gift of eternal life, then no, I don't believe a person can lose their salvation. No, I don't believe I or I should say I do believe in eternal security. And the reason is, one of the reasons, is because we're secured by the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit has sealed us. If you look at Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 1, we'll see that we have been sealed by that Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1 and verse 13 and 14. Ephesians 1, verse 13 and 14, he says, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So we see here that we trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted, the Lord Jesus Christ, after that ye heard the word of truth. What was the word of truth? The gospel of your salvation, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, was buried and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. And we believed that, he goes, in whom also after that ye believed, ye believed that word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. What happens to you at that moment? Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. There's that idea of the earnest payment. You know, there'd be a time where someone owed something and they put a down payment or an earnest payment until they came and redeemed that. One day we're going to get a body fashion like under Christ's glorious body. But until that time, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. And we've been sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise until the redemption of the purchased possession, until the day that we receive that body fashion like under Christ's glorious body. So the moment that we we trust Christ, and the moment that we believe the gospel of salvation, we're circumcised, the flesh is cut off, we're regenerated, we're made alive, we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He lives in us, we're identified with Christ and baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit, and we're sealed. We're made secure and we're preserved until that day of redemption. And when we are sealed until that day of redemption, we can't get out. We can't get out even if we wanted to, until that time that we will be get that body and we will be resurrected and have that body fashioned like under Christ's glorious body. And that's eternal security. Folks, if you've never trusted Christ, if you've never had these things happen to you because you've never put your faith and trust in Christ, because you you've heard the word of truth, you've heard the gospel of your salvation, but you haven't believed in it. You haven't trusted in it. There's one thing to believe it in the mind. There's one thing to say, oh, I hear you, I hear what you're saying, and I understand it, but there's another thing to say, I trust that and that alone. I know there's no way I could ever go to heaven. I know there's no way I could ever have eternal life without trusting and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've never put your faith and trust in Christ today, we pray today that you would do that. That it's nothing you have to do, there's nothing you have to say. This is a decision between you and God. And it's not in your head, but it's in your heart. And if you'll put your faith and trust in Him and believe in what He's done for you, you'll have the free gift of eternal life. And you'll be circumcised, regenerated, and dwelled, baptized, and sealed right at that moment. If you have any questions or you have any comments, you can always um email us at gracexplained at gmail.com. And again, we appreciate you listening to these messages. Until next time.