Conditions for Salvation

Introduction

Good morning. Praise God. It is wonderful to be here and wonderful to worship with my brethren in the Lord. If you don’t have an outline yet, you can raise your hand and we have some men that are ready to pass out the out. We have outlines with the blanks in them. There’ll be a couple of men that’ll come around and hand those out. I hope everybody had a good Valentine’s Day. My wife and I had uh the very unique opportunity to go on a date alone, which was not just locking ourselves in the room and watching a movie with the kids in a the living room or something, but we actually got to leave the house and leave our kids with somebody and go and we drove up to Altamont Springs and we watched a movie that I would highly recommend.

It’s called Old Fashioned. And it’s uh a Christian movie that is really about a man uh who wants to be chaste and pure. And he enters into a relationship with a young lady, and it is really powerful. It might sound like it’s a boring movie by the title, old fashioned, but it is not boring at all. I thought it was very good and moving. And it made me want to preach on the topic of purity, uh, but I couldn’t get a lesson together this fast. So I plan in the next week or two, the next Sunday or the Sunday after, to preach on the topic of purity in uh the courting relationship and so on. So if you have a chance to go watch that movie, I would highly recommend it, but don’t take your young children because the theme of the movie, though the movie is clean, is a very mature theme.

But I want to talk to you this morning about the conditions for salvation. What do we have to do? What are the steps we have to take in order to become a Christian in the first place? And I want to do this in in the way that I think is uh possibly the most effective way to teach this, uh, and the surest way to know what does the Lord require of me in order to be saved and to continue to be saved, but especially initially. And we’re going to do that using Jesus’ final instructions to his apostles, and we’re going to look at Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost. That will really be basically our outline for the lesson. I made a three-minute video for this sermon because this is the type of sermon that is very helpful in evangelism.

And so I’ve announced before, and I’ll say it again today, that I’m making a series of videos, and there will be three minute, a three-minute length, and then a 12-minute length on the same topic on a series of topics useful for evangelism. And so I’ve sent an email out to everyone. You can share that three-minute video on Facebook or whatever, and hopefully it will be useful in some in some small way, at least. And watch it yourself if you haven’t watched it. I would I would uh recommend that you do that. Well, each one of us have a necessary role in our own salvation. We are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, as Paul told the Philippians in chapter 2 and verse 12 at the end of that verse.

So nobody else is going to work it out for you. And God’s not just going to zap you with salvation and with the Holy Spirit so that you have no choice about the matter. No. You have a choice. And it’s up to you and I how we are going to respond to the call of God. Are we going to obey God and become saved or not? So it’s up to us. Now that does not mean that we can earn salvation. The only way you can earn salvation is if you have no sin, if you are perfect and sinless. And none of us can say that we are that. For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.

That’s in Ephesians chapter 2. So we’re saved by the grace of God, not by works. What that means is not by works of merit. That’s the context and the meaning of that. It doesn’t mean obedience is not important. It means we can’t be saved by works of merit by which we earn our salvation and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, so to speak. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Titus chapter 3 and in verse 5. However, that does not mean that there are no conditions. The grace of God teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldliness, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.

Titus 2, 11 and 12. So the grace of God teaches us that there are things we have to do in order to avail ourselves of the grace that God has given us and of that free gift of eternal salvation. So we’re going to take a look at the conditions to become a Christian. And we’re going to begin by looking at Jesus’ final instructions.

1. Matthew’s Account: Teach, Baptize, Teach

So these are the last things that Jesus had to say to his apostles. Now he did not say this to us, though it relates to us indirectly, but he said this specifically to his ambassadors, his apostles. And so there are three accounts of these final instructions Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And so let’s start in Matthew. Matthew chapter 28 and verses 18 through 20, and Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even at the end of the age.

We’ve heard that a lot of times. And so what we’re going to do is break down the components of these three accounts. Now, we could start by listing out go. But that one is more or less instrumental to go to do the making of the disciples. So we’ll start with make disciples. That’ll be the first one on our list. Make disciples. What are disciples? Learners. If you’re going to make learners out of somebody, that means you’ve got to be learning them. You’ve got to be teaching them, right? So this first one is basically teach. And then the second component is baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is immersion, is the literal word. And this would be baptism in water.

So we have teach, baptize, and then what is the third? It is teach. Teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you. So we have teach, baptize, teach. Well, if all we needed was just one verse, and we said, Well, that’s the one I want right there. Well, aren’t some things left out of this verse? It just says, teach, baptize, teach. And so our on our end, uh, the learner’s part, it would be learn, get baptized, and continue to learn. But nothing else mentioned. You see, my point is that we can’t pick out any one verse and say, that’s the verse. That’s the verse. I probably told you about Terry the pest control man when I was a teenager reading the Bible in my living room, Terry the Pest Control Man, he was the pest control man at our house since I was a kid.

Saw me reading and said, You know, John 3 16 is the only verse you need to know for salvation. He said, There’s an there’s a period at the end of that sentence. For God’s love of the world, he gave his only begotten son.

So belief, that’s all you need to know. I said, then you know, what’s the rest of the Bible for? He said, Well, it’s good to know, but that’s the only verse you need to know in order to get saved. Well, see, the fallacy, part of the fallacy there is thinking that we can pick one verse and think that that verse has everything to say, which that verse, in a way, does if you understand what all is included in belief. Well, anyway, back on track here. So we have teach, baptize, teach in Matthew’s account. Now I’m just leading, guiding you through as I would in a one on one study. And by the way, if you say, I already know all this stuff, then try to learn how you can impart this to others.

2. Mark’s Account: Preach, Belief, Baptism, Salvation

Now let’s look at Mark’s account of the Great Commission in Mark 16, 15 and 16, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. So what’s the first component here? After go? It is make disciples. I mean, preach the gospel. Which is the same as make disciples in Matthew. It’s the same thing. The gospel is the good news. It needs to be preached. Do you have to be a preacher to preach? I see a lot of headshaking, no, and you are correct. Because Acts 8 and verse 4 says that those who are scattered went everywhere doing what? Preaching the word. I sometimes tell people, you know, I don’t do anything different than everybody else, only I just have a whole lot more time to do it.

Because I get paid to do it, so I don’t have to have a job in order to do it. And that’s why I get paid to do it. So I don’t have to have a job to do it. But all of us should be carrying out the work of preaching the gospel in some capacity, one capacity or another. Preach the gospel, the good news to all creation, every creature. Do we have an every creature concept of evangelism? Because you know who God wanted to receive the gospel? Everybody. Every single soul on the face of the planet. Second component is belief. He who has believed. Now we didn’t see that in Matthew’s account, did we? But we see that here in Mark’s account. Belief. And then we see baptism, as was mentioned in Matthew.

We have that repeated here in Mark’s account. He that believes and is baptized shall be what? Saved. And so we’re going to add that as a component. Though that is not an action, it’s a component part of this that is key. So preach, belief, baptism, salvation. By the way, does the Lord put baptism before or after salvation? Jesus Christ put it before. Doctrine of man will sometimes put it after. So that in effect the doctrine would be he that believes is saved and needs to get baptized. My aunt back in Alabama, she I have a lot of aunts in Alabama. She told me that when she was younger, she was part of a particular church, that the members, some of the members just came over to her house and started praying with her.

And she didn’t really know what was going on. They were just praying and praying and carrying on, and then when they were done, they said, Well, now you’re saved. And she thought, I am. I didn’t know. But they informed me that I’m saved. So this is good news, I guess. And then they told her sometime later, weeks or months, I can’t remember what she said, to go and get baptized with several others, sort of as the idea of an outward sign of an inward grace. Well, that is really not what Jesus said, is it? He said, He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. So he put the salvation after both the belief and the baptism. Now someone will say, maybe. Well, the end of the verse says that he who disbelieves will be condemned.

3. Luke’s Account: Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins

So all that’s really important is the belief or the unbelief and not really the baptism, because it doesn’t say he that disbelieves and is not baptized will be condemned. But think about this. Both the belief and the baptism are both necessary to the salvation. We might say he that eats and digests will live. He that does not eat will die. Now, did I have to say he that does not eat and does not digest? Because if you don’t eat, guess what? You’re not going to do. You’re not going to digest. And you’re not going to live. Okay? So both of these work together, belief and baptism. So I think that that might help us to understand. So this is Mark’s account. Preach, belief, baptism, salvation. Now we go to Luke’s account, and we’re just going to look at one verse here in Luke 24 and verse 47, which says, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

So what do we have here in Luke that we don’t have in Matthew or Mark? Repentance. And what does repentance mean? It means a change of mind that leads to a change of action. It means to turn 180 degrees and go the opposite direction of where you have been going. It means to put off the old man and put on the new man. It means to crucify the old man and to walk in a new life. And that’s what we are to do. We are to repent of our wickedness. And we also have the component here forgiveness of sins. Which is the same as forgiven as we saw in, or saved as we saw in Mark’s account. Okay? Now, let’s have a little fun here. Let’s combine these three and put one list of the components in logical order together.

4. Combine the Components in Logical Order

Can we do that as you think along with me? Okay. So if you uh made a list, it would look something like this. It would begin with preach or teach. Remember, as we saw in Matthew, it was make disciples, and in Mark, preach the gospel. So that’s on the teacher’s part. So go and preach. Go and teach.

Faith comes by what? Hearing. And hearing by the word of Christ, Romans 10 and in verse 17. And in that same chapter beginning in verse 13, it says, For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent, just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. We need to have those beautiful feet. And we need to bring that good news to the lost and dying world. Now, the next component would be the response of the learner.

Now let me ask you, would we have belief first or repentance first? Suppose after church, I came up and I told you, now listen, your car needs to be repaired. Well, how do you know? Well, I heard it making a weird noise. And I know cars. You need to go get that thing repaired like tomorrow. Would you do it? Some of you are saying, yeah, just because I believe you. It would be based on whether you believe me. You might say, Preacher God doesn’t have any idea about cars. Because my car doesn’t have any problems, it wasn’t making any noises. And if you thought that, you would be correct. I don’t. So whether you fix the problem or not is based on whether you believe. So logically, what has to come first is faith.

Because how are we going to fix our life when we don’t believe that there is any reason to fix it or that there is anything to fix? So belief and then repentance. By the way, if you don’t repent, then maybe it’s because you don’t believe.

Well, what should come next? Baptism or salvation? Well, we already dealt with that. Remember what Jesus said in Mark 16 and verse 16? He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. So which one did Jesus put first? He put the baptism first. So we have to do the same thing. You see, I’m not making this stuff up. It’s just what the Bible teaches. So we have belief, repentance, baptism, equals salvation, as Mark said, shall be saved, and Luke said, forgiveness of sins. So those are the steps of the one responding to the teaching. But then we have the sandwich effect going on, where we have it beginning with teaching and ending with teaching, as in Matthew 28, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

5. Acts 2: Every Component of the Great Commission in Order

Now we can see this is pretty simple, right? We have teach, we have belief, repentance, baptism, which results in salvation, and then we have teach again. Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was one chapter that had all of those components in order? Hmm. That would be pretty neat, wouldn’t it? Well, after Jesus ascended into heaven ten days later, you had the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. And guess what we find there? Every single component of the Great Commission in order. That’s why I say this is the surest way to teach somebody what to do to be saved. So let’s have a little bit of fun. You might turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. The Holy Spirit falls upon the twelve apostles. And they begin preaching and speaking the mighty works of God in languages they had never learned.

Speaking in tongues. You know that speaking in tongues is not la la la la la, right? It is speaking in languages that you never learned because God gave you that directly. And I do not believe that happens today. It happened to the apostles here, and there’s much more we could say on that topic. So what did Peter begin doing? He in verse 14, Peter taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, men of Judea and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words, for these men are not drunk as you suppose, because they thought that they were drunk doing all this speaking in tongues, for it is only the third hour of the day, but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel.

And he quotes from Joel, and then he begins to tell them of Jesus Christ, that you crucified Jesus. And Jesus is the one that was foretold by David. He is the one who did not experience corruption or decay. Why? Because Jesus raised from the dead. So that was prophesied in the Psalms. So what is Peter doing? He is preaching. Well, it was the first component of the Great Commission after go. It is preach. So we see preaching being done. He reached a conclusion when he said in verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. They did not believe in Jesus, and he tells them and gives them evidence to believe in Jesus.

Then he says, you need to know for certain. Now, if you didn’t believe in something, and I told you, you know, you don’t believe I’m a good mechanic. Well, you need to know for certain I’m a good mechanic. What would I be telling you? You need to believe it. You need to believe it. Now don’t believe it, okay. If Peter told these unbelieving Jews, know for certain that Jesus is the Christ, what was he in effect telling them? He was telling them to believe.

Preach and then belief. So we have that already here. Well, how did they feel about that? Look in verse 37. Now, when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? So many were convinced. They were pierced to the heart, which means their emotions, their inner person was pained. They felt guilty. By the way, do we feel guilty for the sin that we have committed? We have, in effect, crucified the Lord of heaven. Does that touch our inner person? Does that make us feel painful? If you don’t feel that way, you’re not going to repent. And so they were moved with this emotion of pain and guilt, and they said, What shall we do?

Well, they they were already told to believe, to know for certain. So why didn’t Peter just say, Well, you don’t need to do anything else? I mean, I already told you what you need to do. You need to believe, and that’s it. So there’s more to it than just faith, right? You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. James 2 and verse 24. Verse 26, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. So there’s more to it than faith. There’s works. And here are some of the works. What Peter tells them in verse 38. Peter said, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So after telling them to believe, all he had to do was tell them the other conditions that were still lacking, which were repentance and baptism. And if they did those things, they would be forgiven of their sins, which means they would be saved. You see how this follows the Great Commission? By the way, wasn’t Peter there when Jesus gave those instructions? On Matthew 28 and Mark 16 and Luke 24, he was there. And so we read in verse 41, so then those who received his word were baptized. And that day there were added about three thousand souls. And so we have 3,000 who are baptized, immersed in water for the forgiveness of sins, and for no other reason than for the forgiveness of sins, not for an outward sign of an inward grace.

And if that was the reason you were baptized, maybe you need to think about whether you were baptized for the right reason and with the right understanding. I’m not the judge of that, but you need to examine your heart if that is the case for you. I’ve come across many who told me that that is the case for them, and many of them were baptized for real. So, imagine 3,000 people. How many baptisms did we have last year here? Something like 20? And we say that’s a lot. It should be more like a hundred. It should be many more. I’m not content with 20. But I’m glad that there were 20. But imagine 3,000. I mean, it’s hard to fathom that. I don’t know what body of water they used or bodies of water, but that’s a lot of people doing a lot of baptizing and a lot of people getting baptized.

And these people just heard the gospel for the first time. How long is it going to take you? You hear it and you hear it, and you hear it over and over and over and over. And it’s not hard, it’s not complicated, it’s simple, and you know you can do it, but you keep putting it off. These 3,000 didn’t put it off. So are you going to be one of the 3,000 or not? Well, did the apostles just leave them and say good luck? Hope the rest of your life goes well. Verse 42 says they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and to prayer. So they were continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching, which means the apostles were continuing to do what?

Teach. Almost just like Jesus’ final instructions. How about that? How about that? By the way, if you help somebody to get baptized, they will need continual help. Dency Collins preaches up in St. Peter’s, Missouri, told me, I think the number was two years is how long he typically commits to someone in one on one studies after he has baptized them. Two years. I was very impressed by that. Very impressed by that. And so we need to remember that. People who get baptized, they need continual help. Well, they’re coming to church. Well, they need more help than that. And Greg and I can only do so much. And Mr. Harkwriter can only do so much. So we need to all be willing to pitch in and to help to look out for these new Christians.

6. What About Confessing Christ?

Amen. Now our comparison is complete. The components that we find on the day of Pentecost match exactly Jesus’ last instructions. And again, the components are number one, preach or teach. Then the response of the learner is belief, repentance, baptism, and if they do those things, the result is they shall be saved. And then on the teacher’s part, continue to teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you, as Jesus said in Matthew 28. I didn’t come up with this. The Church of Christ didn’t come up with this. This is just straight from the Bible. What about confessing Christ? It’s important, isn’t it? Why isn’t it included in this information? Romans 10, 9 and 10 says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God is raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved.

For with a heart a person believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So isn’t confession important? Absolutely. Perhaps the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch can help us to understand why this information is not included in Acts 2 or in the final instructions of Jesus to the apostles. To make the story kind of short, Philip came upon a chariot, was told by an angel to do this, and riding in this chariot there was a eunuch. And Philip winds up in the eunuch, teaching him from the prophet Isaiah. And from that passage, he teaches him about Jesus. And when they come to some water, the eunuch says, Look, water, what hinders me from being baptized? And so he was baptized. But before he baptized him, in Acts 8 and verse 37, Philip said to him, If you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Notice that he did not say, if you confess, you may. He said, if you believe, you may. And then he confessed his belief. Confession is necessary to communicate that one is a believer. And when Jesus said, you know, in Matthew 10, 32 and 33, therefore, everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my father is in heaven. And everyone who denies me before men, I will also deny him before my father is in heaven. Was he talking about a once upon a time, repeat after me these words, confession? He’s talking about a life of confession. And even in Romans 10, 9 and 10, that confession leads to salvation.

I believe that what he’s talking about is the kind of person who is justified by faith is the kind of person who confesses Christ and believes in him. I don’t think it’s primarily talking about a once upon a time thing to get you baptized. Confession is necessary to communicate that one is a believer. God wants your heart.

Conclusion

He wants your salvation. More than you can imagine. He wants to save you.

First, learn the gospel. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sins. Be baptized, buried in water for the remission of your sins. And continue learning everything that Jesus has taught so that you may observe it. That’s what you must do. God’s hand is outstretched. It is waiting for you. How much more could God do than He has already done for your salvation? Look where you are. Look what you have learned. Look what you have been taught today. What more could God do for you than He has done? And will you look at that and say, not today? Because I want to tell you, brethren, and those who are not brethren, there is no reason for you to leave this building without the utmost confidence that you will go to heaven the moment you die.

You don’t have to leave this building with the fear of hell. You don’t have to live that way. Because you can become a Christian today. And if you’re one who has fallen, you can turn back to Him now. If we can pray for you, or if you’d like to be immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins. Then please come now as we stand and sing the song of invitation.