The Four Fold Gospel Week 3 - Christ Our Healer Revamped February 2026

  A church back in the midwest hired on a pastor, and from the beginning there was conflict between the new pastor one particular elder. They would get into arguments constantly in meetings, because their approaches to the running the ministry were very different. Animosity grew between the two; in fact it got to the point where they couldn’t even speak to each other without venomous words spewing out. Then one day the elder became sick. There was a spot on one of his organs; cancer, that if not operated on, would spread and eventually kill him. As he was lying in the hospital bed God spoke with him about making amends with the pastor. So, the elder asked to see the man he had battled with for so long. At their meeting the elder asked for forgiveness, but it wasn’t given. The pastor walked away with animosity still in his heart, but the elder had obeyed what he was instructed to do.

Soon after the elder had his surgery. It was shorter than expected, and when he was lucid again, he found out why. When the doctor opened him up, there was no spot, no cancer, nothing was wrong. 

This story comes from a Reverend who is our district superintendent. David Gilmore’s father was the elder. He shared his father’s story several years ago at one of our conferences. It highlighted one of the main aspects of what the Alliance emphasizes, Jesus is our healer.

It’s this third message of the Fourfold Gospel, that we’ll look at today, and we’re going to zero in on one particular healing moment from the book of Acts chapter 3, starting in verse 1. As we open up to Acts 3:1, let’s recap where we’re at in our sermon series on the Fourfold Gospel.

In our first week, we looked at the first message of the Alliance’s Fourfold Gospel, Christ our Savior. We looked at what Jesus has saved us from and what he has saved us to. In the end we talked about how God wants us to know the depth from which he pulled us from sin, and the the life he now intends us to live. 

Then in our second week, we talked about Christ our Sanctifier. God has saved us to bring us into the image of the Son. God intends to for us to see ourselves as he does, righteous. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we begin a process through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, where God is cleansing us from all unrighteousness right in front of out eyes. This process last until the day the trumpet sounds, or we pass into glory through death. 

Now that the last two weeks are fresh in our minds, let’s dive into Acts:3:1-10.

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

I love this passage because it sums up what divine healing is and what it isn’t. For the last two weeks we have been going all over the Bible and showing passages that connect with our topic. Today, I want share some insights, as we look at the healing we see in Acts 3.

First, we need to notice some things about this healing in the passage. Peter and John, two of Jesus’ closest disciples, are heading to the Jewish temple at prayer time. There is a man who cannot walk from birth. This man begged every day for help with his situation, and everyone knew him. The lame man requested money, Peter had none, but Peter said the only thing he did have was Jesus. Peter grabbed the man and stood him up. The lame man was completely healed, and began praising God, then the people were amazed. These are the basic beats of the story.

Now, let’s talk about nine thing that divine healing is not.

First, Divine healing is not medical healing. We’re there any doctors, or medical professionals operating on the man? No, so divine healing is not simple medical fixes of the body. It is more than operations, more than prescriptions, more than physical therapy. Can we be healed through medical work? Yes, but that’s not what we’re talking about when we’re talking about divine healing.

Next, divine healing is not metaphysical healing. This means that the man isn’t “mind curing” himself. He wasn’t put into a state of hypnosis, or trance. Can we “trick” ourselves into feeling better? Of course, that’s the placebo effect, but that’s not what we’re talking about with divine healing. This man was simply grabbed and healed of his infirmity.

Third, divine healing is not magnetic healing. We see this all the time in Quartzsite and maybe you’re wearing one right now. Using magnetic bracelets to help our bodies natural electrical charge flow better. This isn’t divine healing. We don’t see any bracelets, or magnets anywhere to be found, because that isn’t divine healing.

Following that, divine healing is not spiritualism. This is referencing that Satan has power to give and take away disease. We see this in the Old Testament where the enemy gives boils to Job. The healing we’re talking about is not Satan’s work, or any other spiritual being’s power. Peter says, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” Satan has no power in response to Jesus.

Next, divine healing is not prayer cure. I get this all the time. Because I’m a pastor people ask for me to pray for them, because my prayers seem to work. If my prayers work, it’s only because I pray in God’s will. No one believer has any greater access to the throne of God than any other one. A pastor is not more spiritual because he has a title. There is no truth to the idea that some of us were made to be closer to God than others. The real question in prayer is, are we asking in God’s will, or our own. Peter and John didn’t even pray in this situation, they simply acted as the Spirit led.

Fifth, divine healing is not faith cure. The last one focused on someone else’s prayer and faith, this one focuses on our own. I’ve heard it so many times, “If you would just have more faith, then you would be cured.” No! Faith is not the object of the healing, Jesus is! More faith does not equal more healing. The man in Acts didn’t have any faith to be healed, he wasn’t even thinking about being healed, he was thinking about getting money from the disciples, yet he was healed.

Sixth, divine healing is not will power. This one piggy backs on the metaphysical, “mind cure” one. We might will ourselves to stay off a cold. We might will ourselves to work through the pain. But these are only temporary “cures”. The man could not will his legs to work, it only came from the outside power of God to move in his body.

Next, divine healing is not defiance of God's will. I have heard this from people who usually quote places like Matthew 21:22, where Jesus says, “And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” But what people tend to miss, is that every time Jesus mentions words like this, it’s always in the context of our will being submitted to God’s. Therefore we’re asking for things that fit his will and not our own. We’re not forcing him into something, we’re agreeing with him. The man in the passage didn’t even seek the healing, but it was thrusted upon him, because it was the will of God.

This next one I think we want, but isn’t even close to what God wants: divine healing is not physical immortality. Several years back, I was praying that one of our members would still be with us, because there was so many things that would have benefited from his touch. I prayed several times for his healing, but it came to a point where my prayers changed from wanting to keep him here, to letting him go to be with God. This is a momentary life, we are meant for the eternity of God. We had another man several years back named Ralph who was healed of a back pain. But only a couple years later God took him home. The temporary healings we may receive here, are not meant to be permeant. 

Finally, divine healing is not a mercenary medical profession. This means, that you can’t make a living off people going around healing them. Peter and John’s purpose was not to go around and just heal people. Jesus’ purpose was not just going around and healing people. They could have done that, but their purpose was the spreading of the Gospel. That was their intention, and the healing of this man, gave the disciples that very opportunity.

So what then is divine healing?

First, it’s the supernatural divine power of God infused into human bodies. This is what the tree of life is in Genesis 2. This is what the river of life is in Revelation 22. This is the branch connected to the vine in John 15. This is what Peter said to the man, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you.” Peter had the Holy Spirit and that’s all he could give the man. Divine healing is God’s divine power penetrating our very being to heal us.

Next, divine healing is founded on the Word of God alone, not on anyone else’s word. People are not healed because I say people are healed. People are not healed because some evangelist says people are healed. And people are not healed because other people say they have been healed. No, people are healed because God says, people can be healed. Isaiah 53:5 states, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” God’s work of healing, is deeply connected to the saving work of Jesus on the cross. And by God’s Word, the Savior came and died for us, and by God’s Word, we can be healed in a multitude of ways through that sacrifice. Peter was only there and was only able to be used to heal that man, because Jesus had sacrificed himself on the cross.

Third, divine healing recognizes and submits to the will of God. People ask, why didn’t someone get healed? I don’t know, but what I do know is God’s will is a major crux of why. In the case of the man in the passage, I know why he did. Everyone recognized him as the lame man begging day in and day out. But all of the a sudden he was healed, and jumping around causing a scene. This gave Peter and John an opportunity to share the Gospel, which led to the disciples being arrested and put in jail. But then something interesting happens in verse thirty-one of the fourth chapter. After Peter and John we’re released and returned to the Church, it says, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul. (4:31-32)” This one healing was a catalyst to the Gospel being proclaimed, believers being filled with the Spirit, believer’s became embolden, and the Church was united. What more is the will of God than these?

Next, divine healing is the work of the Holy Spirit and cannot be produced by man. We cannot force God’s hand, nor can we manifest this type of healing on our own. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. This goes hand-in-hand with our will being submitted to God’s will. And us not being able to produce it through medical, metaphysical, or our own faith focus. But rather it is God’s will accomplished through the Holy Spirit.

  Fifth, divine healing comes to us by faith in Jesus. This means that God is the focus, not what we can do, but what he can do in us. It’s not about me having more faith, or finding people that have enough of it, but rather knowing that if it is God’s will, then we may be healed. Peter and John had faith that healing was only found in God, and God moved.

Finally, we know that divine healing is in accordance with Church history, and that it is one of the signs of the age. Take a survey of church history, and you will find personal testimonies of people agreeing with the miraculous healing work of God. Origen, Justin Martyr, D.L. Moody, A.B. Simpson, David Gilmore. There are even people in this church that have experienced God’s divine healing in their lives, I mentioned Ralph as one. The Holy Spirit was at work at the beginning of the Church, and he is still at work today.

But here’s the thing, how does this impact us? How does God’s divine healing effect us today?

Maybe you’re dealing with an infirmity, most people in Quartzsite are. I would encourage you to seek God’s healing. Maybe you have sought it, and nothing has happened, I would encourage you to keep seeking it until God says no. Whether you have sought it or not, here’s the key that I have found to divine healing: We have access to God’s healing through the saving work of Jesus on our behalf, we are being transformed by God through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, and as we are aligned in his will, the healing of our bodies becomes secondary to the work that God desires to produce in us.

And when our attitude moves beyond our own momentary glory, to God’s eternal glory, then we will be content in the work of God in our lives. Whether we experience healing or not. But until God says and abrupt no to healing, we continue to seek him, as a child seeks their parent for the good things that they have. 

So then, this is my challenge for you today, if you have something you desire to be healed, and that might be a physical ailment, a mental ailment, or a spiritual ailment, the elders of the church want to pray for you. We’re going to anoint you with oil, and lift you up to God for his work to be done. But don’t ask if you’re not willing to have your will aligned with God’s, because then we’re just going to be seeking our own good, rather than the glory of God.

This is the third message of the Gospel that drives the Alliance forward. God is active and working through his people today to heal every aspect of us, in accordance with his will. What great and wonderful things has he for us? Let us seek them from him together. Amen.

The Fourfold Gospel Week 2 - Christ Our Sanctifier Revamped February 2026

  After I accepted Christ, I began to share my experience with others. With my friends at school, with people online, whoever I could share with, I did. Even when I was fulfilling my community service, I would share my experience of coming to know Jesus

But as I did, I found that there was a lot of resistance. From those weren’t Christians, the resistance was understandable, they simply didn’t believe in Jesus. That resistance only spurred me on to deeper reading of the Bible, and how to refute arguments that were presented against me. It deepened my faith rather than shaking it. What was strange to me, however, was the resistance I received from Christians.

As I shared with my Christian teachers, including my Bible teacher of the school I was attending, I found a wall. Looking back, I felt kind of like Paul. Though I hadn’t tried to kill any Christians, I had created enough of a bad image, that an experience didn’t seem to be enough to break people’s perception of me. Not only them, but my fellow classmates, who I thought were Christians, rejected this new me. It was through this experience of speaking to other Christians, especially those that were in my age group, I came to realize that, though they professed to be believers, many of them had not taken Jesus as their personal Savior. It was a social acceptance of the Gospel, not a personal one.

At the end of that school year, I had been basically expelled and asked not to come back to that school, which made perfect sense for the year I had with them. No amount of change could stop that at the point I was at. But I spent the summer in pursuit of knowing God deeper. Things began to change in my life, and how I related to people. This was nowhere more evident than in my relationship with my parents.

A few years later, I was led by God to a deeper life in him. This put me on the path of going to Redding, CA, to attend college. Through that time, I received a calling to full-time ministry, a wife, and an understanding of what had been going on for the last several years. I was now longer the rebellious youth of fifteen, Christ had changed me. I came to understand that God had been sanctifying me, and it’s this concept of sanctification, which will now take a look at, as we first turn to the Gospel of John chapter 15 starting in verse 1. And as we open our Bibles to John 15:1, I want to quickly recap what we talked about last week.

Last week we began to talk about what drives the Alliance at it’s core. And so we talked about how the Alliance is driven by, what the founder of the movement called, the Fourfold Gospel. It was the first message of this Fourfold Gospel that we covered last week, which is Christ our Savior. An aspect that is so important that it drives us to go to the ends of the earth to share with people we’ve never met. It’s not unique to the Alliance, every Christian denomination holds to this truth of sharing the Gospel, but the emphasis on it by the Alliance is something I like. Last week we ended with the understanding that, God wants us to know the depth of sin from which he pulled us from, and the life he intends for us. When we have this understanding, then the next message of the Fourfold Gospel makes sense.

With this first message now back in our minds, let’s dive into John chapter 15 starting in verse 1. Jesus states, 

  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  (Jn. 15:1-8)”

This passage is essential to the Christian’s walk with God, because it speaks to the very nature of our relationship with God. You and I were never intended to be unconnected with others. That’s why when people try to get away from civilization, civilization follows them. That’s why we get married and have children, and have animals as pets. We were made to be connected, but the greatest connected relationship that we are to have is with God. And without him, we can do nothing. We are simply unfulfilled, and never reaching a full experience of life. We limp along without a cure for our alignment, we are zombies roaming the earth until we finally decay enough to no longer move.

This is because of sin. Sin disconnects us from the life of God, our source of fulfillment, healing, and life. When we do something that’s in rebellion against God’s law, like lie, cheat, steal, or a list of other things, we create a barrier between us and God. We become unconnected to the source of life, and because of that, all of our other connected relationships become brittle to the point where we break them as well. 

But through God’s love, God the Son came down to earth to live as one of us, yet in perfect connectedness to God the Father and Holy Spirit. He then willingly allowed himself to be killed and sacrificed on our behalf for our sin. And when we accept that sacrifice, that work of Jesus, we are brought into connectedness with God. That is Christ as Savior which we talked about last week. Too often that’s where we leave it. We got our ticket out of hell, so now it’s time to wait for the uncloudy day, that sweet by-and-by. But that’s not all!

Jesus is not in the ground, he’s risen! And those who put their trust into Jesus as Savior are also risen to new life. That life is a life that begins at the moment of accepting Christ and last into eternity. It’s a life where we are being reoriented into the person we were created to be. This is why Paul tells on us in Romans 12 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (v.2)” Jesus says it like this later on in his pray in John 17, “And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. (v.19)” This transformative, deeper connectedness, is the sanctifying life that God has brought us into through Jesus our Savior. This is the second message of the Fourfold Gospel, Christ our Sanctifier.

Now the word sanctification is a big word, but it simply means “to be set apart” or “to be made holy.” I’ve always likened the idea to that of laundry.

Picture this, you worked all day, sweating, getting dirty, there might even have been some blood from a cut, and all you want to do is get out of those clothes. So you do, and they go right in the washing machine, because they’re just too stinky, and dirty to go in the regular wash basket.

That is exactly what being saved by Jesus is, stinky clothes being put in the washer. But you don’t just leave them there, or the whole house would smell. You grab that detergent, and dump it in and turn on the roughest cycle to make sure those clothes get cleaned. That’s sanctification. That detergent is the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. In fact, that’s just what Paul says about the Church in Ephesians 5:25-26. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.”

Have you ever listened to a washing machine go? I’m glade I’m not those clothes. They get beat around. Dirty clothes go in, the machine starts moving, and sure enough, out of that washer, comes those stinky dirty clothes, fresh and clean and ready to be dried.

God’s sanctifying work sends us through trials so that we can come out on the other side cleaned of all our sin and ready for him. Through suffering and trials, highs and lows, through failing, and getting back up, God works through every circumstance of the believers’ life to cleanse them of the sin that once held them in bondage. If any of you have ever made a New Years commitment to change a long standing behavior in your life, you know the difficulty of change. The sanctification of God battles against the sin that wants its control in our lives back, and it can truly be a battle sometimes. Several weeks ago, while we were working through the problem of evil, I mentioned the question, why do the saints suffer? One reason is because God is sanctifying us through suffering. This is why, in James 1:2-3, were told, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

For the first two years of my Christian life, I didn’t have anyone to tell me that this was part of my relationship with Jesus, and so I floundered. But when we begin to understand that God wants us to go through this process, where he is cleaning us from every stain of sin, the depth that we can go, and the experience we can have with God is endless. Because it doesn’t push off the glory of God to some future date, but rather brings it to the here and now.

Like we did last week, here are some insights to this sanctification process by the Alliance founder, A.B. Simpson. Simpson gives us Six “Nots” of sanctification of what the process isn’t. And Four “Is’s” of what the process is.

The first off the nots of sanctification: Sanctification is not justification. Paul says in Philippians 2:12-13, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Justification is the moment we move from death to life in an eternal and spiritual scope. Sanctification, on the other hand, happens in the life you have now, so that the person Jesus sees us as, is the same person that we see ourself as. Here, Paul tells us to work out what has been given to us. We work out Jesus’ saving work, meaning, we are active in the process alongside the Spirit. Justification is the moment when salvation begins, from then on out, we’re in the sanctification process.

  Second, sanctification is not merely a moral improvement. Isaiah 64:6 states, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Having a better moral compass is not what’s happening. This idea that sanctification gives me a better morality, has some truth to it, but if we’re just trying to become more moral, more good in the human sense, then we’re just falling into legalism. It’s us trying to just adhere to a code, which the Bible teaches cannot bring us to God. And in our own power, we just make things filthy, because their tainted with our own self-centered desires. This leads into the third “not.”

Sanctification is not our own work. Ephesians 2:8-9  says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Piggy backing on the concept of filthy rags, we can’t do this by just working on it. We didn’t enter into salvation by our own works, we cannot hope to transform ourselves by works. If we do, we’ll fall into legalism, trying to fix ourselves in our own power. We can then project it on to others. That’s the kind of people Jesus doesn’t want. That type of earning the cleansing is what the Pharisees were getting people to do. No it’s God who does the cleansing, we get to be actively a part of it, but we cannot do it solo.

This fourth “not” is a big one, sanctification doesn’t happen at death. In John 10:10, we’re told by Jesus that, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” The sweet by-and-by is a great aspect of God’s work to look forward to, but in the sweet now-and-now, Jesus is actively working in this life. That’s life now, not just later. This life is given to us to be fully experienced with Jesus, and through Jesus, not just in a future time, but now.

  Fifth, sanctification is not self-perfection, Colossians 1:27-29 states, “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.” It’s Jesus’ work in us, not our own. We are to mature in this, but we do so through his powerful work. Am I just repeating myself at this point? We can’t do this on our own, this cleansing from sin is based on the connectedness we have with Jesus.

  Finally, sanctification is not based on emotion, First Corinthians 14:15 states, “What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.” Sanctification is based on our will being purposefully and intelligently given over to God. Does that mean our emotions won’t be apart of it? No, but it’s based on a cognitive and purposeful choice to say, “Not my will by Thine.”

  With the “nots” of sanctification understood, we can move on to the“is” side.

The first “is” of sanctification is that Sanctification is being separated from sin, Romans 6:11-14 reads, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” Sin loses it’s foothold in our lives through Jesus’ saving work on the cross and through the resurrection. Sin doesn’t control us who have been justified by Christ. Though we will always struggle with sin in this life, we are being moved further away from it’s control, and closer towards the control of God.

Second, sanctification is becoming more dedicated to God, First Corinthians 15:56-58 states, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” In the sanctification process, God’s work becomes more focused in our minds. “The things of this earth grow strangely dim,” because the focus moves away from earthly endeavors and onto heavenly ones. When God’s work becomes alive in us, it becomes more important to share the Gospel, than it is to stay silent about it.

Third, sanctification is being conformed to the Image of the Son. From Romans 8:29 we read, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” In the Basic Beliefs of Christianity course I teach in our apologetics class we cover the idea of the Image of the Son. In Greek, the idea of image is not a sketch, where the image kind of looks like original but is clearing seen as different. It’s also not a carbon copy of the original, as if it were a photo copy. No, the idea of image in the Greek, is a mirror image, very similar, but slightly different. It’s our uniqueness that God created us to be, melded with the characteristics of God himself. We are an individual, but fully connected to God.

  The final “is” of sanctification is, sanctification is love becoming more abound in our life, First Thessalonians 3:12-13 states, “and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” Jesus said the two greatest commands is love God and love people (Mk. 12:29-31). Paul echoes this idea with his statement that love is never ending (1 Cor. 13:13). God’s love explodes in our life. Not that sappy love kind of love, but a love that endures pain, anguish, and strife. Love that brought a perfect God to earth to die for his creation. But not just love, all of God’s characteristics that Paul talks about being the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), begin to show through us, because of our deeper connectedness to him.

This is sanctification, God’s cleansing us from all unrighteousness right in front of our eyes. It’s to be a daily process, where we rely more and more on the Holy Spirit, connecting ourselves more and more to the God who loves and saves us. In the Alliance, we call this the filling of the Holy Spirit, because over time, the Spirit’s already indwelling status takes more and more control. Each believer has the indwelling, but not all have an active filling. The sanctification process is the filling of the Spirit in our lives.

Since it’s a daily process, I want us to leave here today with some practical steps to engage this process purposefully. I had a mentor named, Bill Griffen, one time say it like this, “We are cookie dough ready to be transformed, but we need the heat of God to bake us.”

So how can we purposefully put ourselves in the fire? Well first, we need to accept God’s word over ours. We need to trust it even if we do not yet understand it. This is huge, because I no longer come to God’s word trying to get it to say certain things, but rather I allow it to say what God intended it to. That means that I need to dive deeper into it, and wrestle with what he says, and what I believe, and then I have to submit my way of thinking to his. It’s hard, because sometimes I don’t wasn’t to agree with God, but I’ve learned that he is right, and it ends up being more fruitful for my life when I submit to his word.

  Next, we need to spend intentional time in prayer. We need times of purposeful prayer, where we set time aside. Time like in the morning, or before we go to bed. But we also need to develop praying throughout the day, in a moment-by-moment long lasting conversation that doesn’t really end until we fall asleep. These types of moments can be in a car, in the shower, in the line at the post office. But we need to develop a strong prayer life, where we’re talking with our Father in heaven consistently throughout our day.

Finally, we’re all going to experience temptation, I want to encourage you to stand firm. Having a submission attitude to God’s word, and a strong prayer life will help us overcome the temptations of this world and grow from the experiences. However, if you fail to rely on God, do not turn away from him. Rather the key to dealing with temptation, whether we overcome or not, is to turn back to God. Remember, sanctification is the process of greater connection to God. Repentance and a continuous trust in the saving work of Christ, is a firm foundation on which to grow in that connection. So whether in the triumph or failure, we must remember that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” That means he’s already seen us at our worse, and loved us in it, so we have nothing to fear if we mess up, because our Father still loves us.

My challenge for you this week is to take these three purposeful steps in sanctification. Remember, we can’t do it on our own, it is the fire of Spirit of God that does it, so wake up with a prayer asking God to move in you to accomplish his work for that day, and that you will live by the Spirit’s strength instead of you’re own. By doing that, you can place yourself purposefully in the process, so that you may see the work of God in your life today.

Let us be the people of God who strive to have his cleansing work in us, not just in the future when we move into eternity, but today as we walk this mortal plain. Amen.

The Fourfold Gospel Week 1 - Christ Our Savior revamped February 2026

  Several years back a couple came to our church, and like a lot of people asked about what the Alliance is. I explained to them a little history, a little bit of the theology, and a little bit about what our particular ministry was here in Quartzsite. At the end of this, about a ten minute explanation, the woman responded with, “All that sounds good, we thought you were some sort of cult.” At the time I was taken aback by what she said, but now I think it’s funny.

I can see why she might have thought that. The Alliance denomination isn’t widely known. It has no where near the high profile of a Baptist, Methodist, or Calvary Chapel. And in the community we’re simply known as the Alliance Church.

So when people see our church signs, or ads, I can see them thinking, what type of weird cultist place is the Alliance? Well, every few years, I like to share a little about what the Alliance is. And to me the best way to understand what the Alliance is, is to focus in on a core teaching that is seen through our denomination’s logo, and is a bedrock for why we do the things we do.

So if you have your Bibles, we’re going to start in the book of Romans chapter 5 starting in verse 6. As we open to Romans 5:6, you need to know that the Alliance is short hand for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. It was found in the late 1800s by people who had a desire to bring the Gospel to the unsaved. There were two arms of the group: The Christian Alliance, a network of congregations in the US, and the Missionary Alliance, a missions board that was supported by the network to send missionaries over seas. The central founder was A.B. Simpson, a Canadian Presbyterian who moved to the states for health reasons, then to New York for a pastoral position, which he stepped down from to pursue the calling of sending missionaries across the world. 

Over the course of his life, he saw within the pages of Scriptures, what he would later call the four-fold Gospel. Not that the Gospel was only four things, but, as he states, “… there are four messages in the gospel which sum up in a very complex way the blessings which Christ has to offer us and which it is especially important that Christians should emphasize today.”

It is the first part of this four fold message of the Gospel that we begin within in Romans 5:6-8, let’s read it together. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

These words, “… while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” are the words that pierce my life. I remember myself as a young man in distress; I remember my pain and hurt; I remember the moment I accepted Jesus as my Savior, and the radical impact it had on me. And I praise God that while I was a sinner, Christ died for me.

My eighth grade teacher told my mom that what she saw in my future was prison. But her prophecy did not come true. Because when the teachers, and judges, and everyone else looked at me and said, that boy is just going to be a dredge of society, Christ saw me and loved me. He died on the cross 2,000 years before I was a speck, and though I was a sinner after the fact, his death broke through history and saved me. 

I was not abandoned by God in my time of need. Though I broke everything from his law, to my parent’s hearts, “while I was a sinner, Christ died for me.” Not because of anything I did, but because of his deep love. I, an imperfect sinner, was loved by the perfect God who came to earth, died on a cross and resurrected for me. And I didn’t have to become good, I didn’t have to fix my life, I didn’t have to look, or act, or smell, or think a certain way, Christ died for me even in my sin. Even when I didn’t think, or act, or speak right. Christ died for a sinner like me. And in my powerlessness, the work of Jesus on the cross brought me salvation. And I moved from death to life in a flash.

This is the first of the four fold message that A.B. Simpson saw in the Scriptures: Jesus is our Savior. This is the first step in our understanding of God. Jesus saved us, not because we deserved it, but because of his deep love for us. God’s saving work through the cross, speaks to the depth of his love, and the extremes he is willing to go to show us that love. Jesus as Savior brings us from death to life. It brings us from rebellion into right relationship. And it brings us from eternal self-absorption to eternal selfless worship. 

A.B. Simpson gave 8 things that Jesus saves us from. First, Jesus saves us from the guilt of sin. Romans 8:1 states, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So when the lies of the enemy tell us, “you messed up again you sinner,” we can exclaim, “Yes I messed up, but Jesus does not condemn me by his work on the cross!”

Second, Jesus saves us from the wrath of God. Romans 5:9 reads, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” God hates sin, and seeks to destroy it in every place it hides. But through Jesus’ work on the cross the wrath of God passes by, because sin has been and is being dealt with in our lives.

Third, Jesus saves us from the curse of the law. Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” Paul writes that through the law of Moses we recognize what sin is, and it’s by the law we are condemned to death because of our sin. But through Jesus’ work on the cross, the law’s judgment is broken because Jesus paid our penalty.

Fourth, Jesus saved us from our own evil conscience. First Peter 3:21 states, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ ….” We try to justify our sinful acts and thereby pervert our conscience into agreeing with our lies, but through Jesus’ work on the cross we are now clear of the lies and deception we need to create to make ourselves feel good.

Fifth, Jesus saves us from our own evil heart. In the book of Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9, it reads, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” God knows that our hearts are corrupt. Jesus even says that, “out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts (Mk. 7:21).” Through the work on the cross Jesus saves us from this corrupted heart.

Sixth, Jesus saves us from the fear of death. In First Corinthians 15:55-57 Paul stands defiantly and proclaims, “‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The fear of death should no longer constrain us, but rather we stand in front of it and proclaim Jesus’ work is greater than the grave.

The seventh thing that Jesus saves us from is Satan’s power. First John 3:8 states, “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The works of the enemy do not control us who have accepted Jesus as our Savior. And so we can stand on the work of the cross and proclaim, “I am a servant of only one master, and his name is Jesus!”

The final thing Jesus saves us from is certainly not least. Jesus saves us from eternal death. Jesus states in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” When we accepted Jesus as Savior, we moved from the road that leads to a place of eternal death and decay, onto the road where everything is new for eternity.

I’ve experience all of it. I am free from the shackles that I placed on myself, because of my rebellion. But while I was a sinner, Christ died for me and set me free from all the things that God never intended for my life. But that’s not all.

A.B. Simpson brings out that we are not just saved from something, but also to something. Jesus saved us to be justified in God’s sight. Romans 5:1 reads, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” God sees us through the lens of Jesus, and when God looks upon us, all he sees is the perfect work of the Son.

Jesus also saves us to experience the favor and love of God. The Psalmist, in Psalm 5:11-12, wrote, “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.” We who put our trust into Jesus can experience this love and favor because we gain Jesus’ righteousness.

Remember how Jesus saves us from a corrupted heart? Well, we are saved so that he may give us a new heart. God prophecies about this in Ezekiel 36:26, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Our heart can beat as it was supposed to, with the fruits that will be produced in us through Jesus’ work.

Jesus’ work also saves us to experience God’s grace to live every day. Paul talks about this kind of grace in Second Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” God’s grace is there so that we can do the work that he has saved us to be a part of. And that grace jumpstarts our new lives in Christ, and is leaned on every moment we live from that moment on.

Jesus’ work through the cross also brings us the help of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Paul talks about the giving of the Holy Spirit to us in Romans 5:5, “and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” We can live daily in the power of God, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. If Jesus, being fully God, relied on the Spirit as he walked this earth, how much more should we?

Jesus’ work also brings us God’s working out of all things for our good, In Romans 8:28, Paul tells us, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Even when we mess up, God can take those mess ups and turn them for good as we seek him in his purposes.

Next, Jesus’ work on the cross also brings the opening for more blessings to flow to us. Paul recognizes this in his prayer for the Church at Ephesus in Ephesians 3:14-21, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” We cannot even begin to understand the blessings God has for us through Jesus.

Finally, but not the least of these, we are saved to eternal life. The most beloved verse of the Bible, John 3:16 is memorized for a very important reason, for it states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” And that life, begins at the moment we accept Jesus as our Savior and moves into eternity. 

None of these things we deserve, but because of God’s deep love for us, he gives them freely.

Jesus as Savior is one message, of what A.B.Simpson called the FourFold Gospel. This approach to understanding the Gospel spurs the work of the Alliance ahead. The gratitude we as believers have, because of the depth of love shown through the cross, that, “… while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

This sinner, who from an early age was in rebellion, was given up on by almost everyone he came into contact with, but Christ died for such as he, and now I serve at the command of Christ. Not to earn my salvation, but in adoration of the God who has done so much for me. 

Too often in our lives we take for granted the depth of the work God has done for us to bring us to salvation. But God wants us to remember and understand the depth of work Christ did on our behalf by his work on the cross. And in understanding it, to rejoice in it. 

  Jesus spoke this parable and questioned his disciples in Luke 7:41-43, “‘A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?’ 43 Simon answered, ‘The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.’ And he said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’”

I now seek to understand the depth of my debt, so that I might understand the depth of the forgiveness my Savior brought to me. 

 

This week, my challenge is simple, seek God’s understanding of the depth of your debt to the Savior. Make a list with the words, “while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me” at the top. Then, after writing all that Jesus saved you from, write at the bottom, “while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me” and praise him for his work.

Let us be a people that seeks to know the depth of love that our Savior has for us. It is seeking to understand this depth that we join together as a family of believers to be called the Alliance. Amen.