If someone were to ask you what the most important question is, how would you respond?
Some of us might say, well, what time supper?
That's the most important question.
No, no, that's of course not the most important question.
But we as humans discuss things and learn things often through questions.
We love to ask questions to know why is this the case?
Why is this the way that it is?
How many times do people not ask the right question?
What I mean by that is how many times do people fail to ask, what must I do to be saved?
Or if they do ask this question, they do try to figure out how can I be saved, they ask the wrong source.
And in doing so they get told, just say this prayer and you'll be saved.
oh Well just believe that Jesus is the Christ and that's all you have to do.
You just have to believe.
On and on we could go with examples uh of a improper answer to this question, but in this lesson today we want to consider some things regarding this question.
First and foremost, we want to consider who has asked this question.
We want to consider also who needs to ask this question, and then finally what's the answer to this question.
Let's begin by noticing who has asked this question.
If you have your Bibles, look with me at Luke chapter 18.
In Luke chapter 18, we find a man that we label as the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and he asks this question, though of course not in this exact wording, but he asks the
question of what must I do?
We begin in verse 18.
And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good?
None is good save one that is God.
Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery.
Do not kill.
Do not steal.
Do not bear false witness.
Honor thy father and thy mother.
And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
And now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing.
So all that thou hast and distribute it unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come.
follow me." And when he heard this he was very sorrowful for he was very rich.
Here this man he has the right idea.
He knows that there's something more he needs to do.
He asks Jesus, he asks the right source, what do I need to do?
What am I lacking?
And when Jesus answers him at first he's like, well hey he just told me what I've already been doing so I'm golden this is great.
But then Jesus tells him what he didn't want to hear.
And really, truthfully, that's why Jesus told him to sell his riches.
Because ultimately this man was, while he was outwardly serving God,
His riches had his heart.
His heart was on the treasures of this world.
His heart was on the things of this world rather than the things of God.
And Jesus recognized this and that's why he told him this.
That's why he told him to sell his goods.
Because he needed to have his focus on the things above, not on the things of this world.
So here this man asks the right question and he asks it to the right source, but he rejects the answer that's given.
and he goes away sorrowful.
But there was someone else who asked this question.
Look with me at Acts chapter 9.
Acts chapter 9.
Here we find an example of a conversion that for most of us we would never think would happen.
If we were to look at Saul during his time before becoming a Christian, we would say there's no way on earth this man will be a Christian.
There's no way he would listen to the gospel.
I mean he's a Pharisee of Pharisees.
He's been persecuting the church.
throwing Christians in jail and even killing them or supporting their execution.
Surely this man does not want to hear about Jesus.
But Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus.
And in the midst of their conversation, Saul realizes his state.
He begins to understand what's going on.
And in verse 6, we find, he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
Saul understands his state at this point.
He understands that he is lost and without hope.
He understands that there is something that, excuse me, that he needs to do.
Something that he is lacking.
He's just been told by God, you have been persecuting me.
Jesus has just told him that you have been persecuting me.
And he realizes the weight of this.
And so he asks the right question.
What will that have me do?
But notice what he's told.
Notice that Saul was not told, oh we'll just pray, or oh, well, you you believe that I'm Christ, so you're fine now.
We just want to make that clear.
No, he's told to go into the city, and there it would be told him what he must do.
And when Ananias comes to Saul, we find in comparing accounts in Acts 26,
2216, sorry, lost the verse there for a sec.
Saul is told, why tarriest thou?
Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins.
He asked the right question.
He was given the right answer.
And what did Saul do with that?
He obeyed.
He decided to change his entire life.
And just stop for a moment and think about what that entailed.
Remember, Saul's whole world revolved around persecuting the church.
That was his main goal in life was to stamp out what he saw as a uh
rebellious and blasphemous movement.
But when he is told the truth, when he realizes his error, when he becomes a Christian, his whole world is changed.
Rather than persecuting the church, his number one goal is to spread the church, is to grow the church, to edify the kingdom, and to serve God ultimately.
We've noticed two people who have asked this question.
There are others we could list, but those two really show us the ends of the spectrum for how people have answered this question.
But the next thing we want to notice, number two, who needs to ask this question?
Who is in need of asking this question?
Number one, those who have sinned are in need of asking this question.
Those who have sinned need to know how to be saved.
In Romans chapter 6 verse 23, we are told that the wages of sin is death.
What we earn by our sin is death.
but the gift of God is eternal life.
God is offering to us salvation from our sins.
God is offering to us eternal life, but we have to ask the question.
We have to do what He's told us to do.
in Revelation 21 8, we are given a list of these sins and at the end we find that those who have committed these sins, those who are guilty of these sins are cast into the lake
of fire.
They are tormented for all of eternity.
Sometimes we fail to understand the severity, the gravity of the situation in which we are in.
We think about those who are good people.
And while they have good attributes, maybe they're very kind, maybe they're very generous, they're good attributes in their lives, but they are lost.
Even subconsciously sometimes we think, oh, well they're good people.
But it's not enough just to be a good person.
It wasn't enough for that rich man, or that ruler rather, to have kept the law.
And those who are lost, those who have not submitted to God, even though they might be good people, their being lost is far more serious than we appreciate sometimes.
We've never seen hell.
We don't know what it looks like.
We don't know how it feels to be an eternal torment.
but it is not a place that we want to experience.
It is not a place that we want to go and it is not a place that we want to help people go.
We want to help people go to heaven, not to hell.
We want people, especially those who we think are good people, those who have a good heart, we want to teach them the gospel so that they know what they need to do.
So that they can escape this eternal torment
that's waiting for them.
That's why we evangelize.
That's why we are going through the process of establishing this evangelism here at Collierville.
It's not just to grow numbers.
It's not just that these pews are full.
No, it's to save souls.
It's to keep people from going to the one place that they don't need to go.
We also notice that sin brings a separation.
Look with me at Isaiah chapter 59.
Isaiah chapter 59.
Here we find really one of the best descriptions of the consequence of sin.
verses one and two.
Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins
have hid his face from you that he will not hear.
Israel at this time or specifically Judah have become so engrossed with sin.
that there was no hope for them.
was punishment waiting for them and they've begun to think well God's just not going to answer us.
Well God's just not listening.
It's all his fault.
It's not our fault.
Surely it's not our fault.
It's all God's fault.
But God through Isaiah is saying no no no no no.
You have separated yourself.
God didn't move.
You did.
Your sin separated you from God.
When we are continuing in sin, we cannot have a relationship with God.
We cannot.
We cannot be who we need to be.
And too often we think that it's just a little sin.
It's just a little iniquity.
It's not bad.
know, those little white lies, those little innocent sins.
There's no such thing as an innocent sin.
because this is what sin does.
It separates us from the one who does not want to be separated from us.
It separates us from the one who cares about us more than anyone.
No one can match the love of God.
No one can match the care that God has for us.
So why would we want to be separated from him?
Why would we want to spend our eternity away from God?
But that's what we're doing when we continue in sin.
And that's what we're aiding people to do when we do not tell them about the gospel.
When we do not try to help them out of their sin.
We understand then that those who are in sin, those who are lost, are those who need to ask this question.
But then we look at Romans chapter 3 verse 23 and we find that all have sinned.
Every single person here has at one point sinned.
And because of that we all need to this question.
We all need to consider what we must do to be saved.
There are different reasons why people sin.
Some.
Some are lost because of their own carelessness.
In Luke chapter 15, Jesus provides for us a great understanding of how one can be lost.
And it's in the form of three different parables that all come together to form one point.
But in these parables, the parable of lost sheep, the parable of lost coin, and the parable of the prodigal son, we find these four different attributes of how someone can be
lost.
As we just mentioned, someone can be lost by their own carelessness.
That's the sheep.
That's the parable of the lost sheep that was so focused on that next blade of grass that became so unobservant and, well, careless as to where it was and where it was in relation
to the shepherd that it becomes lost.
And as it's lost, it doesn't know how to get back.
It doesn't know how to get back to the safety of the sheepfold.
But the shepherd goes out and looks for...
Sometimes.
even though we don't believe in once saved always saved.
We almost get that idea in the church that well I was baptized so I'm good that settles my account right.
But in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, we are told to give the more earnest heed to the things that we have learned, lest at any time that we should let them slip.
We have to be earnest.
We have to be constant in our desire to grow, to keep what we have learned so that we don't lose it, so that we don't fall from our standing with God, so that we do not fall
back into sin, but rather we stay the course living for God.
In 1 Peter 5 verse 8, Peter warns us to be sober, to be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour.
Brothers and sisters, if Satan is active and seeking whom he may devour, what makes us think that we can just sit back and prop up in our easy chair and be alright?
What makes us think that we can choose to not work for God, to not grow in our spiritual life and in our understanding of God's Word, and that's perfectly fine.
Where did we get this idea?
And yet so many people in the church think this way.
So many people have given into this delusion that they can do nothing and be alright with God.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Christianity is an active, diligent work, lifestyle.
It's not a one and done.
We have to be diligent and sober.
We have to be giving the more earnest heed.
But we also notice that there are those who are lost because of the carelessness of others.
This is what we find in Luke 15 regarding the parable of the lost coin.
Someone had lost this coin.
The coin did not jump out of the purse, but rather someone was careless in their care of that coin.
Aaron already mentioned earlier about Galatians chapter 2.
In Galatians chapter 2,
Peter sets the wrong example.
He is careless with how he is acting because he's so worried about the perception of this Jewish brethren that he ostracizes his Gentile brethren and he leads others away in doing
so.
This goes back to why we have to be on guard, why we have to be diligent as Christians because if we are not diligent, if we are not being sober, if we are not taking heed to
God's Word above all else, then we can be led astray by even the mistakes of others.
Not necessarily the intentional false teaching of others.
There are some who will teach you false doctrine intentionally, but there are others who are just simply mistaken.
But if we do not understand God's Word, if we are not training our
ears and our minds to understand what is the truth versus what is error, then when someone teaches error, we don't know the difference.
And we end up in a lost state.
but we also notice there are some who are lost because of rebellion.
Now this of course is the prodigal son.
The one who says to his father, father give me what falls to me, give me my inheritance now because I don't want to be under your roof anymore.
I don't want to follow your rules.
I'm tired of hearing I can't do this.
And so he goes off into the far country and he realizes why he couldn't do those things.
He realizes why his father was telling him these things because he cared about him.
He wanted him to live the best life.
Brother Clark tells the story of someone who came into his office one day and was very angry.
In fact, I believe he says that they slammed the Bible down on his desk and they say, I read one more I can't out of this book.
to which he kind of tries to get the situation calm.
And he made the point, the Bible is not just a collection of I can'ts.
God doesn't tell us you can't do this just to tell us we can't.
There's a reason for everything.
There is a reason why God tells us not to sin.
There's a reason why God tells us to study His word.
There's a reason why God tells us to love our brothers and sisters.
There's a reason why God tells us all these things because
And that is the formula, the way to live the best life and to wind up in the best place hereafter.
But when we choose to rebel, we end up like that prodigal.
We end up in spiritual poverty.
We end up in the pigpen.
We end up in a place that we don't want to be.
but then there's also those who are lost by self-righteousness.
This is what happened to the older brother.
When the prodigal returns from the far country, when he tries to make his life right, and the father forgives him, and there's this moment of great joy, great peace, as the father
sees his son coming, and he runs to him, and he gives him this hug, and kisses him, and he tells him, bring the robe, bring the ring, bring the shoes.
get him cleaned up and put him back where he belongs because this my son was dead and is alive again.
They all make merry and kill the fatty calf and prepare a feast and it's a great time of rejoicing But then that older brother comes and comes in and he says what's going on?
Why is there this party going on?
And you almost see a servant excited Excitedly saying your brother, you know, he was he was lost.
He was in that far country, but he's come back He's made things right.
That's who we're making Mary and then that older brother
He starts getting angry, jealous.
father comes out to him and he asks him, aren't you with us?
What's interesting is how the older brother viewed the situation.
He didn't see a soul that was lost and is saved, but rather he saw how good he was and how he wasn't rewarded.
And he thought that he had been.
done unfairly, treated unfairly.
when we have an attitude of self-righteousness, when we have an attitude that says, I'm better than these people in the world.
Well, I'm better than this person who's addicted to drugs and never touched drugs in my life.
So I'm better than them.
When we have that mindset, we fail to appreciate the joy of a soul coming to God.
because that mindset is self-absorbed.
It is a mindset that cannot rejoice with others because it only sees what you don't have.
We as Christians cannot afford to have that kind of mindset.
We need to be those who are seeking the lost and when they come back to God or when they come to God, we need to rejoice and be happy because the soul has been saved.
But finally.
We need to ask who answers this question and what this answer is.
Of course we know that well God's servants answer this question.
If you are a servant of God then you need to be able to answer what must I do to be saved?
Because at one point in time you did the very same thing.
Peter answered this question in Acts chapter 2.
In Acts chapter 2 verse 36, the people on the day of Pentecost interrupt Peter's sermon.
said, men and brethren, what shall we do?
We have crucified the Son of God.
We are lost.
How can we be saved?
And Peter tells them how to be saved.
Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins.
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Peter was ready to answer.
but also Paul was as well.
This question was asked of Paul in Acts chapter 16.
In Acts chapter 16, the Philippian jailer realizes his state.
He realizes the difference between him and Paul.
And he sees the example that Paul and Silas had set in that jail of how they were singing praises to God about how when the doors of the prison were broken open, were shaken open
by the earthquake,
They remained in their cells.
And starting in verse number 30 of Acts chapter 16.
and brought them out and said, Sers, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
There would be some that would look at that Philippian jailer and would say, there's no way he would be saved.
He's a officer in the Roman army.
He's a jailer.
He's an idolater.
Surely there's no way he would want to hear about God.
but when he was taught about God, when Paul and Silas opened the Word of God to him, he was converted.
He and all of his household were converted.
But what's really interesting is to notice that God left us His word so that we could have eternal life.
God gave us His word so that we could know how to go to Him.
Recently, I was up in Oneida, Tennessee, and I was talking to a friend of mine, Savion Raisson, and he showed me something that I hadn't really put together before.
Jesus teaches the plan of salvation.
Now, that's not a world-shattering revelation or anything, but often we go, when we look at the plan of salvation, we go to what Jesus said yes, but also to what Peter said and
what others said.
While they were all inspired, sometimes it's beneficial to understand that the Son of God Himself, the one that we are to be following step by step,
and gave us the plan.
In Matthew chapter 7 verses 24 through 26, Jesus tells us that it's not just about hearing His word, but it's about hearing and doing.
when that when those who heard his word but did not believe did not act on the word they had heard they were like the foolish man who built his house on a on the sand but when
someone heard his word when they believed that Jesus Christ what Jesus Christ said was true and they obeyed it Jesus likes it likens him into a wise man who built his house on a
rock
and resisted the storms.
And John 8.24, Jesus tells us that if we do not believe that He is, and that He is rewarder than that, or rather if we do not believe that He is the Christ, that He is the
Son of God, we'll die in our sins.
Matthew chapter 10 verse 32.
Jesus tells us that if we do not confess Him before men, He will not confess us before God.
That's a sobering reality.
A sobering responsibility that we have to teach God.
To teach who God is to those around us.
We have a duty as Christians to share Christ with others.
to confess his name is more than just to say Jesus is Lord.
To confess his name is more than just right before you're baptized to say I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Yes that is true, yes that is something we must do.
But we must do that with our lives.
Every day, every chance that we get to show someone who Christ is, we need to be doing that.
We need to be showing people who Christ is.
and Luke 13, 3, and 5, Jesus tells us to repent or perish.
If we fail to repent, if we fail to turn from our sins, then we are in a state that is ready to perish.
It is a state that is against God that will lead to our being separated from God for all of eternity.
And he also tells us in Mark 16, 15, and 16 that we have to believe and be baptized.
If we do not believe, if we do not do what he has told us to do,
then we are going to be lost.
We're going to be damned.
And then in Revelation 2 verse 10, he tells us that we have to be faithful.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer.
Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days, but be thou faithful until death, and I will give you a crown
of life.
We have a promise from the God who will not lie, who cannot lie, that if we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us.
That's the message that we're trying to spread.
While people keep asking, what must I do?
We as Christians have the answer.
And we need to be ready and willing to show them what they must do.
But it's more than words.
It's more than just saying things.
The Christian life is not word only.
It's not just in our words that we live as Christians, but rather it's in our actions as well.
Our words and our actions must line up with Christ.
And if we are doing that, if our actions and our words are pointing people to Christ, then we can save souls.
We can lead people.
we can lead the lost to the One who can save them.
What about you today?
Have you asked this question, What must I do to be saved?
looking around most of you have.
but it's our goal to go share that with others.
It's our responsibility to share this message with others.
And if you find that you haven't been the Christian you should be, that you haven't been teaching others, you haven't been the Christian example that God has called you to be,
then you can make that right.
Just like that prodigal who at one time was straight away from his father, you too can come home and there will be joy here.
I guarantee that.
And I guarantee there will be joy in heaven.
Jesus tells us there is joy in heaven over one soul that repents.
More than ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance.
If you are in need of the invitation, please come.