- So open your Bibles to 2 John, please.
I'm going to read the following.
John writes,
2 John 9.
"Anyone who goes too far and does not abide
in the teaching of Christ, does not have God.
The one who abides in the teaching,
he has both the Father and the Son."
The most important discussion
that we can ever have with someone
is the discussion dealing with the issue of salvation.
How are you saved?
What must you do to be saved?
How are you to believe if you are saved?
It's a conversation you can have with anyone
because it relates to everyone.
Everyone has a soul,
everyone has an opportunity to be saved,
salvation is offered to everyone in the world.
And so having that discussion with anyone else
is the most important discussion that you can have.
Now, in our society,
there are a lot of different religious groups
that are promoting their various beliefs
and even within Christianity,
not all say the same thing when it comes to salvation.
Now, we can't speak for other religions
but as far as Christianity goes,
we have a clear and sure guide
in our understanding of this subject.
And that clear and sure guide is Jesus Christ Himself.
It begins with Him, and it ends with Him.
Unfortunately, not everyone says
the same thing about salvation.
And so in order to clarify this issue in our own minds
so that we can speak with one voice, one teaching,
let us consider what Jesus Himself teaches about salvation
using only His words spoken on the subject.
Because a lot of times discussion about salvation
and especially when it becomes a debate with someone,
people go to Romans and then they go to First Corinthians
and they go over here,
they jump all over the place, you know?
Which is fine, it's all inspired, it's all the Bible,
but I thought why not just narrow down
what Jesus Himself said, just that?
To see
what exactly does the Lord Himself,
who is the source of salvation,
what does the Lord say about this?
I believe that in this way, we can lay aside
what's traditional, what's popular, what's comfortable
and focus only on what Jesus actually said
about how someone is saved.
Hopefully, there'll be no argument after that.
And so Jesus, in order to be saved,
Jesus said that
one must come to Him for salvation,
John 10:9.
He said, "I am the door,
if anyone enters through me, he will be saved."
Pretty clear, isn't it?
"He will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture."
So the first thing that we see here
is Jesus Himself speaking.
And the first thing that one must do
is come to Christ Himself for his salvation.
No other person or thing can accomplish it.
A scripture that refers to this, what Jesus says, is Peter.
And Peter says, "And there is salvation in no one else,
for there is no other name under heaven
that has been given among men by which we must be saved."
And so what is Peter doing?
He's simply confirming what Jesus Himself said.
This is so because no one else in history has done
for man, in regards to salvation, what Christ has done.
You know, a lot of people have lived good lives,
a lot of men and women
have changed the course of their nations.
Many have started religions, written wise words,
but no one has dealt with the sin of the world
through an atoning and purifying death.
And no one has ever been resurrected from the dead
as a verification that what he taught and did
and promised was valid.
What better proof can you have
that what Jesus said was true than his resurrection?
I mean...
If you can resurrect somebody from the dead,
you can do anything else.
If you can resurrect somebody from the dead,
that means you can resurrect me from the dead,
so I'm ready to believe you.
In Matthew 10:32, Jesus said that we must confess his name.
And the point he is making is that in order to be saved,
we must acknowledge, first and foremost,
that only he can save us,
'cause if we've got other saviors,
well, he'd just be one of many.
But he said, "No, no, if you want to be saved,
you have to come through me."
Jesus also said
that faith is necessary
in order to be saved, Luke 8.
"Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.
Those beside the road are those who have heard;
then the devil comes
and takes away the word from their heart,
so that they will not believe and be saved."
So faith is necessary for salvation says who?
Well, says Jesus.
Once we've recognized the salvation is in Christ,
it is found only in Him,
then we must believe that what He says is true.
Not just the intellectual accent that His sayings
and His promises and work are valid and truthful,
but a faith that uses His word as a basis
for one's conduct and guarantee for personal salvation
from death and condemnation is just not that I believe
that Jesus was a good man or a good prophet,
even that Jesus performed miracles and so on and so forth.
No, no.
What I believe is that He accomplished my salvation,
that only He, that's what I...
The substance of what I believe.
That's very important.
A lot of people in the world believe Jesus was a good man,
even a prophet.
Muslims believe that.
But the substance of the faith that they have about Jesus
has no power to save them.
It's not just who we believe
but what do we believe about Him.
And Jesus said you need to believe
that I'm the one that saves you.
That's very important.
Jesus pays us, human beings,
the ultimate respect as human beings
by allowing us to express our free will
in regards to salvation
by making faith one of the conditions.
You need free will in order to believe.
You know, robots don't have free will.
The robots don't believe.
Dogs don't have free will
well, yeah, dogs can't be saved, either.
Neither can cats or whatever.
But human beings have free will.
And if they have free will,
it means they have the possibility of being saved.
God the Father planned our salvation.
Got the Holy Spirit prepared the way for our salvation
and God the Son accomplished it on the cross
but divinity leaves room for our faith
in order to complete it.
It isn't much to say yes
to the eternal God,
but without that yes, the plan, the preparation
and the redemptive work of Christ is all for not.
Because in order to be saved, Jesus says
that we first must believe.
We need to say yes to God.
We need to say yes to Jesus.
I do believe, yes.
Jesus also said
that repentance was necessary for salvation.
Luke 9, "When Jesus came to the place, He looked up
and said to him, 'Zaccheus, hurry and come down,
for today I must stay at your house.'
And he he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.
When they saw it, they all began to grumble,
saying, 'He has gone to be the guest
of a man who is a sinner.'
Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, 'Behold, Lord,
half of my possessions I will give to the poor,
and if I have defrauded anyone of anything,
I will give back four times as much.'"
Listen to what Jesus said.
"And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come
to this house because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save
that which was lost.'"
Now, here the story doesn't mention the word repentance,
but it describes the attitude of sincere repentance.
Repentance is not just sorrow for the...
A lot of people are sorry for their past.
A lot of people grieve over their past.
Silly things they've done,
bad things they've done,
shameful things they've done.
A lot of people like that.
The psychiatrists office are filled with people
who have regret for their past,
but that's not repentance.
Repentance is not just sorrow for past sins,
but a change of attitude about sin in general.
In repentance, we go from being lovers of self,
lovers of sin and the things of this world
to becoming lovers of God,
loves of righteousness and lovers of heaven
and the promises that God will give us.
Lovers of righteousness
and lovers of those who are lost in this world.
That's what repentance is.
Jesus sums up the attitude in Mark 8 when he says,
"And He summoned the crowd with His disciples,
and said to them, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake
and the gospel's will save it.'"
There's salvation he's talking about.
Repentance isn't negotiating or bargaining with God
about how much sin that you can keep in your life
and still be saved.
I've had Bible studies with people who've actually
kind of, you know, begin horsetrading with me
about, you know...
Well, how about if I don't give this up right away,
can I still be baptized tonight?
That's the wrong attitude.
Wrong attitude.
Repentance is the process where there's
a total transformation of the direction and attitude
and function of ourselves as believers.
Although it is painful, repentance is the joyful
experience of seeing our old lives slip away
as we desire more and more to know and do and be
only what Christ wants us to know and be and become.
You know, a person can talk about Jesus and his faith
but unless his actions and big and little things
demonstrate a real change,
what is claimed as faith is nothing more than false piety.
I mean, Jesus, what did He say?
"I tell you, no, but unless you repent,
you will all likewise perish."
Jesus said this.
I know that Peter said it, too
you know, Acts 2.
Repent, you know, let each of you be baptized.
Peter said it but Jesus said it first.
Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Someone says, "Well, we're not sure
if we need to repent or not."
Just take a look at what Jesus is saying.
He says absolutely you need to repent.
Jesus also said you need to be baptized
in order to be saved.
Simple verse, Mark 16:16.
"He who has believed," there is the thing
that he mentioned before,
"And has been baptized shall be saved;
but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."
So the first step in denying self is to burry self
in the waters of baptism.
Baptism is necessary in order to be saved
for many, many reasons.
Is necessary in order to be saved
because at baptism our sins are forgiven,
Acts 2:38.
At baptism we receive the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:38.
At baptism we're added to the Church, Acts 2:47.
At baptism we put on Christ, Gal. 3:26.
At baptism we are saved, literally saved, I Peter 3:21.
You know, I get lots of mail and lots of comments
on the Bible talk, website,
you know, stuff coming in all the time
and there's still people out there,
they say, "Where does it"
[laughs]
It's like playing tee-ball sometimes, you know?
Somebody will say, "Where does it say in the Bible
that you need to be baptized?
Where does it say in the Bible
that baptism is part of the process of salvation?"
And I want to...
I don't, I want to be polite,
but I want to answer, "Are you kidding me?
I don't even know where to start to answer this question,
there are so many references to this particular thing
in the New Testament."
Simple logic dictates that in order to be saved
one must be forgiven, right?
Because who are the saved?
Well, they're the forgiven.
Logic dictates that those who have the Holy Spirit
well, they must be the saved because certainly
the unsaved don't have the Holy Spirit.
You get the point?
The unsaved are not members of the Church,
the unsaved are not in Christ,
the unsaved don't put on Christ,
the unsaved don't have a clear conscience before God.
And if all these things are connected to baptism,
as the Bible teaches,
then baptism is therefore necessary for salvation
because without it these things do not occur
and without these things you cannot be saved.
The foremost reason why baptism is necessary for salvation
is because Jesus commands it.
And he commands it in connection with personal salvation.
He doesn't say it's an outward sign.
You know, these people say,
"Well, that's just an outward sign of something
that has taken place in the past."
And I always ask them, "Okay, where does it say that
in the New..."
I know where it says that in your Bible study booklet,
at your particular church,
all I want you to do is show me where it says that
in the New Testament, just show it to me."
No one ever shows it to me.
Why? Because it's not there.
Some people says, "Well, it's just a ceremony.
You know, you can do it or not,
it doesn't make any difference."
Really?
Then why does Jesus command it?
I mean, simple grammar.
Mark 16:16, that's an imperative sentence,
if you school teachers and those of you
who remember some of your grammar there,
what's an imperative sentence?
You must do this.
Please sit down and be quiet.
What is that?
That's a command.
The teacher said, "Come, please sit down and be quiet."
that's a command, imperative sentence.
Repand and be baptized, that's an imperative sentence,
a command.
So Jesus himself doesn't say it's an outward sign
or it's just a ceremony or it's unimportant,
it's an unimportant ritual.
Jesus connects baptism with salvation, not us.
Some people say, "Oh, that's a church of Christ doctrine."
Really?
[laughs]
Seems to me they were teaching it back in the 1st century.
Yes, we are saved by faith, of course we are,
but that faith must be expressed by our will
and Jesus says that this expression of our will
of our faith is accomplished by repentance and baptism.
Jesus is the one who draws this line, not the Church.
It's not Church of Christ theologians that have figured out
that there's a connection between baptism and salvation,
it's the New Testament that very clearly and openly
shows us that time after time after time.
Jesus also said that in order to be saved,
you must endure to the end.
Faithful to the end.
Again, I read Matthew 10.
"Brother will betray,"
here is speaking to his apostles, he says,
"Brother will betray brother to death,
and a father his child; and children will rise up
against parents and cause them to be put to death.
You will be hated by all because of My name,
but it is the one who has endured to the end
who will be saved."
That's Jesus talking there.
"It's the one that endures to the end who will be saved."
In this passage, Jesus is teaching his disciples
about two cataclysmic events in the context of this passage.
One, the destruction of Jerusalem,
which would happen in their lifetimes.
And the second, his coming which would happen at any time.
But would happen at the end of the world.
The message for both events was similar, however,
"Only those who are faithful to the end would be saved."
In these passages, he tried to prepare them
by telling them some of the things
they may have to suffer and endure.
He said, "If you're my disciples,
you may endure family division or persecution
and violence and suffering.
You may have to put up with false teachers and hypocrites
in the church, social environmental unrest,
unfaithfulness and lack of love by many in the church.
You will have to suffer many, if not all of these things,"
he says.
And then he finished by saying what?
"Despite all of these things that you may suffer,
some or all of these things,
only the ones who endure until the end
will be saved."
It's amazing to me when I see people who abandon the church
and they abandon the church because
[sighs]
somebody forgot to put their name
in the bulletin on their birthday.
Or someone offended them in some...
And it could be some very real way,
some brother, sister said something which was unkind,
or did something that was really not nice, you know?
Just offensive and hurtful and because of that
"I'm done, I'm out of here!"
Really?
This is your excuse?
This is what you're going to bring to the Lord
on Judgment Day?
Well, you know, my birthday is important to me.
Really?
You haven't read this passage here where Jesus said
you might be tortured, offended, killed, raped,
they may burn down your house,
they can do all these things.
And through all of this, if you remain faithful to the end
you will be saved.
Tell me again now your reason
for having abandoned the church?
For having abandoned the faith?
Tell me once again why you quit?
His point to them and to us is that these things
are not to be used as valid excuses
for falling away, as many do,
thinking that God will ignore their unfaithfulness
because they had a good excuse.
Brothers and sister, these things have always been
and always will be obstacles to us that we must overcome
in order to reach the end.
You see, in the Christian race only those who finish
faithfully are saved.
You don't have to be running fast,
you don't have to be a Christian superstar.
You don't have to get everything absolutely right,
never make any mistakes.
But you do have to finish.
Bloodied and bowed and broken and scarred
and hurt and tired and fed up and offended,
that's okay.
But we need to finish.
I include myself in this group.
So why this sermon?
I believe that most of us heard the things
that I've just said here today probably many times.
But I wanted to make sure of three things.
Number one, that everyone is absolutely convinced
about what Jesus Himself says concerning salvation
for their own souls and for the souls of others
that they may speak to.
Be absolutely sure of the things that I've said,
not because Mike Mazzalongo has spoken them
but because Mike Mazzalongo has pointed you
to the New Testament
where Jesus has said these things.
Number two, to make sure that this congregation
and all others who visit with us know
what our basic teaching is on this basic question
so there be no misunderstanding of our doctrine,
what do we teach here at the the Choctaw Church of Christ.
This is what we teach in the Choctaw Church of Christ.
And then thirdly,
as a way of challenging those here tonight
to examine themselves and see if they have been saved,
and if not, do something about it.
This morning many of you left.
Well, almost everyone was gone
when Linda Ziegler, our sister in the Lord,
the wife of Dan Ziegler,
who had been talking to myself and Marty
for a little while about this topic,
decided to be baptized.
She had examined her faith and her life,
yeah, she did believe in Jesus
and he was the Son of God
but she looked back on her time and said,
"You know, I remember clearly when I was baptized,
it was just 'cause, you know, my mother-in-law
said, 'You ought to do that
if you want to fit in.'"
[laughs]
She wanted to fit in so she did that.
And as she heard the gospel over and over again,
preached by many different people,
it dawned on her that, "You know what?
I, in no way, was thinking of my sins being forgiven
or receiving the Holy Spirit or obeying...
None of those ideas were in my mind when I was baptized."
And she understood, if you doubt, then remove the doubt.
Be baptized in the right way for the right biblical reason.
And there are many biblical reasons to be baptized.
To obey Christ, to wash away sin,
to receive the gift of the Spirit, to put on Christ, to...
The Bible explains salvation in a variety of ways.
Any one of those ways is fine.
If you're baptized in order to obey Christ
but you don't quite understand yet that at baptism
you will receive the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, it's okay.
Because if you're baptized for a correct biblical reason,
one of them and you receive all of the gifts at baptism.
That was my experience.
I read Mark 16:16 as a young man and I said,
"You know, I didn't do that, I did not obey Christ
in the way that the Bible says that I should."
And so I was baptized, I was immersed the correct way
for a correct Bible reason, to obey Jesus in this matter,
Mark 16:16.
And then months later, I was reading in Acts
and I noticed wait a minute, it says here
that when you're baptized you receive the Holy Spirit
and I went to the one who had taught me and said,
"Do I need to be re-baptized, you know, to get Spirit?"
He said, "Well, no, because you're going to be baptized
a lot of times in your life."
[laughs]
'Cause a lot of things happen at baptism.
And that's good for you,
you're discovering all the wonderful things
that God gives to the one that obeys him in this thing.
And as you discover them, you realize you received
all of those gifts.
But if you were baptized 'cause it was your birthday,
okay, that's not a biblical reason.
I tell people, "Just be safe in your mind
and your conscience and in your heart."
Be immersed because immersion is the way to be baptized
and do it for a reason that's in the New Testament,
you'd be good to go.
Belief in Christ and confession of his name,
if you haven't done it.
Repentance of your sins, if you haven't done it.
Be immersed, if you weren't immersed
and be faithful or return to being faithful,
if you were not.
And finally, I'll add just one last reason for this
here before we close and that's encouragement.
Encouragement.
This lesson is to encourage anyone here tonight
to ask for prayer, certainly,
if they need the help of the church to identify,
of course, with this congregation,
as one member did this morning.
And to extent the hand of fellowship to anyone
who wishes to do so.
If you have any of these needs
or if you think you may have the need to be baptized,
you don't have to make a big, dramatic thing
and speak to anyone of the elders, speak to anyone here.
Speak to myself or Marty or Mike
and we'll be happy to sit down, listen,
share, study with you, look at the important passages
that deal specifically with what you're thinking about
to make sure that your salvation is secure.
Marty was talking about having security,
feeling sure about our salvation,
great lesson this morning, great sermon.
And tonight I'm giving you the building blocks
to make sure that you feel that security.
Every time that I felt insecure about my salvation,
"Am I really saved? Oh boy, I messed up," and this and that,
or somebody smarter, way smarter than me came along
and kind of broke down some of my arguments
so I had to think back, "You know, am I really saved?"
And then I would think back to November 1977 and say,
"Wait a minute, I remember November '77, I confessed
that I did believe that Jesus was the Son of God."
And then Jim Medder, that was his name immersed me
in the water and I came up,
so yes, I'm still good to go,
I'll never have to do that ever again.
So if you have any needs in those areas,
we encourage you to come forward now,
as brother John leads us in our song of encouragement.
Shall we stand, please?