Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Lessons and Sermons from the Longmire Road church of Christ in Conroe Texas USA
Our visitors in our midst, we are
certainly glad that you are here.
Please stick around afterwards so we have
an opportunity to get to know
you just a little bit better. Last week in
our sermon,
we examined the call of Christ that he
made in Luke chapter 14,
recorded in Luke chapter 14, for us to
examine ourselves
and to calculate the decision to follow
him.
To think about what it is that we desire
to do when we want to follow Him.
It is undoubtedly and unequivocally the
most important decision that
you will ever make. There is no more
decision that is more important than
following
the Christ because of its eternal
consequences.
There are decisions that you will make in
this life that will lead you
all the way to death's door, and that's
where those decisions will rest.
But this decision to follow Christ and to
follow his ways will
Will lead all the way into eternity.
And so hence it has eternal consequences.
And so the Lord said, You need to think
about it.
You need to think about what it's going to
cost you.
You need to think about the costs that are
involved in following the Christ.
That being said, we might ask a follow-up
question to the Lord.
What assurances do we have? This is a very
big decision,
following the Lord and all, since it is a
decision that.
Inv encompasses my entire life.
It's a decision that will change my entire
life.
What assurances do I have? This is a big
sacrifice.
Matthew chapter 16 and verse 24 says that
I have to die to self daily.
I have to pick up my cross and die to self
daily.
This is a big sacrifice. My entire life to
God forever.
I am pledging my allegiance and my service
to Him.
And so what assurances do I have?
How can I make this decision and make it
confidently?
Well, this decision, or rather,
this question, is not out of place.
The question is maybe viewed out of place
by some who believe that
God just wants you to follow and just say,
Well, just go ahead and trust me.
Don't ask any questions, don't ask for any
evidences,
just go ahead and close your eyes and jump
off of this cliff and and
and you you'll be okay. That's not the God
of heaven we serve.
In fact,
We serve a God who is keenly aware of the
legitimacy of those questions.
A God who is keenly aware that we might
have some questions about who
He is and whether or not the things that
He is asking us to do can be trusted,
can be verified. And how do we know this?
Because throughout Scripture, God answers
that question directly and indirectly.
God answers the questions about assurance.
God answers the question.
That will help us to make a confident
commitment to him.
That will help us think about what it is
that we're doing and make that decision
with grand confidence. What we see in the
Bible is a glorious record
of God bolstering our confidence so that
we can trust the commitment that
we make to him or have made to him,
that it is not only the right commitment,
but that it is the best one.
And he does so in two ways, two ways that
I want us to consider this morning.
God bolsters our confidence in our
decision to follow him by two things.
Number one, by affirmation or promise.
God bolsters our confidence by making
promises to us.
A promise of something then instills in us
a confidence to
go forward with something. But not only do
he does so by affirmation,
he also does so by reputation.
An affirmation or a promise is only as
good as the one's reputation
who is making it. And so God does so then
by two things by affirmation
and by reputation. So now let's consider
both of those as we think about this
promise, or rather, this this question
about following Christ,
as we think about our commitment to Him.
I can make that commitment with great
confidence because of number one,
affirmation. See, one cannot have
confidence in something.
If there is not a promise of something,
the Lord is not asking us to follow Him on
the basis of just because.
There are affirmations that God has made
to inspire confidence in Him.
There are promises that He has made.
And this principle is seen throughout our
history.
And for our example this morning,
I want us to go all the way back to the
patriarchal age to before the flood.
I want us to look at Noah.
I want us to look at the concept of God
making promises and then man being able
to confidently obey God because of the
promises that he made.
Join me in Genesis chapter six.
Genesis chapter six, let's read verses
thirteen and fourteen first.
And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh
is come before me,
for the earth is filled with violence
through them,
and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth.
Make thee an ark of gold, for room shall
thou make in the ark?
And thou shalt pitch it within and w pitch
it without.
And so, Genesis chapter six, verses
seventeen and eighteen,
the Lord goes on to say, And behold,
I myself am bringing flood waters on the
earth,
to destroy from under heaven all flesh,
and which is all the breath of life,
everything that is on the earth shall die.
But I will establish my covenant with you,
and you shall go into the ark,
you and your sons and your wife,
and your sons' wives with you.
And so God is asking Noah.
To commit himself to a very, very big
project.
If you understand the dimensions of this
ark,
if you understand what is about to happen
to the earth,
God is asking Noah to commit himself to
the biggest project that he's ever
endeavored in his life. And God is saying,
Noah, this is what I want you to do.
Now, what is the basis of Noah's confident
commitment?
Why is it that Noah is going to build this
thing and is going to
be successful in building it?
Does Noah's confidence rest in God's
commandments?
No. Noah's confidence does not rest in the
commandment
to go and build. The Hebrews writer tells
us exactly why
he proceeded with confidence. We don't
have to wonder about why it
is that Noah moved, the Bible says with
fear.
Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 7 tells us,
then by faith.
Noah being divinely warned of things not
seen.
Notice this, he moved with godly fear,
prepared an ark for the saving of his
household,
by which he condemned the world and became
heir of righteousness,
which is according to faith. Here is what
Noah's confidence is based on.
Here is why Noah is moving with great
fear.
Here is why Noah is moving, and he can
confidently say,
I'm going to build this thing.
I'm going to build it for the Lord.
Why?
Because of two promises that the Lord
makes.
We might call it a negative promise and a
positive promise.
There's a negative promise being warned of
God.
Noah is building an ark because he was
warned of God of things he had not seen.
God told him, I am going to destroy this
earth.
I'm going to bring it to an end.
I'm going to bring all the things that it
has the breath of life in it.
The Lord says, I'm going to bring an end.
So here you have a promise of God.
It's a negative promise in the sense that
it relates to that which negatively
affects. I'm going to destroy this world.
And so God is making a promise to end
mankind.
And so Noah has a negative promise,
but still, that in and of itself does not
move him to build this
ark with great commitment and confidence.
He also has a positive promise.
He's going to prepare the ark to the
saving of his house.
See, the Lord has spoken to him,
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 9.
The Bible says that Noah has a promise of
grace.
Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord.
The Lord has said, I am going to save you.
He's made him a promise. And so now,
because he has this grand promise from God
that he is going to save
him and his household, what does he do?
He trusts in the promise of God and
therefore keeps the commandment of God.
If there were no promises attached to the
commandment to build the ark,
They get a building. If God says,
Noah, I'm going to destroy the earth,
I'm going to k ~ but make sure that
everything is is dead on the earth.
And what about me, Lord? you're going with
them.
And by the way, I want you to build an
ark.
What motivation is there? See,
if God were to ask that of Noah,
what would Noah think of God in that
fashion?
But we don't read that about the God of
heaven.
You don't ever read God operating in that
fashion.
See, whenever God has a commandment for us
to do something and germane
to what we're talking about, and God
saying,
I want you to follow me, Jesus saying,
I want you to follow me, and we ask the
question,
Well, what assurances do I have?
There are promises connected to that.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 19,
and also verse 32, the apostle Paul
alludes to this fact that there were
if there were no promises.
Attached to the commandments of God,
we of all men would be most miserable.
There were individuals who were saying
that there is no resurrection,
that you die and like Rover, you're dead
all over.
And so, because they said that,
obviously Christians were losing heart.
And so the Apostle Paul asked the
question,
he says, if in this life only we have hope
in Christ,
we are all men, of all men, are most
miserable.
He says, Listen, if we're trying to live
right,
if we're trying to do right.
If we're trying to preach righteousness,
if we're trying to abstain from those
things which are contrary to God,
and yet the only hope we have is in this
life,
he says, man, that that's a bad deal.
He says, we of all men, he might very well
be speaking then about
the apostles there. He says, we of all men
would be most miserable.
Listen, I've been beaten, I've been
shipwrecked,
I've been imperil, in peril, in peril.
If you read what he says about himself,
he says, I did all of that for what?
So that I can have life in this life only,
or hope in this life only? He says,
if there is no promise of a resurrection,
then even the commandments that we have
are an exercise in futility,
he says. In verse 32, notice what he says:
if in the manner of men I have fought with
beasts at Ephesus,
what advantage is it to me? Listen,
you don't understand the things that I
have had to put up with.
You don't understand the things that I had
to do all because I'm following Christ,
all because I am preaching the gospel of
Christ.
He says, if in the manner of beasts at
Ephesus that I fought with,
he says, What advantage is it to me if the
dead rise not,
if there is no promise of a resurrection,
if there's no promise of eternal life,
let us eat, drink, and and and be merry,
for tomorrow we die. He says, Fill the
building up with sand,
and let us go about our way and let us
live.
Our lives the way we want to live.
Why? Because there's no promise of a
resurrection.
The reason, the reason we obey God and we
can do so confidently is because He's made
promises.
Why did you obey the gospel? If you obeyed
the gospel,
why did you obey the gospel? Just because?
I hope not. I hope not. It wasn't because
somebody just told you to obey the gospel.
Well, you need to do this, and so
therefore you did it.
Why are you living righteously?
Why are you a Christian? Is it not because
there is a promise associated with it?
That's Paul's point. And that is
illustrated by Noah.
He is building that ark with great
confidence.
Why? Because God is going to save him and
his household.
That is why he is living and doing what he
is doing.
When you read your Bible, there are an
unmissable and unmistakable pattern
for confident commitment. Every single
time you see it in the Bible,
Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three and
verse three,
there is what we would call that negative
promise.
Again, do not eat of the fruit of the tree
which grows in the midst of the garden.
There's the promise. What is the promise?
If you do eat of it, you will die.
And so what is there there's faithfulness
in keeping that command for
a time at least. There's faithfulness,
why? Because they understand that God
means what he says and he says what he
means.
Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, verses 1
through 3.
Abraham, get thee out of thy country from
thy kindred,
from thy father's house, unto a land that
I will show you.
Why? Because I will make thy name great,
I will make thee great, make thee a
blessing,
and in thee shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed.
Abraham, I'm not just asking you to go,
I'm asking you to go, but there's also a
promise attached to it.
I will make thee a great nation,
the Israelites in Exodus chapter 19.
The Lord says, Hear my voice and keep my
commandments.
Why? Why do they need to hear the voice of
Jehovah and keep his commandments?
Because I will make of thee a great
nation.
I will make you my special people,
the Lord says.
Salvation. Acts chapter 2 and verse 38.
Repent and be baptized. Why? See,
that's the command. Repent and be baptized
is the command.
But why should you repent of your sins and
be baptized into Christ in order?
Here's the promise to receive the
forgiveness of sins.
That's the promise. See,
our confidence in following the Savior
comes by the fact that He
has promised us something.
And we'll consider those promises in a
little bit more detail next week.
But suffice for us this week to understand
that there's something that
we needed desperately and could not
provide for ourselves.
Something that no apology could purchase
and no promise to do better could earn.
Something that every tear we had ever
cried in private could not wash away,
no matter how hard we tried. And then the
scripture gave us the only words that
could ever settle it: repent and be
baptized.
For the forgiveness of sins. We can
confidently obey God and follow
His ways and will. Why? Because there are
affirmations.
There are promises attached to what God
has said.
Confidence comes by affirmation,
and that being the case, we can
confidently commit ourselves to God
because
He has made an abundance of promises.
And we'll consider some of those promises
next week.
But consider then, number two,
that
Promises also or our confidence comes by
his reputation.
See, the affirmation of something is only
as good as the reputation
of the one making it. If somebody
constantly borrows your tools and never
brings
it back, and they come back the 15th time
and say,
Listen, I want to borrow one of your
tools.
How confident are you in the promise they
make to bring it back?
I promise I'm gonna bring it back.
Well, you still have my table saw.
I'm not very confident in what you're
saying.
Why? Because you continue to have a
reputation of not doing what you said
you were going to do. And so, therefore,
our confidence in God's affirmations is
rooted in his reputation.
Consider once again when we go to the law
of Moses,
in Exodus chapter 3, God commissioned
Moses to go and tell the Israelites that
their
cry has been heard.
God gives them a promise that He will
rescue them from the bondage of Pharaoh.
That's the promise. And that's a great
promise.
That's a very big promise. We're talking
about an entire nation
who is being subjugated by a dictator who
is also murdering them.
Someone comes along and says, I'm going to
save you.
I'm going to provide for you a way out.
That sounds great. But why should we trust
Jehovah?
That's not just a question that is up
there in the air or hypothetical.
That's actually the question that Moses
posed and said to God.
Moses has the following to say to God in
Exodus chapter three and verse thirteen.
And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel,
and shall say unto them, The God of your
fathers has sent me unto you,
and they shall say unto me, What is his
name?
What am I going to say to them?
I'm coming to them with the grand promise
of something.
I'm saying that they'll be rescued,
that they will be released from Egyptian
slavery.
When I come to them and I tell them these
things,
they're gonna want to know, well,
who told you that? That's a big promise.
Who told you that all of these things were
going to happen?
They're not just gonna try. Listen,
it was it was you know, it was Elijah down
the street.
He said it was gonna happen. Well,
who's Elijah?
But notice how God answers Moses.
God doesn't shrug off the question and
say,
Listen, you just need to believe.
No. What God does here is he gives his
credentials.
Yes, the Jehovah God, He gives His
credentials to give to the children of
Israel.
Notice what he says in verses 14 through
16.
And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.
And he said, Thus shalt thou say to the
children of Israel,
I am, has sent me unto you.
And God said moreover unto Moses,
Thus shalt thou say unto the children of
Israel,
The Lord God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
has sent me unto you. This is my name
forever,
and this is my memorial unto all
generations.
Go and gather the elders of the Israel to
Israel together,
and say unto them The Lord Jehovah God of
your fathers,
the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
appeared unto me, saying, I have surely
visited you.
And I've seen that which is done to you in
Egypt.
What is God doing? God's saying to Moses,
Here are my credentials. Here is my
reputation.
Take that with you so that they can have
confidence in the promises that I'm
making.
And so God does several things here.
He establishes his confid, He establishes
His reputation by these things.
Notice what He does. He's establishing His
reputation by preeminence.
What does he say first and foremost?
I am the self-dependent one, the great I
am.
He's establishing his reputation and his
ability to do something.
God is saying that he is able to release
them from Egyptian bondage.
Who are we talking about? We're talking
about Pharaoh,
who is a known ruler, and God is saying
what?
I'm better than him. I'm not a king who
will be replaced by.
By another Pharaoh later on. No,
I am the preeminent one. I am who I am.
I am that I am. I'm the self-dependent
one.
I'm the omnipotent one, the omniscient
one,
and the omnipresent one. And so what is
God doing?
First of all, he establishes his
preeminence over Pharaoh.
And that's what he says: I am the
preeminent one.
But not only does he establish his
reputation by preeminence,
he also establishes his reputation by the
patriarchy.
He says, I am the God of your forefathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so now they
can know.
Wait a second, we hold to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. We we hold them in
higher esteem.
And Moses is saying that this God is that
same God.
So now they have something to hold on to.
The name of a wise and heroic and
philanthropic,
or notably godly man as Abraham,
is a perpetual fountain of inspiration,
someone said.
A wellspring of living water from which we
gather stimulus,
courage, power to be and to do.
But no name in any country or among any
people have wielded a mightier power than
these three mentioned in the text,
exerted over the minds of the history of
the Jews.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You don't
understand.
If God said, I am their God, we're
following him.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, if that's who
if this is who they followed.
Then we're following the we believe this
God.
They held Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in
such high esteem,
and so this is what God does. He
establishes reputation by preeminence.
I'm better than Pharaoh. He establishes it
by the patriarchy.
I am the God of your forefathers,
but then he also establishes it by
prophecy.
I have surely visited you and seen that
which is done to you in Egypt.
In Exodus chapter 3 and verse 16,
it says that.
In verse 17, he also says, And I have
said,
I will bring thee out of affliction of
Egypt.
What is that? That's a prophecy,
by the way. If you go to Genesis chapter
50 and verse 24,
this is a prophecy given by Joseph.
And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die, and God will surely visit you and
bring you out of this land unto
the land which he swore to Abraham,
Isaac, and to Jacob. So I am the God of
whom Joseph prophesied.
And you can read about that. And so,
not only am I more powerful than Pharaoh,
not only am I the God which your
forefathers served,
I'm also the God who made the promise all
the way here through Joseph.
It was written down, and you have it in
front of you.
Now they have the affirmations of God
established by his reputation.
God didn't just walk in and say,
You just tell him to follow me,
and that's it. They can approach the
situation with great confidence.
They can pack their bags. It doesn't
matter what Pharaoh said.
The great I am said, We're going.
And so we're going. They can follow God
with confidence because
of his reputation that he established
himself.
Do we have the same in the New Testament?
Yes. You see, Jesus did not simply make
promises,
he proved that he was qualified to fulfill
those promises.
And he does so in the same way as it is
done.
Throughout the ages. Why? Because he is
the great I am.
And so he does for the Christian the same
things he did for Israel.
He establishes this reputation upon which
the affirmations are built.
He establishes that reputation by
preeminence.
John chapter 8, verses 56 and 58.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my
day,
and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews
said unto him,
You are not yet fifty years old,
and you have seen Abraham. And Jesus said
unto them,
Most assuredly, I say to you, what does he
say before Abraham was?
I am. What is he saying?
He's talking about his preeminence.
He's talking about the fact that he is
Jehovah.
That the same one who said, I am,
the great I am, he carries the same
designation.
He is Jehovah in the flesh. I am what I
am.
I'm the eternal one. I am the God,
Jehovah in the flesh. And so when you want
to follow Jesus,
you have his reputation. You have his
promises over here,
but you have his reputation over here that
bolsters those promises.
He is preeminent. But not only does he
establish it by preeminence.
Notice what he says in John chapter 5,
verses 17 and 18. But Jesus said unto
them,
My father hath been working until now,
and I've been working, therefore the Jews
sought to more to kill me because
to kill him, because he not only broke the
Sabbath according to them,
but also said that God was his father,
making himself equal with God.
He establishes his equality with Jehovah,
his preeminence. But then also consider
the prophecy.
John chapter 5 and verse 39, just like the
Lord establishes his credentials
by the prophecy of Joseph. Notice what
Jesus does in John chapter 5 and verse 39.
You search the scriptures, for in them you
think you have eternal life,
and they are those which testify of me.
He says, When you read the scriptures,
it's talking about me.
You can follow Jesus with great confidence
because everything you read
in this book is about him. It is his
story.
It is his story of salvation.
And so the entire premise of the apostles'
argument in Acts chapter 2
was based on the fact that David was
prophesying about Christ,
not himself. He says, You can look at me
and I am the preeminent one.
You can look at me and I am the one that
they were prophesying about.
But then also God establishes his.
His authority here, Jesus does,
for you to follow him, you can be
confident in that commitment because
he established his reputation by power.
In Acts chapter 2 and verse 22,
it says, He men of Israel, hear these
words,
Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved,
the Bible says. Apodekmi in the Greek
there,
it means to be accredited. It means to be
shown by argument to be the thing.
Jesus was a man who was approved by Jesus.
God in the midst of you,
in front of you. So it's not the case that
Jesus did what he did
in some cave somewhere, like some others.
They went to some cave, they got
revelation.
Did all sorts of things. Two people in
history did all sorts of things in some
cave.
Jesus didn't do that. It was in front of
others,
the Bible says. They couldn't even deny
it.
So Jesus proved that he
Was or who he was by displaying the power
that he had.
In John chapter 20, verses 30 and 31,
it says, And truly Jesus did many other
signs in the presence of his disciple,
which are not written in this book,
but these are written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and believing you might
have life through his name.
I'm writing this down. Why? So that you
can have confidence that I am
the great I am. So Jesus establishes his
reputation to us.
By he establishes by his preeminence,
by his prophecy, that the Bible speaks of
him,
by his power, but not in the least,
not in the least he establishes his
reputation by his prevailing over death.
As we just sang, low in the grave he lay.
First Corinthians fifteen verse three
eight says,
For I delivered to you first of all that
which I received,
that Christ also
Died for our sins according to the
Scripture,
and that he was buried, and that he rose
again the third day according
to the Scripture, and that he was seen by
Cephas,
then by the twelve, and after that he was
seen by over five hundred brethren
at once, of whom the greater part remained
to the present,
but some have fallen asleep or have died.
After that he was seen by James,
and then by the apostles, then last of all
he was seen by me also as one born
out of due time. What is what is the
Apostle Paul's point here?
Why is he saying all of those things?
He said, Jesus rose from the dead.
You can have confidence in following the
Christ.
Why? Because he's the one who defeated
death.
But that's not enough, Paul says.
Let me give you this there are witnesses
that saw him alive.
And he says, some of them are still alive.
You can go ask them. You can go ask them.
The reputation of Jesus is immaculate.
He's giving us his credentials so that you
don't have to worry about your commitment
to him. You can follow God, you can follow
the Christ with great assurance,
knowing that the promises he made to you
are sure.
They're solid. And the Hebrews writer
would say it this way in Hebrews chapter
6,
verses 13 through 18 for God made a
promise to Abraham because he could swear
by no greater, he swore by himself.
Saying, Surely, blessing I will bless
thee,
and multiplying I will multiply you.
And so after he had patiently endured
Abraham,
he obtained the promise. For men indeed
swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an
end of all dispute.
Thus God, determining to show more
abundantly the heirs of promise,
the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath. That by two
immutable things in which it
is impossible for God to lie, we might
have a strong consolation who have fled
for refuge to lay a hold on the hope set
before us.
God cannot lie.
Will not lie. Will not lie to anyone,
cannot lie to anyone, is not tempted with
evil,
nor does he tempt any man. And so what you
have in the scriptures is
the promise of God to save your soul.
You have the promises, the affirmation of
God to give you all spiritual blessings,
to comfort you. You have all of those
things,
and you can make a decision to follow him.
Not only on those promises, but on the
fact that He's going to keep them.
Because God ain't never broke a promise.
We break promises. But God is not a man
that He would break promises.
And so the question for all of us this
morning is since
we have this boldness, since we can have
this confidence that
God the promise maker is God the promise
keeper.
What are you gonna do about it?
Hebrews chapter 10, verses 9 through 27
says,
Therefore, brethren, having boldness,
confidence, to enter the holiest by the
blood of Jesus by a new and living way,
which he consecrated for us through the
veil that is his flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of
God,
he says, Since we have boldness to go to
heaven,
we have boldness to enter into heaven.
What are you going to do? He mentions
three things here.
He says, Number one, let us draw near to
With a full heart and full assurance of
faith.
Draw near to God. If you have confidence
in God,
draw near to Him. But not only let us draw
near with full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our body washed with pure
water. Number two, he says, let us hold
fast the confession of
our hope without wavering. Christian,
hold on.
Hold on. Hold on fast, he says,
to your confession of hope without
wavering.
Because he is faithful that promise.
And number three, he says, Let us consider
one another to stir unto love
and good works, not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together as
the manner of some is, but exhorting one
another,
and so much more as you see the day
approaching.
He says, Since we have such great
confidence in God,
Let us draw near to God, let us hold fast
unto God,
and let us not forsake the assembling of
ourselves together.
Why? So that we can encourage one another
to continue in faithfulness.
Why? We can commit in confidence because
of his holy character.
We can commit to God with great confidence
because of who he is.
Maybe you haven't heard it in a while.
But allow me to say it this morning.
If you are a Christian, you made the right
choice.
If you are a Christian, your decision to
follow Christ was a right decision,
and it's the best decision that you will
ever stand to make in this life.
And you can be confident that the promises
that were made to you,
that those promises will be fulfilled,
because that's the reputation we have from
our Savior.
But not only do we want to speak to those
who are Christians,
we want to urge those who are outside of
Christ.
We want to ask you a question this
morning.
Will you commit to the Christ?
Will you or are you willing to make sure
that your
life is in line with the Christ?
You don't have to wonder about your
commitment to Him.
You don't have to speculate about whether
this is the right thing.
Whether it is a good thing, the Bible lays
that out clearly for us.
That it is a good thing and it is a right
thing for you to follow the Lord.
And so this morning you have to answer
that question whether or not you want
to do that. And if you want to follow the
Christ,
if you want to follow Him and be committed
to Him,
the Bible is clear on how we can do that.
Your confidence in salvation starts with
the obeying of the gospel.
And what is the gospel? It is the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus
the Christ to the salvation of souls.
The Apostle Paul talked about in 1
Corinthians chapter 15,
verses 1 through 4. He says that the
gospel of Jesus the Christ,
that is what saves. So how does it save?
The Bible says you need to hear that
glorious gospel,
because without faith it is impossible to
please him.
But not only do you need to hear it,
you need to believe it, believe that Jesus
is the Christ,
the Son of God.
That indeed he rose from the dead and now
is seated at the right hand of God,
and he has secured salvation for us,
and he has provided for us a way to be
saved,
but you need to be willing to repent of
sins.
Acts chapter 17, 30 and 31. The Bible says
he commands all men everywhere to repent.
I need to be willing to change my life
around and do that which is right
in the sight of God.
You need to be willing to confess the name
of Jesus before witnesses.
We got plenty of witnesses in here this
morning who will hear your good
confession,
that you believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God. And only when you make
that confession,
the Bible says, that you can be immersed
in water to have your sins washed away.
Because he who believes and is baptized
will be saved.
That's the promise of the Christ.
He who believes and is baptized will be
saved.
And Jesus said.
Get into the water to have your sins
washed away,
you can take that to the bank.
And so that's what you can do this
morning.
And what he does, here's another promise.
The Lord adds you to his kingdom.
The Lord adds you to his church.
Acts chapter 2 and verse 47. The church
that he died to establish,
Matthew chapter 16, verses 19 through 21.
The church that he died to establish,
he's going to take you, and through
baptism,
he is going to add you to that glorious
body.
And you can receive the rewards that he
speaks about in this book.
But that choice still is yours.
As Jesus turned around to them as we spoke
last week in Luke chapter 14,
and he asked them to think about the
decision.
I am now asking you the same thing.
Think about that decision, but know that
you can make that decision with great
confidence because of the affirmations
that he's given and the reputation that
he has while we stand and as we sing.