Sermon in the Year 2025
The Salvation Grace of the God Granted to Humanity

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All the Bible verses quoted in this article are from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted.

Dear Church,

On the occasion of the beginning of the New Year 2025, let us take this opportunity to reflect on the salvation grace of the God granted to humanity. May the truth about God’s salvation encourage us to endure suffering and remain faithful to live according to the Word of God until the end so that we do not forfeit our portion of grace.

The day of Christ’s return to take the Church out of the world is very near, closer than our next breath. Based on the signs that have already occurred in the world, Christ could return in less than three years from today. Brothers and sisters may refer to the article “The End Times and the Year 2027” published on the website preachingfromthebible.net [1] for more details.

The salvation of the God granted to humanity is the greatest blessing anyone can receive, second only to the blessing of being born as a human. Through this grace, humanity can be made complete and live in eternal happiness in the Kingdom of God.

Through the Holy Scripture, the Living Word of God, we know that all things, including humanity, were created by God.

Additionally, through the Holy Scripture, we know that there is only one God who is self-existent and eternal. His self-proclaimed name in Hebrew, “יְהֹוָה” (*Yᵊhōvâ* /yeh-ho-vaw’/, H3068), is transliterated into English as Jehovah and can be translated as The Self-Existing and Eternal One.

God is manifested in three persons, also called the Trinity, which the Scripture refers to as: the God, the Word, and the Spirit. These three persons of God are coexistent, fully equal in essence and authority, and perfectly united.

A “person” is characterized by self-awareness, moral awareness, will, and functions such as cognition, analysis, reasoning, and emotion. A “being” is anything that exists, whether physical or non-physical, visible or invisible, self-existent or created. Only God, angels, and humanity possess personhood.

God, in the person of the God, represents the will of God and serves as the representative of the Trinity. Therefore, all worship directed to God is focused on the God.

God, in the person of the Word, represents the spoken word and actions of God, fulfilling all of God’s will, including the creation of all things and the completion of humanity’s salvation. Hence, all things were created by the Word of God, and humanity can only receive salvation through Him.

God, in the person of the Spirit, represents the life and power of God, imparting life and strength to all created beings, sustaining and enabling them to develop according to God’s design. Furthermore, God, in the person of the Spirit, dwells within the bodies of those who belong to the Church of God to carry out the following seven ministries:

1. Comforting God’s people in times of difficulty and trials (John 14:16).

2. Teaching God’s people the truths in the Word of God (John 14:26; 16:13-15).

3. Guiding God’s people to live according to the Word of God (John 16:13a; Romans 8:14).

4. Convicting God’s people of sin and calling them to repentance (John 16:8).

5. Bearing witness to God’s people about the things of God, the works of God, and sealing them as belonging to God (Romans 8:16; Ephesians 1:13, 4:30; 1 John 5:9).

6. Interceding for God’s people when they do not know how to pray (Romans 8:26-27).

7. Granting gifts to God’s people so they may accomplish all the good works God has prepared for them (1 Corinthians 12:1-11).

God, in the person of the God, is the Father of those who fear and obey Him, for He accepts them as His sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18). When God, in the person of the Word, became incarnate as a human, He was called Jesus. The name Jesus means “The Self-Existing and Eternal One is the Savior.” When God, in the person of the Spirit, indwells and works within human bodies, the Scripture refers to Him as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit only dwells in the bodies of those who believe in the salvation of the God and belong to the Church of God.

The Church of God is also called the Church of the God because He grants salvation to them, or the Church of Christ because He completed their redemption. The Church consists of all those who genuinely repent of their sins, wholeheartedly believe in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and earnestly live according to the Word of God. The Church includes people from all nations, starting from the day the Church was established on Pentecost in the year 27 [2] until the day Christ takes the Church out of the world before the End Times.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28).

“where there is not Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11).

The Church is distinct from the chosen people of Israel and does not replace Israel. Within the Church are people from all nations, including Israel. The Church is a group of people set apart by the God to co-reign with Christ in the Eternal Kingdom.

There is only one Church of God, expressed in various localities. Wherever two or three of God’s people gather together, the Lord Jesus is present among them, and that constitutes a Church assembly (Matthew 18:20). Religious organizations bearing the name of the Lord are not the Church, even though many true people of God are within them, because these organizations teach human commandments in place of the commandments of the God.

All things were created according to the will of the God, by the spoken word of the Word, and are sustained by the Spirit.

God has a purpose in creating all things and humanity. Humanity is a soul, possessing a spiritual body, the spirit, and a physical body, the flesh. God created humanity to select those who revere and obey Him. Reverence for God includes believing in His existence, relying on Him, and worshiping Him alone. Obedience to God means fully adhering to all of His will, as revealed by the God in the conscience of each person and recorded in Scripture.

All who revere and obey God are granted the status of His children, enabling them to enjoy His inheritance. This inheritance consists of the new heavens and the new earth, along with all other created beings, in the Eternal Kingdom.

“And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed.” (Malachi 2:15a).

The holy lineage consists of those among the descendants of humanity who revere and obey God. Scripture refers to them as saints, meaning those whom the God has sanctified. The sign that identifies them as saints is their love for and obedience to God’s commandments.

The commandments of God for the saints before the New Testament era were the Ten Commandments of the God. For saints in the New Testament era, these include the Ten Commandments of the God, the New Commandment of the Lord Jesus, and the Commandment of Holiness from the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Exodus 20:1-17, John 13:34, and Acts 15:29.

Angels are spirits created by God to serve Him and minister to humanity. Angels possess only spiritual bodies and do not have physical bodies like humans. When necessary, they appear in temporary physical forms, resembling humans, to convey the God’s will to humanity. However, these forms are not their true physical bodies.

God created angels and humans as personal beings with complete free will to choose whether to revere and obey Him or to oppose Him. This freedom of choice was granted to angels and humans so they could express love for God and for one another.

Without free will, there can be no true love. Without free will, the obedience of angels and humans to God would be mechanical, like robots following pre-programmed commands. In such a scenario, they would be incapable of experiencing love.

Many angels chose to oppose God, and the Bible calls them evil spirits or demons. Evil spirits are spiritual beings that are unclean because they have sinned. Demons mean accusers, because these angels also sinned by accusing God. The leader of the sinful angels is Satan. The term “Satan” means the adversary and accuser. Satan constantly opposes God, opposes humanity, and accuses humanity before God.

The Bible does not provide a detailed account of the sin of the angels, but it implies that there was an archangel named Lucifer (meaning “Morning Star”) who sinned out of pride, drawing about one-third of the other angels to follow him in opposing God.

Isaiah 14:12-15

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

“And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great, fiery dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads. And his tail dragged a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that whenever she might give birth, he might devour her Child.” (Recelation 12:3-4).

God created many different types of angels, and perhaps He created all of them at the same time. They do not have the ability to reproduce like humans and other creatures. Therefore, there is no angelic lineage. There is also no transmission of sin from one angel to another. Each angel sins because they individually choose to oppose God. They may have chosen to oppose God in order to act according to their own will, rather than following His commandments. It is also possible that they chose to oppose God out of jealousy of humanity.

The God does not have a plan of salvation for the angels who have sinned. Perhaps this is because they were in heaven, saw God with their own eyes, and witnessed the foundation of the earth being laid (Job 38:4-7), yet still chose to oppose Him, and so salvation was not granted to them.

Humanity, though created last among all creatures and temporarily having lesser capabilities than angels (Psalm 8:5), has been granted by the God the authority to rule over His inheritance, meaning the right to govern all other creatures, and the authority to judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). However, humanity also chose to sin, to rebel against the God in order to act according to its own will. The story of humanity’s fall and sin is recorded in Genesis 3.

Sin is the lack of reverence for the God, the failure to obey the God. The first humans, Adam and Eve, did not believe the word of the God and did not obey the God, causing sin and its consequences to enter the world. From then on, every person born into the world inherits the sinful nature from Adam, because each person’s life, the soul, is inherited from Adam. The consequences of sin are suffering, injustice, disease, and death.

Because humans are born with a sinful nature, each person, when reaching the age of understanding, will personally sin. Sin is the deliberate act of opposing the will of the God. The will of the God is placed in each person, including moral standards, called the conscience. The Bible summarizes these moral standards in the Ten Commandments of the God, as written in Exodus 20:1-17 and reiterated in Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The punishment for sin is death.

Death includes the physical death of the flesh and the spiritual death of the spirit. Physical death occurs, causing humanity to cease from sinning. At that time, the flesh returns to the dust, that is, it decomposes into the chemical elements of the material world; the spirit returns to the God who gave it to each person, while the soul is temporarily held in Sheol, waiting for the resurrection of the body to face the judgment of the God for all deeds done. Spiritual death is the severing of the spirit’s relationship with God, causing humans to no longer increase in knowledge of God or receive power from God.

The condition of each person is to be born with a sinful nature, commit sin, and be under the penalty of eternal destruction. Some people delight in sinning and have no intention of stopping. There are also those who suffer because of their sin, do not want to sin, but cannot stop because they are controlled by their sinful nature.

The God loves humanity, even though humanity has sinned against Him. He has given humanity the opportunity to be saved from the consequences of sin through the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Word of God affirms:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

The Only Begotten Son of the God is the Lord Jesus. The term “Only Begotten Son” is used for the Lord Jesus because, at that time, He was the only one born of the God. Later, after He had completed the redemption of humanity, He bore the title “Firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Romans 8:29). For all who sincerely believe in the salvation of the God are reborn by the God as sons and daughters of the God, with the eldest brother being the Lord Jesus.

The physical body of the Lord Jesus was born in the womb of the virgin Mary as a miracle and a mystery. We can understand that the God created a sperm carrying the Y chromosome to unite with the egg in the womb of the virgin Mary. Since the sperm did not come from a man, the fetus did not inherit the sinful nature from Adam. Therefore, the fetus is called the seed of the woman, as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. In terms of the flesh, the Lord Jesus was born of the God and the virgin Mary. He is both “the Son of the God” and “the Son of man,” commonly referred to as “the Son of Man.” In spiritual terms, He is the Word of God, co-eternal with the God, willingly taking on human flesh. Therefore, the Lord Jesus is fully God and fully human.

Before completing His atoning death for humanity, the Lord Jesus did not act on His own with the authority and power of God. In His human form, He experienced weakness and was limited by physical laws, just like other people. He acted with the authority granted by the God and with the power given by the Holy Spirit, as the prophets before Him did. This is why He did not know the time of His second coming to take the Church out of the world (Mark 13:32). After completing His atoning death for humanity and ascending into heaven, the Lord Jesus’ physical body now acts with the authority and power of God. And naturally, He knows the exact time He will return to take the Church out of the world, for He is the Omniscient God.

The Lord Jesus has the title “Christ” to refer to the event of His being sent by the God into the world, completing the redemption of humanity, and revealing God to humanity. He also has the title “Lamb of God” to refer to the event of Him offering His own life to the God as a sin offering for humanity. He refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” to highlight that, although He is God, He is also fully human. Only humans can die for humans, and only the infinite life of God can substitute for the life of all humanity. The Lord Jesus is the only human being born without the sinful nature, and He Himself never sinned. Therefore, He is worthy to be the sin offering for humanity.

All sins carry the same ultimate punishment, which is eternal loss. Eternal loss is being “separated from the face of the Lord and the glory of His power,” enduring eternal suffering in hell, known as the second death (2 Thessalonians 1:9; Revelation 20:11-15). Whether one commits a single sin or countless sins, the final punishment is the same: eternal suffering in hell. The difference lies in the degree of suffering, which varies depending on the number of sins committed.

For sinners to escape the punishment of sin, someone must bear the penalty on their behalf. The Lord Jesus bore the penalty for all of humanity, both physically and spiritually. When He was crucified and died, He took upon Himself the physical death for every sinner. When the sky and earth darkened, and the God forsook the Lord Jesus, causing Him to cry out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34), He bore the spiritual death for each sinner, the separation from God.

The remaining step is for the sinner to truly repent, meaning to feel sorrow for their sins and no longer wish to commit them, and to fully trust in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus, meaning to believe that He is the Son of God who bore the penalty for their sins through His death on the cross. This is the acceptance of the salvation that the God has granted to humanity.

Those who believe in God’s salvation will be reborn by the God, given the position of His sons and daughters; the Lord Jesus will cleanse them from their sinful nature, no longer enslaved to sin; the Holy Spirit will dwell within their physical bodies, granting them life and power from God to live a new life, overcoming all temptations, and fully obeying God’s commandments. They must remain faithful until death in order to receive eternal life from the Lord Jesus.

“Fear none of those things which you are about to suffer. Behold indeed, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” (Revelation 2:10).

“The crown of life” is a reward and a sign for those who have been granted eternal life in the Heavenly Kingdom.

To be faithful until death means to wholeheartedly live according to the Word of God until death, ready to endure suffering and lose one’s life rather than violate God’s commandments.

Dear Church,

On this first day of the new year 2025, let us together make a firm resolution to live faithfully until the day the Christ appears to bring the Church into heaven.

May the Word of God sanctify us and strengthen us. May we all stand firm in faith and remain faithful to the Lord until the day Christ returns. May the love, grace, and fellowship of the Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, cover all of you. Amen!

Timothy Christian Huynh
Priscilla Christian Huynh
01/01/2025

Notes:

[1] https://preachingfromthebible.net/067-the-end-of-the-world-and-the-year-2027/

[2] https://preachingfromthebible.net/the-day-of-the-lords-death-and-the-day-of-the-lords-resurrection/

About Using “*God” or “the God” and “holy spirit”

Wherever the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts of the Bible uses a definite article with a noun to denote GOD, we translate it into English as “*God” or “the God” to refer to God the Father. We understand that “God,” without a definite article, was used as a collective noun for all and any of the three Persons of the Godhead. And “God,” with a definite article, was used to refer to God the Father.

In the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, the term “holy spirit” (πνευματι αγιω) without the definite article “the” (το) is used to denote the power of God, which is given by God the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit” (το πνευματι το αγιω) is God, and “holy spirit” (πνευματι αγιω) is the power that comes from God.