A. I want to start with a true story: Jorge Rodriquez was new to our country and did not speak English.
1. He had no lawyer the day he appeared in court for hitting a parked car while driving drunk.
2. He went before the judge with what he thought was his “trump card.”
3. Rodriquez approached the bench and handed the judge a “Get Out of Jail Free” card from the game of Monopoly.
4. He had believed someone who had told him that this card was all he needed – He was wrong.
B. I wonder if the scene on Judgement Day is not going to be all that different.
1. I picture many people approaching God’s judgment seat that day thinking they have their spiritual matters in order.
2. How sad it will be when they discover that what they had put their hope in was false.
3. Maybe they had trusted in their own goodness.
4. Maybe they had trusted in the promises of some religious leader.
5. Or maybe they thought there would be some kind of second chance, or that they could work out some kind of deal with God.
6. But, just like Jorge Rodriquez, there will be many on the day of Judgement who will not be able to escape punishment.
C. Please understand that I’m not just making this up, nor am I just trying to scare anyone today.
1. Jesus himself warned us about these things in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7.
2. In verse 21 and following he said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers!’ ”
3. I certainly don’t want to be among those who will be surprised in that way on that day, and I don’t want that for anyone else.
4. So, how can we know if we are prepared?
a. How can we know if we have done the will of the Father who is in heaven?
b. How can we be sure that we are saved and will go to heaven?
5. The answer to these questions is found in God’s Word.
D. Before we look into God’s Word, I want you to consider this illustration.
1. Who is your legal child?
a. Can anyone be your legal child by just saying so? No, obviously not.
b. A person has to either be your biological child to be your legal child, or they have to go through the legal process of adoption.
2. Similarly, who is a citizen of the United States of America?
a. Can a person be a citizen of the United States of America just by saying so?
b. No, a person can only be a legal citizen of the United States of America by doing what U.S. law says they must do to become an American citizen.
3. The same thing is true about becoming a child of God or being granted heavenly citizenship.
a. No one can just be a child of God or a citizen of heaven by saying so.
b. God is the spiritual lawmaker, and He is the only one who determines how a person can become adopted as His child or become a citizen of His heavenly kingdom.
E. Look with me at Romans 1:16 and 17. Let’s see what Paul has to say here about salvation :“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ ”
1. So what do we learn from this passage?
2. We learn that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed.
3. And we learn that for the gospel to be saving someone and to be imparting this righteousness from God, that person must believe.
4. Also, we notice that the belief must be more than just something in a person’s head, it must be the description of their life. The righteous will live by faith.
5. So, we can conclude that if anyone is going to be saved it is because of the gospel and one’s faithfulness to the gospel. Would you agree with me about that?
F. But what is this gospel that is the power of God for salvation? Let’s look now at 1 Corinthians 15.
1. Look at verses 1-2: “Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you have received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.”
a. We immediately note that Paul is again stressing the gospel.
b. He had preached the gospel to them and they had received the gospel and had taken their stand on it.
c. He reminds them that they are saved by the gospel, if and only if they hold firmly to the word he preached to them. What had he preached to them? The gospel.
2. But what is the gospel that he preached, that saves, that they have received, and on which they had taken their stand?
a. Look at verses 3 and 4, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…”
b. What is the gospel that Paul was reminding them of? It is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
c. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is what saves – it is the gospel, the good news.
3. Romans 3:22-25 makes this clear, “this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”
a. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection brought about our redemption.
b. Through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement - Jesus’ blood atones for our sins – that’s the good news – the gospel.
c. Again, in these verses, we notice how important faith is in the salvation process.
4. Look at what Paul says that the gospel has accomplished for us in 2 Timothy 1:10 and 11: “but it (God’s grace) has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
a. Through the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, we can have life and immortality (eternal life).
b. Through the gospel Jesus has dealt with our sin problem and our death problem.
G. Now that we know what the gospel is and that it is God’s power for salvation, then comes this important question: How do I know if I am saved by this gospel?
1. Let’s look now at Romans 6:17-18: “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
a. Speaking to the Romans, who are Christians, Paul reminded them that at one time, before they were Christians, they were slaves of sin, and separated from God and salvation.
b. But then they changed - they made a transition.
c. They were set free from sin and became slaves to righteousness.
d. And just how did they make that transition?
e. Paul says that they wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which they were committed.
f. Therefore, we must conclude that the gospel is something that must be believed and obeyed wholeheartedly.
2. Now look with me at 2 Thess. 1:8, “He (God) will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
a. We notice from this passage that God will punish (in other words, not save) some people because of two things that they did not do that go hand in hand.
b. The first of the two things that go hand in hand has to do with faith - to be saved a person must know God (and as they know God, but must believe in God to be saved).
1. God can be known and found by those who seek Him – that is God’s promise.
c. The second reason some people will be saved and others not, has to do with obeying the gospel – the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and the salvation that comes through it, but how is it something that must be obeyed?
d. As we saw a moment ago in Romans 6, Paul pointed out that they were people who believed (wholeheartedly) what they were taught, and then they obeyed the form of teaching they were given.
e. In other words, they believed and obeyed the gospel.
f. What is this form of teaching that they obeyed? How does a person obey the gospel?
3. Let’s look at the context. Look in the same chapter (Romans 6), just a few verses earlier.
a. Starting with verse 1, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
b. So we see that it is in baptism that a person is united with Christ in his death, in his burial, and in his resurrection.
c. In baptism, a person’s goes through the same experience that Jesus had – the person dies, is buried under the water, and then raises out of the water to live a new life.
d. Therefore, a person believes and obeys the gospel by being immersed in the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
4. Paul said it this way in Galatians 3:26-27, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
a. Paul is saying that we put on Christ’s righteous covering at our baptism.
5. How can a person be saved if they are not closed with Christ’s righteousness? And how can they be saved if they do not obey the gospel? They simply cannot be.
6. Peter lamented this fact in 1 Peter 4:17 when he wrote: For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
H. It is always so important to keep in mind that our salvation and our redemption from sin is totally God’s work.
1. It is a gift of His grace given through the saving work of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.
2. But the gift of God’s grace through Jesus must be received or accredited to a person in accordance with God’s way.
3. How is the gift of God brought into a person’s life? It happens when we obey the Gospel.
I. Let’s watch how people became Christians at the beginning of the church in the book of Acts.
1. Let’s notice what people were told to do and what they did to obey the gospel, becoming followers of Jesus.
2. On the first day that the gospel was preached by Peter in Acts 2, when the people asked what they had to do to be saved, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:38)
a. Then verse 41 says: “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
3. Then in Acts 8:12-13, we read: “But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news (gospel) of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon himself believed and was baptized.”
4. Then later in that same chapter, Philip shared the gospel with the Ethiopian eunuch, who when he spotted some water, said, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” And then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. (Acts 8:35-38)
5. Then in Acts 16 we read about how Lydia and the members of her household were baptized after Paul shared the good news with them (Acts 16:14-15).
6. In the same chapter, Paul and Silas ended up in a Philippian jail, and after God shook the prison, the jailer brought Paul to his house where Paul preached the gospel and then immediately, in the middle of the night, the jailer and all his family were baptized (Acts 16:32-33).
7. Then in Acts 18:8, we read: “Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.”
8. Let me give one final example from the book of Acts: After Saul of Tarsus had encountered the risen Christ, which left him blind, he was led to the city of Damascus, where he fasted and prayed for three days, then he was told, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” (Acts 22:16)
a. Do you think Saul believed in Jesus during those three days of fasting and prayer?
b. Do you think Saul repented during those three days of fasting and prayer?
c. Then why did he still need for his sins to be washed away in his baptism?
J. I know that the question of how to become a Christian can be confusing, because there are a number of New Testament passages that talk about being saved and talk about a several different things linked with being saved.
1. There are passages that only talk about the importance of having faith.
a. In John 3:16, Jesus said: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
b. In John 6:47, Jesus said: “I am telling you the truth: he who believes has eternal life.”
c. 1 John 5:13 says: I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
2. From those passages, it sounds like that all a person needs to do is believe to be saved.
a. And if those were the only passages in the Bible, then that is what we could conclude.
b. But there are many other passages that include other things also linked with being saved.
c. Faith is certainly primary and necessary, and without faith nothing else would matter, but there is more.
d. James 2:19 tells us that even the demons believe, but their faith doesn’t save them.
e. James 2:17 tells us that faith without deeds is dead.
3. We also see passages that teach that faith and confession lead to salvation.
a. Romans 10:9-10 says: because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
b. Again I say, if that was the only verses we had in the Bible, then that is all that we would need to understand and do, but there is more.
4. The New Testament also stresses the importance of repentance for salvation.
a. Peter speaks of the importance of repentance in Acts 3:19: “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”
b. Paul speaks of the importance of repentance in Acts 17:30-31: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
c. If those were the only verses we had, then that is all we would need to do to be saved, but there is more.
5. Finally, of course, we have verses that stress the importance of baptism in being saved, some of the verses stand alone, and some are linked to the three other things linked to being saved.
a. In the Great Commission, Jesus said: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Mt. 28:19-20)
b. Do you notice that baptizing is the only thing mentioned there in making disciples?
c. But we would never conclude that faith, repentance and confession were not to be included
d. 1 Peter 3:21 says: Baptism, which corresponds to this (the 8 people saved by water in Noah’s ark), 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.
e. Jesus said: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16)
f. Peter said, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:38)
K. So, rather than choosing just one, whether it be faith, or repentance or baptism, I believe that we must incorporate them all into the moment of salvation, when we cross from death to life.
1. Our faith and repentance and confession culminate in that moment when we are baptized and become clothed with Christ (Gal. 3:27).
2. When our faith and repentance lead to our baptism, that is the moment when our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16) and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37).
L. Someone might ask me the question: What would you say to people hearing you today who were not baptized by immersion, but who had water sprinkled or poured on their heads as infants? (That was my experience as a child in the Methodist church)
1. I would encourage you to be thankful that your parents cared enough about you to do what they understood should be done to pledge you to Christ.
2. But now I would persuade you to understand and obey the command of Christ that says, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mk 16:15,16)
3. The NT knows of no one who was baptized who did not believe, or could not make that confession, and would not repent prior to their baptism – these things are impossible for an infant to do.
4. And the NT knows of no other baptism than immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins.
5. The Greek word baptizo is actually not translated in our English translations, but is transliterated as “baptism” – a proper translation of baptizo is “to dip, plunge, or immerse.”
6. When I learned these truths in my teen years, I confessed my faith and was immersed in the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of my sins.
M. As you know, many churches today teach that a person becomes a Christian by receiving Christ simply by saying a prayer (sometimes called the sinner’s prayer).
1. In one evangelistic tract promoting this method of receiving Christ, the person wrote, “Prayer is a great way to express your faith.”
2. But when a person’s salvation is in question, our ideas don’t amount to much.
3. We need not speculate about the best way to express our faith, we need only to obey God.
4. Did you notice in all the examples we looked at earlier of people becoming Christians in the book of Acts that not one of them was told to receive Christ by saying the sinner’s prayer?
5. Baptism, by immersion in water, is the Biblically approved way of expressing our faith and receiving salvation.
6. That’s what Peter was communicating when he wrote, “and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also - not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21).
8. Peter would argue that it is in baptism that we are saved as we make a profession of faith, and a pledge of good conscience toward God.
N. I think you will agree with me that this is a very important subject that we are discussing today.
1. If we don’t believe and teach what is the truth, and if we don’t practice the truth, then how can we expect that God will accept us on the judgment day?
2. Now if we don’t believe or practice the truth, God might judge that we were sincerely mistaken and offer us His grace, but on the other hand, he may view our false teaching as disobedience.
3. In God’s position as the sovereign judge of all, He has the right to extend His grace and mercy to whomever He chooses, but we are in dangerous territory if we disregard God’s stated will and presume upon His grace.
4. Our job is to simply obey His commands – none of us has the right to change God’s commands or to encourage others to disregard or disobey them.
5. God is the sovereign commander, and we are only His servants sent to share His commands and carry them out.
6. Jesus promised, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” (Jn. 8:31)
O. The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16).
1. The Bible says that God desires that everyone be saved.
2. Paul wrote: This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:3-4)
3. Peter wrote: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (2 Pet. 3:9)
4. And Paul wrote: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)
P. I want to end this sermon with the question of the Hebrew writer: “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? (Heb. 2:3)
1. What are we putting our trust in for eternal salvation?
2. Let’s be sure we don’t put our trust in some pretend “get out of hell free card.”
3. Rather, let’s put your trust in Jesus and obey the Gospel of Jesus.
4. If you believe today, but haven’t yet obeyed the gospel, won’t you obey the gospel today?
5. Jesus said, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mk. 16:16)
6. Peter said, “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” (Acts 2:38)
7. Won’t you arise and be baptized and wash your sins away? (Acts. 22:16)
8. These are the commands of God that are involved in obeying the gospel to be saved.
9. Let’s trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
