Salvation, God's Plan Not Man's Part 1

Have you ever looked at all the "Plans of Salvation" that permeate the internet? Well, when redesigning the Forgiving Grace Ministry website, I was torn about putting one on the site. It is not because I do not want to share with people how to be saved, because I desperately want everyone to know the joy and peace contained in a relationship with Jesus, a relationship that brings salvation can not be beat. I was reluctant because scripture in every case of salvation that it tells us about involves the telling (verbally) of the Gospel and then there is immediate action. So, my issue is that Salvation at least as presented in the Gospel is not a thing done in private, it is done in relationship. Now that is not to say that God can not move an individual to Salvation without the aid of another human, because He is sovereign, and He can do all things, Amen.
What really got me though was that I really felt that God wanted me to search out all the plans I could find, and when I did I came away astounded, and in some cases absolutely appalled, about what I was reading. One plan said that the whole idea of the Gospel teaching a need for repentance was absurd, yet Jesus said in Luke 13:3, 5 repent or perish, loose translation but you get the point. In Luke 15:7, 10 Jesus has told two parables one about the lost sheep and one about a lost coin, and He ends both with the idea that there is a party going on in Heaven when just one sinner repents. Now I do not know about you but how am I supposed to process these verses if we can be in our sin yet believe and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the one that really got me; another site said that just by acknowledging your sin and your need of a Savior you were repenting, now the last time I checked that was not good hermeneutics. In fact that would or should qualify as heresy, and that brings me here to that page and this 2 week sermon series.
Friends we need to mine the whole of the scriptures and if they say something leads to salvation we might just want to check ourselves and see if that is what we are teaching, it should not matter if we personally agree with it or not. Are you teaching what you are teaching because the Scriptures teach it or because your denomination teaches it? Read the Scripture for all they say and ask yourself, am I teaching what it says or what I want it to say or what I have been told it says. You know many times when I read the Word of God, I come face to face with His perfection, His Holiness and it shines a light on my imperfections and that usually causes shame, especially if I am not doing or living the way I ought to be living, and many people want you and I to think that, that shame is wrong and God does not want us to feel bad, Yet Paul, God's chosen vessel said that Godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to Salvation. Go figure, huh!
Well, we covered three things in this week’s message that the scriptures say lead to or bring one into a place of accepting salvation or being saved. So, check out the message and mine some of that Gospel treasure.