WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: FIVE MARKS WE BEAR
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
TEXT VERSE: GALATIANS 6:17 “FROM HENCEFORTH LET NO MAN TROUBLE ME: FOR I BEAR IN MY BODY THE MARKS OF THE LORD JESUS.”
I’ve heard preacher talk about the mark of the beast and the mark of the devil but praise God, I’m glad I’ve got the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body. You may not know where we’re going with this but it’s some interesting scripture. Follow along close with me because God’s got a blessing for you.
PHILIPPIANS 1:29 “FOR UNTO YOU IT IS GIVEN IN THE BEHALF OF CHRIST, NOT ONLY TO BELIEVE ON HIM, BUT ALSO TO SUFFER FOR HIS SAKE.”
Not only are we supposed to believe on Him but we’re also supposed to suffer for His sake. Did you catch that? We’re SUPPOSED to suffer for His sake. Don’t you think he suffered for us? Don’t you think he suffered for us when He went to the Cross of Calvary? He gave up everything He had down here and they took the sins of the whole world and placed them on His shoulders. He carried my sins and your sins and he carried them all the way to the cross. From the time He was born and went to Calvary’s hill, He suffered for us. And because we believe in Him, we’re supposed to suffer for His sake. There’s a lot of Christians in the world today that when they start suffering they want to quit. They want to give up. You get saved by the grace of God and there ain’t no going back. We’re supposed to suffer because He suffered. Paul considered that suffering herein verse 17 and he referred to it as being troubled by other men. That’s the kind of suffering he was talking about. He wasn’t talking about Christians disagreeing with each other. He wasn’t talking about one Christian having more knowledge than the other. If you’re a child of God you’re not supposed to get mad or flare up. We’re not supposed to talk about one another. We’re supposed to be new creatures in Christ and live separate than the world. I believe he was talking about the lost people. The world does not like Christians. He was in trouble but he said let no man trouble me for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
I want to share these verses about trouble. PSALMS 138:7 “THOU I WALK IN THE MIDST OF TROUBLE, THOU WILT REVIVE ME.” When we walk in the middle of trouble, God is always there that He might revive us and that we might rejoice in Him. He said in His word that he would never leave us nor forsake us and I believe He means what He says.
In 2 CORINTHIANS 4:8 “WE ARE TROUBLED ON EVERY SIDE, YET NOT DISTRESSED.”
If you let the sufferings of Christ in your body turn into a curse for you, your not looking at it the right way. Paul said we’re troubled on every side, but we’re not distressed about it. Isn’t that what he meant? We’re not supposed to take our sufferings that we’re doing for Christ and feel bad. Paul said when I am weak, then am I strong. You know what gets more Christians out of Church? Trying to bear the marks of the Lord Jesus. It wasn’t a good thing when they took Christ to the Cross. He suffered. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me. He gave His life for me and I praise Him for it. I want to share with you five marks.
NUMBER ONE: The mark of PERSECUTION.
JOHN 15:20 Jesus said: “IF THEY HAVE PERSECUTED ME, THEY WILL ALSO PERSECUTE YOU.”
God is getting us ready for the new year to reach out to the lost and dying world. Whether you know it or not you’ve been growing this past year in the Lord Jesus. If you ain’t, God will take you out of here and put you somewhere where you can grow. I’m gonna say this, you want to go to a church somewhere where you can get some good Biblical sound doctrine of the word of God, then go to Westside Baptist Church and you’ll get it.
Persecution means to drive away. Isn’t that what they did to Jesus? Even His own family drive Him away and rejected Him. He said in JOHN 1 that He came unto His own and His own received Him not. But as many as did, gave He eternal life. There was people who drove Jesus away...they didn’t want any part of Him and they don’t want any part of us. A lot of Christians don’t know how to take persecution. You think because you’re a Christian that everybody is supposed to love you? I have news for you, everybody don’t love you. We’re going to get around people that will mock us and spit at us. There’s Christians overseas right now being put to death because they stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ. We have it real good in America. It’s not as good as it used to be. It’s getting worse. At least we can carry our Bible to church and worship freely. That’s one of the marks we bear in our body. Their persecuted. You start out witnessing to people in your community and you’re not going to win everyone over to Christ. If you witness to a thousand and only one receives Christ just throw up your hands and praise God! The bible says if they turn you away, just shake the dust off your feet. Their blood is no longer on your hands. Paul said I planted, Apollos watered but it’s God who gave the increase. He’s the only one who can.
NUMBER TWO: The mark of HATRED..
This comes from the ones that don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in His son, they don’t believe in Church.
MATTHEW 10:22 “AND YE SHALL BE HATED OF ALL MEN FOR MY NAMES SAKE...”
I looked up the word hatred and it said , unjustifiable feelings towards another. There’s no way anybody can justify why they hate somebody. I don’t care what they’ve done to you. Why do you think Christians are so special? Jesus said love your enemies and pray for them that spitefully use you. He can’t tell that to a lost and dying world; there the ones doing it. He can only speak to His children. Your going to knock on some doors sometime and wish you hadn’t. The devil uses that as a tool. The first thing he’ll say to you is that witnessing is too hard. Don’t you go next door because they’ll be worse. And all of a sudden they’ve quit on God. Listen, if you didn’t win that one then go to another one. That next one might be that last soul the Lord wants to save before he comes to claim His children home. Just keep on witnessing for God.
NUMBER THREE: The mark of BEING KILLED
I’m breaking this apart from death. There were many times in the Bible where they tried to stop Jesus from being born. The world is doing the same thing by trying to spiritually killing us and keeping us away from their sons and their daughters so they won’t get saved. You ever let the world make you feel like they’ve killed you spiritually and you’ll quit on God.
ROMANS 8:36 “FOR THY SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL THE DAY LONG...”
Now if it was talking about death it wouldn’t be all the day long. Their trying to bring us down. They’ve taken prayer out of schools and the ten commandments off the walls of the court house. If they had their way they’d take our Bibles and burn them. But it’s not their way that matters. It’s God’s way. Don’t you let this old world bring you down. This world is going to come to a close one day and you better be prepared.
NUMBER FOUR: The mark of REPROACH.
1 PETER 4:14 “IF YE BE REPROACHED FOR THE NAME OF CHRIST, HAPPY ARE YE.”
The word reproach means to defame somebody, to disgrace somebody or to dishonor somebody. If you wanted to go set up a Bible tent meeting in a parking lot they’d turn you away but get a bunch of homosexuals protesting their gay rights and they’d have the run of the parking lot. We’re living in a bad place. You may not like the way the world is but we’re not a part of this world. So if this world doesn’t make you happy then you’re heading in the right direction.
NUMBER FIVE: The mark of DEATH.
What’s the last thing Jesus went through before He left this world? They took him over there to Pilot and Pilot said I find no fault in this man. So Pilot turned him over and they crucified Jesus. They killed them. But over in the new testament Jesus said: No man take my life from me, I lay it down myself. Then He said this commandment was given to me of my Father. Don’t you think He could have gotten out of it had He wanted to? He went to it for you and me.
Death...Here’s what it means: termination. Termination of life. It don’t mean termination of the soul. They nailed Jesus to that cross. We didn’t have to go there. We were not even born when He died for our sins. But thank God GALATIANS 2:20 says “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
those are the five marks that were given to me. That’s all that I could find. They all happened to Jesus and just about in that order. I want to back up to the word Kill and say that kill means, termination of life. The world wants to kill us. They want us to be deprived of what Christ offers us. I don’t want what they have.
These two versus and we’ll close.
1 PETER 3:14 “BUT AND IF YE SUFFER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS‘ SAKE HAPPY ARE YE.”.”
ROMANS 8:18 “ FOR I RECKON THAT THE SUFFERINGS OF THIS PRESENT TIME ARE NOT WORTHY TO BE COMPARED WITH THE GLORY WHICH SHALL BE REVEALED IN US.”
He said the sufferings of this time don’t even compare to the glory which shall be revealed in us one day after awhile. Paul said I will let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
If you’re here tonight and you’re saying, “I just don’t understand why I’m going through this, it seems like the world has everything and I have nothing, you ought to praise God. You look out in the world and see them doing all kinds of things and you think you can’t do anything, you ought to praise God. They look for their happiness and joys in this life and we look for it in the next life. I’m looking forward to it. We’re not on the majority side...we’re on the minority side. Don’t you let the world slip you out of God’s will. Stand firm on the word of God and don’t let nobody trouble you. There’s more saved Christians out of the house of God than there has ever been. When I went to church as a boy you could hardly find an empty pew to sit on. What happened? If they really got saved and they started bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus, they let the devil get in. You may not care that your family members are lost or backslid. But I care. We need to care about peoples soul and not about what kind of car their driving or what kind of clothes their wearing, or about where they’ve been or what color their skin is. You get a burden in your heart for their souls and you’ll be a good soul winner. It makes me sick to have church members come up to me with ideas to do this and that and it have nothing to do with winning souls over to Christ. it’s pitiful. If you’re more concerned about why the church spent “x” amount of dollars on something and not worried about people dying and going to Hell then you’re in bad shape. I thank God for the opportunity to stand tonight. May God Bless you.
