- 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? 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?
