Salvation From 30,000 Feet - Part 1 - Jay Loyd

Welcome to the official podcast of the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've

tuned in for today's message. Whether you're

on your morning commute or if you're relaxing

at home, we're here to share the strength and

truth of God's Word with our community. If you're

in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in

person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather

every Sunday morning at 1030 a .m. and in the

afternoon at 230 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays

at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together

and dive in to today's sermon. This evening we

want to study for a little while salvation from

3 ,000 feet that'd be a low -flying airplane

30 ,000 feet 30 ,000 feet and if you'll notice

we've got a picture looking out a window and

usually whenever you say we're going to look

at something from 30 ,000 feet what you're saying

is we're going to take a high view of something

we're going to look at it in as broad an aspect

as we possibly can and what I want to do this

evening is begin a study that will take us through

maybe the next two or three evenings about salvation

and we want to look at salvation from the very

beginning to the very end and I know a lot of

times whenever we study about salvation we'll

study about certain aspects of salvation but

what I want us to do is to get a big picture

view of what salvation is because whenever we

do that it's going to help us to understand some

things maybe that aren't real clear to us and

hopefully bring us to a greater understanding

and a better appreciation for what it means that

the Lord saves us. And so this evening we're

going to go back to the very beginning and we're

going to talk about being a sinner because Paul

said in Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and have

fallen short of the glory of God and all means

all. That's all of us. Those of us who are Christians,

there was that time when we fell short of the

glory of God and if you're here tonight and you're

not a Christian and you haven't obeyed the Please

give careful attention to what the word speaks

to you this evening. And we're going to go from

being a sinner and we're going to go all the

way through to the judgment. that time whenever

there's going to be a resurrection to life that

you're going to be a time for a resurrection

to condemnation and the Bible tells us that in

John 5 28 Jesus said don't marvel for the hours

coming in which all who are in their graves will

hear his voice and come forth those who have

done good to the resurrection of life and those

who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation

so all of us sitting here tonight have fallen

short of the glory of God. And all of us here

tonight are going to hear the voice of the Lord

one day and we're going to come forth from our

grave and we're going to go to the resurrection

to life or the resurrection to condemnation.

All of us. So when we study about salvation,

it's something that all of us need to listen

to because whether you are a sinner tonight,

you haven't obeyed the gospel, you're not a Christian,

and if you are a Christian, we need to understand

what this looks like from beginning to end and

understand the truth of God concerning salvation.

Well this evening we want to talk about what

does it mean to be a sinner Okay to be a sinner

doesn't just mean well I do some bad things and

I've made some mistakes and I haven't been a

good boy No, it means far more than that. It

is much more profound than just being a group

of imperfect people The Bible tells us in Romans

3 23 all have sinned and fall short of the glory

of God Let me ask you this. What's the glory

of God? Well, the glory of God is the standard,

because those that fall short of the standard

are sinners. So in order to understand what it

means to be a sinner, we need to understand what

the glory of God is. What is that glory? Well,

just to put it plain, it is perfect holiness

and righteousness. Perfection. You see, whenever

we talk about God and we talk about God's glory,

we don't talk about God's glory in graduated

terms. You know, He's really glorious. He's a

lot glorious, though He is absolute in His glory

and in His perfection. And whenever we consider

ourselves before God, we have to consider Him

as the perfect standard, and the question is

really simple. Am I perfect like God? And if

I'm not perfect like God, I'm a sinner. I'm a

sinner. Now you may look around this room and

think, well, I'm as good as the people that are

here. And you may follow me around during my

daily life and watch me stumble and fumble and

look at me and think, well, I'm just, I'm as

good as you are preacher. But the only problem

is the people in this building and the preacher

is not the standard of righteousness. God is

the standard and God is perfect. You're either

perfect or you're not perfect. There's no such

thing as sort of perfect or kind of perfect.

You are either right with God in his perfection

and in his holiness or you're not and if you

are not, you are a sinner. There was a man in

the Old Testament that saw the glory of God in

Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 to 5 Isaiah was carried

Isaiah 6:1–5

off into a vision and we read we won't read the

whole text but he looks into the temple and the

temple was filled with the glory of God and then

all of the hosts the seraphim were there singing

holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole

earth is full of his glory Whenever the heavenly

chorus seems about things about the holiness

of God, they don't just say holy is God They

say, holy, holy, holy. Why three times? That's

called a Hebrew superlative. Like you and I would

use, okay, something's hot, something's hotter,

something is the hottest. Whatever's the hottest,

everything else is less than that. Well, that's

like saying God is holy. No, wait a minute. He's

not holy. He's holier. No, no, that's not enough.

He's the holiest. He's the holiest. And notice

how Isaiah responds to seeing the holiness of

God. Notice verse number five, he said, so I

said, God, aren't I a pretty good guy? I mean,

after all, I'm a prophet. So you and I need to

be okay, don't we? He didn't say that, did he?

He didn't say God look around at all of these

people of the children of Israel and how wicked

and corrupt they are God Don't I look really

good? Aren't you and I good? Isaiah when he saw

the holiness of God said what every sinner should

say Whenever they consider themselves in light

of the holiness of God. Woe is me The word woe

that's used there is a pronouncement of a curse.

Isaiah cursed himself before God. He wasn't going

to stand before God and try to make, you know,

to try to reason with God and talk to God and

convince God that he was a pretty good guy. He

knew immediately when he saw the glory of God,

he says, woe is me. That would be the same as

saying condemned is me doomed is me ruined is

me for I am undone And if you're here tonight

and you're not a Christian and you consider the

glory of God don't look at the people in this

room and compare yourself to them. Don't look

at me and compare yourself to me. You look directly

into the holiness of God and you say the only

thing that a sinner can say before the glory

of God, I am lost. And you are just fooling yourself

if you say anything different. That's the only

reasonable and possible response. to the glory

of God. Why are you getting so worked up about

this? Well, because if we don't understand this,

we're not going to appreciate everything that

follows after that. We're going to look at salvation

like, yeah, when I was before God, I was a pretty

good person, but because of God's salvation,

I've become a better person. No? It's not about

a good, a bad person become a better person.

Whenever we look at the words of the Apostle

Paul and he characterized lost people, he referred

to them as dead people. What can a dead person

do for themselves? Nothing. And as we're going

to study this evening, as you stand and you look

at the glory of God, you have to understand,

and I have to understand before I was in Christ,

that I was a dead person. I was doomed in light

of the glory of God. Paul says in Romans 1, 18,

the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against

all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Throughout

the history of God's dealings with His creation,

He has manifested His wrath towards all ungodliness

and worldly lust. Our God is an angry God. Our

God's an angry God. Notice what the psalmist

says in Psalm 7 verse 11. God is a just judge

Psalms 7:11

and God is angry with the wicked every day. You

know what happened today? God was angry. God

was angry today. You know what's going to happen

tomorrow? God's going to be angry. You know why

He's going to be angry? Because there's wickedness

every day in this world. And we look at this

and we think, well, I thought God was a God of

love. Hey, God can do two things at the same

time. He's God. He can love and he can plead

with humanity and cry out to them with the voice

of grace Saying be saved and be saved today and

all the while he's doing that He's over here

with the other hand sharpening his sword Excuse

me sharpening his sword and getting his quiver

of arrows ready to go out and bring about judgment

against the wicked He can do both. In fact, when

you read verses 11 and 12, that's exactly what

the psalmist tells us that he's doing. He's angry

every day with the wicked. Every day the Lord

sharpens his sword and every day the Lord gets

his bow and arrow ready to execute vengeance

and wrath against the wicked. And that's what

makes God's love so amazing. So amazing. But

in order to appreciate his grace and his love

we have to understand his anger and his wrath

and again He can do two things like that at the

same time because he's God Because he's God Roman

623 the wages of sin is death the gift of God

is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord So if

you're here tonight and you're not a Christian,

this is where you are. You're standing before

a God who is perfect, that a God who looks at

your sin and your iniquity today and he's angry

with you. He's angry with you. But while he's

angry with you, he's also speaking to you and

pleading you from the mercies and love of his

heart. Be saved. because this sword over here

that I'm sharpening for the wicked, I don't want

to use that on you. These arrows and this bow

over here that I'm getting ready to use on the

wicked, I don't want to use that on you. And

so we don't need to, if you're a sinner, to sit

there and try to rationalize and reason about

your situation before God because it's very simple.

It's very absolute. God is perfect. So either

you're perfect and you're okay with God like

you are or you are Imperfect and you are a vessel

of his wrath right now And if those of us who

are our Christians when we are in Christ we need

to understand that this is what salvation is

about You know, I grew up all of my life in the

church when I obeyed the gospel. I just did what

was expected of me And it wasn't until later

on in the faith that I truly realized what happened

in my life that day that God saved me in Jesus

Christ. And so if we're sitting here as Christians

and we think, well, I've already obeyed the gospel,

this doesn't apply to me. I want you to understand,

look at these verses, Romans and Romans. Who

was Paul writing to about all of this? He was

writing to Christians about all of this. Because

you can't live right as a Christian if you don't

understand your salvation. And a lot of what

we're going to read tonight about salvation of

the sinner, Paul writes to Christians about because

he wants Christians to understand. And a lot

of times as Christians we don't fully realize

until we grow in the truth and the awareness

of what God has done for us and realize that

yeah though I went to church all of my life and

the people at church sang my praises because

I was such a good boy. At that time I stood before

a perfect God doomed to His wrath. And so whether

we are someone who has been raised in the church

and did what was expected. which is a good expectation

and our parents should teach us that or if we

are the most wicked sinner in the world coming

in off the street to find out about what's going

on here and then comes in repentance to Jesus

the same miracle of salvation occurs in every

party because in every situation it's God taking

a dead person and making them alive again. So

what does a sinner need? A sinner needs to be

justified. The word justified is a forensic courtroom

term. We read the word justified in the Bible

a lot and I want us to really stop and understand

what being justified means. The definition, it's

a term to set forth as righteous, a judicial

decision to free a man from his guilt. It's a

courtroom term where you have a judge and someone

comes before the judge and then the judge declares,

You are righteous. You are righteous. What I

want us to notice is that the Bible teaches that

there are two ways of justification. It's very

clear. Paul says in Romans 10 verse number three,

talking about his countrymen, he says, for they

being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking

to establish their own righteousness have not

submitted to the righteousness of God. Very clear.

There is God's righteousness. and there is our

own righteousness. Paul talks about that in Philippians

Philippians 3:6

3 verse 6 and be found in him not having my own

righteousness which is from the law but that

which is through faith in Christ the righteousness

which is from God by faith. So again there is

a righteousness of God that is God's way of providing

for our righteousness and there is our own righteousness

that is us providing our own way. for righteousness.

And what I want us to highlight is how that these

two ways of righteousness are exclusive to each

other. Paul says in Romans four verse number

four, now to him who works the wages are not

counted as greats but as debt. And whenever Paul

talks about to him who works he's talking about

someone who is going to try to be righteous on

their own. And he says, the person that tries

to be righteous on their own, what they're seeking

to do is in debt God to them because of their

goodness, where God is not constrained by his

grace, but God is constrained by debt in order

to declare that person righteous. In other words,

God looks at Jay and says, Jay, you're just so

good. I'm just doing what I've got to do. I owe

you this. You're righteous. Paul goes on to say

in Romans 11 verse number 6 and if by grace then

it is no longer of works otherwise grace is no

longer grace but it is of works it is no longer

grace otherwise work is no longer work. Say that

fast three times in a row. But basically what

that saying is is that grace being justified

by grace and being justified by works are mutually

exclusive and this is a point that I want to

emphasize this evening because sometimes whenever

it comes to these methods of justification we

get them confused and come to some false understandings

about certain doctrines pertaining to salvation.

So we want to be very clear about what these

two methods of justification are. To be justified

personally means that I'm trying to earn salvation

and that there is no grace and there is no faith

in Christ. I mean, when it says your own salvation,

it is your own. You're saying, God, God, I don't

need you. I don't need your grace. I don't need

Jesus Christ. I can do this by myself and I can

do such a good job at this that I'm going to

earn your righteous favor towards me. That's

what it means to seek to be justified by personal

righteousness. That's what it means to seek to

be justified by works. That whenever a person

and whenever the Bible talks about being justified

by works He's talking about trying to be justified

in a way that you earn God's righteous favor

and you do it without God's grace and you do

it without faith in Jesus Christ Whenever we

look at God's righteousness, it's a gift In other

words, we look at the glory of God and say I

can't earn this Once you become imperfect, you

can't go back and be perfect. Once you ring the

bell of sin in your life, you can't unring that

bell. You can't un -sin. Well, how many sins

does it take to separate us from God? Well, how

many sins did it take to separate a creation

from God? How many sins did it take to separate

a creation from God? So if one sin separates

an entire creation from God imagine what one

sin does to you in God You see we're talking

about it. No, it's so it's not a matter of how

much it's a matter of have you And as we read,

we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory

of God. And so we realize, I can't earn it. God,

I need your gracious favor. I need your mercy.

I need someone other than myself to save me because

I can't save myself. I need to put my faith in

Christ Jesus. Now understand how clearly distinct

those two things are. Because a lot of times

what happens is whenever we preach the gospel

and we preach what's necessary for salvation,

people want to say, oh, but you're preaching

salvation by works. And we're going to illustrate

tonight that we're not. The idea is in the religious

world, well, if you think you have to do something

in order to be saved, then you're trying to be

justified by works. Where in the Bible did that

come from? Nowhere. That's just an idea that

we've gotten in our mind and it's one of those

things that's been repeated so much and you hear

it so much that you think, well, it's just got

to be in the Bible somewhere and it has to be

true, but it's not. To do something to be saved

does not mean that you're trying to be justified

by works What determines whether you're trying

to be justified by works or not is am I trying

to earn salvation? Am I trying to do it without

the grace of God and am I trying to do it without

faith in Jesus Christ? That's what it means to

be justified by works Notice what Paul says,

Galatians 2 .16, knowing that a man is not justified

by the works of law but by faith in Jesus Christ.

Notice how these are exclusive to each other.

Works of law, faith in Jesus Christ. Those are

exclusive. I can't do something out of faith

towards Jesus Christ and it be something that's

a work of law because they're exclusive to each

other. He goes on to say, justified by faith

in Christ and not by works of law. Notice how

faith in Christ and works of law, personal pursuit

of righteousness, that those things are mutually

exclusive and you can't conflate them in some

way. So let's remember that point. Ephesians

2, 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved.

And again, notice that it's contrasted with not

of works, not of yourselves, but it is the gift

of God. Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness

which we have done, but according to his mercy

he saved us. Again, notice that these are exclusive

to each other. And you'll understand why I emphasize

this here in just a moment. So if we were going

to make a summary statement of this when the

Bible speaks about works that do not save or

justify It's speaking specifically about the

works that a sinner does Absent of God's grace

and void of any faith in Christ to earn righteousness

from God To determine whether something is you're

being trying to be justified by a work by works

the question to ask is not Well, are you doing

something to be saved? The question to ask is,

is this of grace through faith in Jesus? If it's

not of faith, if it's not of grace and not of

faith in Jesus, then it's seeking to be justified

by works. But if something can be shown to be

done because of grace and out of faith in Jesus,

even though you're doing something, you're not

doing something to merit salvation of your own

self, but rather you're seeking to be saved by

the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Notice what Paul said in Galatians 2 .21. Paul

was writing to some Christians at Galatia. who

had begun in the faith, they had begun in the

gospel, but then they decided all of a sudden

because of some false teachers, you know what?

We're going to forget about Christ and we're

going to forget about grace and we're just going

to try to be justified by ourselves. So we said

up here a while ago that to be justified by works

means no grace and no Christ. Listen to what

Paul says. in Galatians 2 .21 as he's responding

to these teachers and these people who were believing

that they don't need grace and they don't need

Christ and they can be saved on their own. I

do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness

comes through the law then Christ died in vain.

Okay, so trying to be justified by personal righteousness,

righteousness through the law, Paul said implies

here that if a person tries to do that, they

don't embrace God's grace. They take God's grace

and they set it over here and they say, I don't

need that. I don't need that. And he goes over

here to the cross of Jesus and says, I don't

need that. I don't know why you died. There's

no need to die for me. I can make myself righteous.

That's what it looks like to be justified by

works rejecting grace and rejecting Christ. It's

very clear Galatians 5 for Paul talking again

to these people who were believing they could

be justified without grace and without Christ

He says you are become a strange from Christ

you who attempt to be justified by law you fallen

from grace So notice here the same things. Those

who were attempting to be justified by law, justified

by personal righteousness, He tells them, you're

estranged from Christ. In other words, you were

over here with Christ, but now you've looked

at Christ and said, I don't need you, and you've

walked away from Christ and you're estranged

from Him. And that grace that you once were standing

in and hoping in and living in, you have just

fallen away from it. And so whenever we speak

about being justified and being justified by

works, we're talking about a method of trying

to be justified by earning God's righteous favor

without God's grace and without faith in Jesus.

And so Paul says in Romans 3, 24 to 25, you need

God's grace and you need Jesus. being justified

freely by His grace. Not a one of us could be

righteous were it not for the gracious disposition

of God and His willingness and His loving favor

upon us. And we could work and we could work

and we could plead and we could cry all we want.

And it never happened if our God was not gracious.

And here's the thing about God's grace. Not only

does God's grace give him the willingness, but

also God's grace also gives us the provision

that we need. It's not enough for God to just

want to save us if he doesn't provide for what

we need. And out of his grace, he sent Jesus

and through Jesus, we have redemption. The word

redemption means releasing upon receipt of a

ransom, deliverance as the result of expiation,

whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood

through faith to demonstrate his righteousness.

So God demonstrated his righteous plan when he

sent Jesus to the earth, and then Jesus walked

among us perfectly, went to the cross, died on

the cross to pay the price for your sin and my

sin, and then God says, That's my plan for righteousness.

He demonstrated it. But what's a propitiation?

A propitiation is an expiation. How many times

this week have you used the word expiation? Probably

not a lot. Not a word that we use a lot. An expiation

just simply means the removal, the wiping away,

or the cleansing of sin and guilt through a paying

penalty or substitute sacrifice. God is not a

God that justifies us and makes us righteous

by just looking at us and saying, oh, that's

okay. I understand. You're just human. Nobody's

perfect. He can't do that because he is perfect.

And if God compromises with your sin and God

compromises with my sin, he's not perfect anymore.

And so for God to maintain his perfection and

his righteous justice, sin has to be paid for.

And the paying of that penalty came through Jesus

Christ. For he made him who knew no sin to be

sin for us that he might become, that we might

become the righteousness of God in him. You ever

wonder why did God choose us to save us this

way? I mean, after all, He's God. He can do anything

He wants, can't He? Well, no, He can't. God is

bound by His own justice. God cannot go against

Himself. God cannot deny His righteous demands,

and because of His holy, holy, holy nature, sin

has to be punished. And the only way that sin

can be punished is either all the sinful people

die and go to hell or the perfect Son of God

who is sinless dies upon the cross for our sins.

And that's what He did. He sent Jesus who knew

no sin. Jesus was perfect. But he became sin

for us. What does that mean? He became the sin

Sacrifice for us he went to the cross and died

as a sinner even though he was not a sinner So

those of us who are sinners can live as if we

had no sin You see the transaction That we might

become the righteousness of God in him When Jesus

went to the cross and died on the cross, he had

no sin. He paid a debt that he didn't owe. So

there is this big open account at the cross.

An account where a price for sin was paid but

no sin was committed. So then what God does is

he takes our sin and he puts it at the cross.

And that is how righteous and how holy God is.

That when the righteous and holy son of God dies

as a sinner even though he's a perfect man that

price is so Spectacular and so amazing that it

can take upon itself the sins of all mankind

throughout all Generations in every part of this

world for however long the world exists to make

that person righteous You see, folks, we're not

just playing church here. This is amazing. This

is magnificent. And if we don't understand it,

then if you're a sinner, you're going to die

in your sin. And if you're a saint and you don't

understand this, you're not going to be able

to live out your salvation that we've been called

to live out. Paul said in Romans 6 verse number

7, for he who has died is freed from sin. When

you see the word died that's used there, or rather

freed actually, whenever you look in the Greek

and you look at the Greek word, it's actually

the same Greek word as justified. It's as if

Paul says for he who has died has been justified

from sin for he who has died has been freed from

sin Well, how can we die you see the wages of

sin is death so we have to die But if we die

for our own sins, then we're hopelessly lost

for all of eternity And again Paul says being

justified freely and so this statement right

here says that he who has died has been freed

from sin Here's the question. Have you died tonight?

Have you died tonight? Anybody say well, how

do I die? Well when we go to verse number eight

Paul says now if we died with Christ we believe

that we shall also live with him That's how we

die We die with Christ Here's Christ over here

hanging on the cross paying the atonement for

our sin and then I go to the cross and I take

my place with my Savior and I've died with him

and The Bible says that when I've died the penalty

for sin has been taken care of and now I am righteous

and justified How do we die with Christ? Romans

Romans 6:3–8

chapter 6 verses 3 through 8. Whenever we look

at the cross and we realize I cannot save myself,

that I need the grace of God, that I need Jesus

Christ and I come in contrition before the cross

and I plead out to Jesus that I believe that

you are the Son of God having that desire to

change my life. in a different direction where

in the past I have lived walking away from God

now I want to walk to God and then I submit as

the Bible talks about in baptism and it's in

baptism that I die with Christ notice what Paul

says do you not know that as many of us as were

baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized where

into his death When a repentant believing sinner

is baptized, they are baptized into Christ's

death. Christ's death becomes your death. You've

died with Christ and you're freed from sin. We

are buried with him through baptism into death.

We are united together in the likeness of his

death. To die with Christ to be justified and

freed from sin, you must be baptized. The Apostle

Paul said in Galatians 2 .20, I have been crucified

with Christ, nevertheless I live. How was Paul

crucified with Christ? When Paul came to Christ

as a repentant believer, submitted himself to

baptism whenever Ananias told him, arise and

be baptized and wash away your sins and calling

on the name of the Lord, Paul died with Christ

that day. and he was justified and then he goes

on to live not him but Christ in him but a lot

of times the objection is raised to baptism well

if you're baptized if you think that you got

to be baptized to be saved then you think you've

got to do something to be saved and then therefore

you think that you're saved by works no That's

not right. I'm just going to be honest with you.

It's just not right. Let's look at baptism and

how it relates to being saved by grace through

faith. In Ephesians chapter 2 and Colossians

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention Colossians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, both of these texts talk about being

saved by grace through faith. And to fully understand

Paul's teaching about this, we have to... hear

the whole counsel of God. Notice the similarities

between these texts. In Ephesians 2, Paul is

talking to people who had been dead in trespasses

and sins. In Colossians chapter 2, what's he

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

talking about? He's talking about people whenever

they were dead in their trespasses and sins.

Kind of sounds like he's talking about the same

thing, doesn't it? We go a little further and

then Paul says okay, you were dead in your trespasses

and sins And now you've been made alive together

with Christ and then over here He said you were

dead in your trespasses and sins and you were

made alive together with Christ He's talking

about the same thing in each text, isn't he?

He is In the Ephesians 2 text he says okay after

you've been made alive together with Christ what

that is is you have been saved by grace In Colossians

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 he says after you've been made alive

together with him. He has forgiven you all your

trespasses So whenever we put these two texts

side -by -side What can we glean from this? Well

if I was dead in sin and made alive with Christ,

I was saved by grace. And whenever I was saved

by grace, what happened? I was forgiven of all

of my trespasses. You see how the two go together?

So many times whenever you hear baptism taught

or you read about baptism, so many instances

if you go on the internet and just bring up articles

about the necessity of baptism, most times they

don't start with verses that talk about baptism.

You know where they start? Ephesians chapter

two. Ephesians chapter two. The salvation is

by grace through faith not of works lest any

man should boast. So see their baptism is a work

because it's something you do to be saved and

so therefore it's not necessary for salvation.

That's just bad Bible interpretation and I'm

not standing up here as an authority on biblical

hermeneutics but let's just be real clear that

is just not sound reasoning about scripture.

because whenever you look at what Paul says in

each of these instances, dead in sin, dead in

sin, made alive to Christ, made alive to Christ,

by grace you've been saved, having forgiven you

all trespasses. And notice when this takes place

in verse number 12 of Colossians 2, buried with

him in baptism. in which you also were raised

with him through faith in the working of God

who raised him from the dead. When we plead,

when this congregation... for people to be baptized

to be saved. They don't do that because they

believe in salvation by works. They do that because

the scriptures teach that it is in that that

we are baptized into Jesus' death. We are raised

with Him through faith in what? The working of

God. There's not a person that walks into that

water thinking that when they're baptized that

they've earned salvation without God's grace

and without Jesus Christ. Not a one. When they

do that, they do that because they've embraced

the grace of God. They believe in Jesus. They

believe in his atoning work on the cross. And

they want to be in his death. And they submit

to baptism because the Bible says that in that,

God goes to work. God goes to work. I don't earn

it, you don't earn it. God goes to work to raise

us from the dead. Now whenever you put Ephesians

2 and Colossians 2 together, you get the full

picture. Both Ephesians and Colossians tell us

we're dead in trespasses and sins. Colossians

tell us then we're buried with Christ in baptism.

Ephesians and Colossians both tell us that we're

made alive with Christ Colossians tells us that

we have been forgiven of all of our trespasses

and then Ephesians tells us that we've been saved

by grace through faith it all works out and makes

perfect sense so is baptism a work of personal

righteousness well let's just check it out okay

we said that we that to do something by works

means that you try to earn it You don't want

God's grace and you don't need Jesus. Let's put

baptism to the test. Why does the scriptures

teach us about baptism? Well, number one, Jesus

commanded it. So whenever I or anyone else submits

to Christian baptism, we're not doing it because

we came up with the idea and we're gonna try

to earn salvation. We're doing it because the

God, the Savior and the Lord that sits at the

right hand of the throne of God commanded his

disciples to go out and to do it. We do it because

Jesus commanded it. Oh, but wait a minute. If

you're justified by works, you don't need Jesus.

Why would you listen to Jesus? because baptism

is not a work of self -righteousness. It's to

be done in the name of Jesus. In Acts 2 -38,

Peter said, Repent and be baptized for the remission

of your sins in the name of Jesus Christ. In

Galatians 3 -27, Paul says that we are baptized

into Jesus. Romans 6 -3 says we're baptized into

Jesus' death. Colossians 2 12 says baptism unites

us with Jesus Colossians 2 12 tells us that it

is done in faith through the operation of God

Baptism is not a work of man's righteousness

to earn salvation Because whenever you look at

baptism as taught in the scriptures it is all

because of Jesus. It is all because of the grace

of God. So this evening we've looked at the sinner

and if you're here tonight and you haven't been

baptized, if you're here tonight and you haven't

obeyed the gospel and you're not a Christian,

this is something that's very urgent and very

important to you because tonight right now you're

staring the glory of God in the face and you

may look at that glory and think well I'm okay

but while you're doing that the psalmist tells

us that he's sharpening his sword and he's getting

his bows and arrows ready your response needs

to be the response of Isaiah I am condemned How

can you live another moment in this world knowing

that you stand before the creator and Lord and

God of the universe, condemned before him as

a vessel of wrath? You need to go to the cross.

Thousands and thousands of people have made that

trek to the cross. and have taken their sins

to the cross and you know what there's room for

your sins there tonight there's room for your

sins there you need to be baptized you need to

be baptized because it is in baptism the bible

tells us that god operates and takes you from

being dead in your sin to being made alive with

jesus You need to be justified so that you can

become a saint. And that's what a Christian is.

A person that's justified is a saint. A saint

is someone who has been made righteous and been

made holy by God. You know sometimes we look

at ourselves and we like to say, well, I'm no

saint. Well, if you're not a saint, you're lost.

If you're not a saint, you're lost. Become a

saint tonight. And we're doing this not of personal

works of righteousness lest any man should boast.

I've been a Christian now for 40 -something years

and not one day have I boasted about being baptized.

My boast is in Jesus Christ. My boast is in the

grace and the faithfulness of God the Father

who operated in that moment in time to take me

from being dead in sin to alive with Jesus. He

can do that for you tonight. Thank you for listening

to today's sermon from the Church of Christ Wheeler

area. We hope this message encouraged you and

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