In this sermon, Pastor Babij identifies the fundamental problem with most people’s understanding of salvation: they start with what Jesus accomplished on the cross instead of the glorious character of God. As a result, most people create a false version of God in their minds and do not take their spiritual condition very seriously. To correct this error, Pastor Babij explains four matters which must be understood and dealt with before one can become a true Christian and receive eternal life: the character of God, sin, salvation, and belief.
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okay this morning I’m going to step out of uh my normal preaching on the gospel of Mark and I’m going to look at the scriptures as far as what the Bible says about salvation and so there’s four matters you should seriously consider if you’re serious about becoming a Biblical Christian that’s what I want to look at this morning and um let me have a word of prayer and then I’ll continue let’s pray Lord this morning I do ask you in and praise you for your goodness to us and your kindness to us thank you Lord that you are still bringing the gospel to those who have not yet heard it who though to those who don’t even desire it because they think they have uh their own way to be made right with you but I pray Lord this morning that wherever people are at that you would speak to them from the word of God so we can and they can Lord understand your mind on the matter and I pray Lord Jesus you would bring Holy Spirit conviction of sin of righteousness of judgment and bring those who are you preparing and drawing father that you’re drawing to Christ to come and confess you as their lord and savior and I just pray you bless our time together now this morning in Christ’s name amen now we’re going to look at selected passages of scripture so there is provided in the bulletin a blue sheet to follow along uh the passage on Exodus 34 7 is not the correct one 34 7 is but the passage is not so I’ll just read you the correct one I get to that but I want to just read you a passage of scripture from the gospel of Mark before I continue and it is about when Jesus met up with the Rich Young Ruler in Mark chapter 10 in verse number 17 and this is what it says as he was setting out on a journey a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him good teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus said to him why do you call me good no one is good except God Alone you know the Commandments do not murder do not commit adultery do not steal do not bear false witness do do not defraud honor father and mother and he said to him teacher I have kept all these things from my youth up looking at him Jesus felt a love for him and said to him one thing you lack go and sell all your possession and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me at these words he’s he was saddened and went away grieving for he was one who owned much property and Jesus looking around and said to his disciples how hard it is it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God the disciples were amazed at his words but Jesus answered again and said to them children how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God they were even more astonished and said to him then who can be saved looking at them Jesus says with people it is impossible but not with God all things are possible with God now the primary focus when Jesus was talking with the Rich Young Ruler was not his need to be saved at least initially but his lack of understanding of the character of God the gospel of Christ begins with God and His glory that’s first not with man it tells people that they have offended a holy God who will by no means pass by sin then it also reminds Sinners that the only hope of Salvation is to be found in the grace and the power of the same God in whom they have offended with their sin most evangelism rushes to blaze a trail to heaven ignoring the implications of the character of God as if it’s not really important for a sinner to have a clear apprehension of God and what God wants us to know concerning salvation in other words without the knowledge of God a sinner cannot know whom he has offended nor The God Who threatens him with destruction and condemnation because of his sin or who is able to save him you see many people hope they will have eternal life someday in a good place but the factor of the matter is no one is ready to hear about the way of salvation until they behold the holy God of scriptures in his holy Glory see people are usually ready to talk about religion and politics aren’t they especially today especially in my family that’s a regular conversation however religion is very subjective religion belongs actually in the category of sociology and anthropology not in the category category of theology see religion is the observation of how different people groups who reside in different places in the world formulate their understanding of something or someone Beyond themselves that is in the spiritual world they formulate their understanding of the spiritual World from the darkness of their own heart within the confines of the Dominion of the Prince of Darkness which is Satan in fact if you look at your sheet the first passage of scripture there is from second Corinthians 4 4 where it says in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that’s the God of this world of Satan that they might not see notice what he’s trying to prevent them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is it in the image of God in other words Satan will accommodate anyone or any group in formulating a religious system that may come to their mind or maybe developed within that culture or people group but Satan’s main goal is to keep them blinded for him more religion the more religions the better because the more religions the more confusing it gets and if you can keep people confused then he can keep them blinded so he will accommodate to keep people thinking they are on the right path of spiritual wisdom and and insight nonetheless in the main mission for Satan is to keep people in the dark concerning theology that is to keep people blinded to the glory of Christ who is in the image of God see theology is the study of God and the only way that we can study about God is in the Holy scriptures where we find God’s self-revelation of himself yes creation is crying out that there is a God that he’s powerful that he’s creative that he’s there that he’s done all these things God’s given us a conscience and the law of God is on our conscience that we know when we do right and wrong where did that come from that came from God himself because we’re created in the image of God so what I am saying is that unless a person is acquainted with who God is in his threefold holiness whom is alone good who is unapproachable in His Brilliant Holiness they cannot know themselves as they really are for example Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah chapter 6 had an incredible event happened to him in his in his life and the event reads like this it says in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 in the year of King uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on his throne lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple seraphim stood above him each having six wings with two covering his face and with two covering his feet and with two he flew and one called out to one another holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole Earth is filled with his glory and the foundations of his threshold tremble as his at his voice the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke then I said Isaiah said woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king of the Lord of hosts then one of the seraphims flew to me with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongues and touched my mouth with it and says behold this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is Forgiven then I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us then he said the prophet says here I am send me so this is an example that this prophet beheld God high and lifted up in his Holiness and only then did he see himself for who he really was a creature in Rebellion against an infinitely pure God he saw himself a sinner a man of unclean lips he saw himself unclean he saw himself under God’s judgment see this knowledge of God’s holiness was particularly pertinent to bring a proper fear of God into his soul until we see God like that which of course caused him to cry out woe is me I am a man ruined I’m a man of unclean lips I live among people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts see he came to understand that day at least five things number one God’s holy and he is separated from man in the sense that sin separates us from God second thing he learned and understood is that he needed to repent of a sin turn from his sin and turn to God he couldn’t restore himself he couldn’t do anything to rescue himself from his sin so he understood that that day that God is the one who provides forgiveness God is the one who provides cleansing God is the one who provides restoration and that day he understood the need to serve God he was willing to serve the true Living God and then of course all those together means that he came to understand that the reason why anyone gets saved and comes into the God’s kingdom is so they can really worship God because now they know who he is now they know who they belong to now they know what God did on their behalf and now they can serve him and now they can worship Him see the concept of the average American that they’re in the concept of the average American there’s only there’s no idea that God’s holy very many people think of God as having only one attribute love through the path well that is true God is love though only in part when it’s taken when a part is just taken as a whole becomes alive most Americans are totally ignorant about who God really is in his character if they do think of God at all they think in these terms God loves me and would never harm me that he loves me with a forgiving and a merciful kindness but see it is disastrous to think that when a person is talking about God that they all mean the same thing and are talking about the same God they are not most of the time see when sinners speak of God they usually refer to the one who has who has committed himself to honoring The Sovereign will of man at the at any cost to himself when the Bible speaks of God it means the one who is sovereign in Creation in Providence in the Redemption of lost Sinners the one who has unflinching Holiness and of course on your sheet even though I’ll read the passage in Exodus 34 it says a God who keeps loving kindness for thousands who forgives iniquity and transgression and then it says yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished see the Lord will not allow sin to go unpunished because of his righteousness and his judge his Justice the unregenerate generate person fondly hopes that God’s mercy will override all their sins they think only of a god pattern after their own Hearts so they continue to live life according to their foolish whims and their foolish desires people usually refer to sin as defects as mistakes as infirmities and as or diseases and even where sin is owned by people they make excuses for for that sin their own sin they blame others for their sin they blame their circumstances for their sin they blame their environment for their sin and so on and so forth see that’s what happens today so if God did not assume Isaiah the prophet knew who he was in his Holiness we cannot make the Dreadful miscalculation that sinners who all of us are know who God is and the sad truth is that our age knows less than Isaiah in his age and then the Jews in our Lord’s day even with all our information and books and take in all kinds of stuff we know less about what God wants so you my friends today cannot assume that you know who God is or assume what it means to be a Biblical Christian so there are four matters if seriously considered can bring Clarity and understanding of God and what he actually requires so the first matter that should seriously you should seriously consider if you’re serious about becoming a Biblical Christian is this the matter of yes the character of God that’s the first one so being a Christian is more than identifying yourself with a particular religion or affirming a certain value or belief system becoming a Christian is not like joining a club neither is it like taking up an interest or a hobby your desire to be a Christian has to come from a sense of an overwhelming need and such a sense cannot be created with casual interests but only by God working in one’s heart and mind and usually does that when the word of God is being presented to you when the word of God is near you and coming to you so you see you can’t make yourself a Christian nobody can you can decide to call yourself a Christian but that is not the same as being one this is true because of what a Christian is by definition a Christian is a Christ person one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and seeks to live his or her life according to the savior’s teaching but see that definition is contrary to all that we are in our nature so see our nature needs to be changed if we are to be biblical Christians we have to be born again we have to be transformed and only God can do that so see being a Christian means that you have embraced what the Bible says about God if we check out the revelation God has given us of himself in the scripture we will see that God is a holy creator that contemporary thinking says that man is a product of evolution but the Bible says that we were created by a personal God to love to serve to enjoy endless fellowship with him that means that he has authority over our lives and that we owe him absolute Allegiance obedience and worship but along with that God is a righteous judge that God is morally perfect and pure and set apart from all things and on your blue sheets there’s a passage of scripture from the Old Testament Prophet habakkuk who says this in 113 your eyes are too pure to approve evil and you cannot look on wickedness with favor and so because God is Holy he hates all sin and God loves everything that’s which is in Conformity and in agreement with his laws and hates everything which goes against or is contrary to his laws God hates sin with an absolute hatred and therefore because he hates it he must punish all sin every sin constitutes open Rebellion against God’s Authority and therefore is an Abomination to him so God is angry against all unrighteousness in all of us in fact if you look on your sheet again the next passage Psalm 5 verse 5 and 6 says this the boastful shall not stand before your eyes you hate all who do iniquity you destroy those who speak falsehood the Lord abhors the man of Bloodshed and deceit so so see God hates all who commit iniquity who do wickedness in fact the very words used in the Hebrew have to do with the words and thoughts of people in other words that God judges People based on what they think and also their actions and their words all those things we sin in those places we sin where it says in Proverbs 3 32 on your sheets for the Crooked that is the the devious the perverse man is an Abomination to the Lord and then in Proverbs 15 26 evil plans that is the thoughts of the wicked are an Abomination to the Lord and then Psalm 7 the Old King James Bible says it like this God judges the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day he has wrath and indication towards the wicked every single day so in other words God in his character because he is Holy has this view of sin this is how he sees us unless we see how God sees us we would never want to know or need to know why we need to be saved or rescued from that see God we have to see God in his Holiness in order to see ourselves in our sin so yes Sinners frequently think of God think that God is flexible so that he will by no means punish good people or wonderful people but see that’s our categories of men that’s not God’s categories of man God sees us as sinners so if a sinner concludes this without the rest of the information they would be believing a lie they come up with things about God according to their own way of thinking and they don’t check the Revelation out from the word of God concerning God himself you see according to scripture God must punish sin and sin can no more exist without demanding his punishment of it in fact one sin will bring God’s judgment and there is ample proof of that in Scripture just to bring it to your mind for one sin God banished our first parents Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden which plundered the whole human race into sin and judgment because they disobeyed one of God’s commands we are suffering for that even today for one sin all the posterity of Canaan fell under the curse where the Bible says so he said cursed is Canaan a servant of servants he shall he shall be to his brothers because he looked at his father’s nakedness he was judged for that for one sin Moses was excluded from the promised land because he did not treat God as holy in the book of Deuteronomy for one sin Elijah’s servant gehazai was smitten with leprosy because he was greedy and took a Talon of silver in two changes of clothing for one sin Aiken and his whole family were stoned and burned to death because he took what was forbidden under the ban when he stole a beautiful cloak from shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels for one sin and a nine Sapphira in the New Testament were cut off from the land of the living meaning they died because they lied to the Holy Spirit who was God so in other words see God takes all sin seriously all of it every bit of it because it comes from our heart so see we must consider the character of God first before we consider the second matter which I’m going to look at now the second matter you should seriously consider if you you’re serious about becoming a Biblical Christian is this and it’s the matter of yes sin that a Biblical Christian really Embraces what the Bible says about Sin so if God came to save us from our sins then how important it would be for us to understand what sin is and how God views it let me remind you that sin is not merely something that is wrong and sometimes that’s that’s about how we view it we recognize certain acts as good and others as bad we we tend to think that sin is just doing particular things that are bad it is that it does identify things that are wrong but it is not the essence of what the Bible says see the essence of sin is rebellion against God that’s what the essence of sin is so you people tend to think that they have never committed sin because they’ve never committed one of the big ones they’ve never you know gotten smashed drunk and on a regular basis they’ve never taken drugs and gotten high they’ve never committed a murder or they never committed an adulterer they never did something that is really out there see they tend to think because they haven’t done that they’re not Sinners or lat at least not bad enough for God to judge them for it people conclude that decent and moral and good living people are not just Sinners because in their examinations they don’t do anything wrong but the only reason most people think that is because they never understood the essence of sin which is rebellion against God so according to the Bible from birth we reject God and Obey and disobey him everyone is guilty of sin nobody can get out of it no one can get out of it this is because the standard is not human the standard is divine it’s God’s standard now this obviously does not mean that we are incapable of Performing acts of kindness we are compared to others we may be kind but compared to someone who is perfectly kind all the time our kindness falls short of the mark and who is perfectly kind and good and righteous and just all the time God God’s the standard and we the Bible clearly says to us that listen first of all we have all sinned in Adam he’s our representative head in in Romans 5 12 on your sheet it says therefore just as through one man’s sin entered into the world and death through sin so death spread to all men because all sinned and then we have sinned in our own individual actions in Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God so sin is anything that doesn’t please God it’s anything that breaks God’s law God examines the heart which includes your thoughts and your words and your Deeds if you had never sinned you and I would have never required a savior God would never have been required to send a savior into the world if we were all right if we could save ourselves if somebody else could save us we have we would never know the name of Jesus which means savior on this Earth but the reality of the situation is that we are guilty of our sins and we are justly condemned in them by God and we cannot rescue ourselves from that we cannot get ourselves out of that predicament so what can we say then well we need to become Christians because our sin separates us from God and will eventually take us to hell that sin guilt and judgment are truths that we may not like and we probably don’t nobody likes them in the sense that they’re very condemning but they are the only explanation for the state of the world and for the state of our own hearts see these are the reasons why we need to become Christians so see that’s all the bad news but there’s a third matter you should seriously consider if you’re seriously serious about becoming a Biblical Christian that being a Biblical Christian also means that you have embraced what the Bible says about salvation so there is the matter of Salvation on your sheets Luke Chapter 19 Verse number 10 see people need Jesus Christ to save them from their sins and it’s just condemnation for it says In this passage Luke 19 10 for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost see that’s this is what it means to be lost that people thought they knew the right way they thought they knew the way to heaven but they really didn’t my friends if one doesn’t know how to get to his destination he is by definition lost and nobody knows how to get to God who’s in heaven nobody even when they discover how to get there they can’t get there on their own see the Bible teaches that we are totally helpless in sin and unable to do anything to gain favor with God if we are to be Christians it must be by God’s way God has only one way this is through his son the Lord Jesus Christ Christ is not many ways to God there he is the only way to God that’s not bigotry that is not intolerance that is not foolishness it is simply truth you and I need a savior we need someone to save us and if you notice on your sheet in Acts chapter 4 verse number 12 it says this and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under Heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved so you see God’s Wrath is eternal but so is his love eternal and it is at the cross of Jesus Christ at the place that he died where God demonstrates his great love towards lost Sinners Like You and I notice Romans 5 8 on your sheet it says but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him so if you notice in that passage of scripture God has come to save us but he has only one means to save us and that is Christ that it is that’s his death on the cross so when Jesus died on the cross he did so to fulfill God’s Plan of Salvation for Sinners that God made Jesus responsible for our sin and Jesus gladly accepted that awful responsibility so when he died on the cross he did so as a sacrifice bearing our sin and its guilt and taking the punishment for that sin he died in our place in this way God satisfied his own holiness in that sin was dealt with legally and justly and completely on the cross and at the same time he is now able to forgive guilty Sinners for all their sin every bit of our sin everything we ever committed in our thought in our Deeds in our actions in our words but if a sinner does not see they are lost if they do not see there under God’s Wrath and in trouble with God they will see very little need of the cross and to receive Jesus Christ as their own personal Lord and Savior see they will settle on a righteousness all their own they will think of themselves not so bad that God should be angry with them enough to send them to a place the Bible calls hell enough to separate them from him for eternity well they would be wrong they would be wrong and nothing becomes more clear than some of the things that have been going on our in our own day Greg ho and I were talking the other day about the gunman who shot five servicemen in Chattanooga Tennessee is his name 24 years old an Islamic young man what was what was incredible about the article that Greg Poe told me that I should go check out which I did was this that the counter-terrorism investigators uncovered that evidence that this gunman who killed these five servicemen was searching the internet days leading up to the attacks for Islamic material whether Martin martyrdom would lead to forgiveness of sins like drunkenness and he of course he was having a problem with drunkenness and financial death uh in trouble a little bit with the law so this young man was seeking in terms of information searching the internet for whether he could commit these apts be martyred by the police and when he died be forgiven of his sins now tell me that is not twisted but you know what that’s not very far from how we all think see he went to the wrong Source that’s the danger of going to the wrong source to find how you get forgiveness of sins what he was looking for was forgiveness of sins and what he was willing to do for it was to shoot dead for American Service members and mortally wound to another one who died soon after a young man who was looking for a way out of his predicament with his sin and the urgency he felt to be forgiven of those sins see that’s an urgency that we all bear we all have at some time in our life why we’re created in the image of God and we we have a need to be forgiven we have a need to be rescued but we don’t know where to find that forgiveness we don’t know where to find that rescue well see that’s why it’s so important to come to the source and the source is the word of God where we can find out what God who God is how God views sin how salvation comes To Us by what God’s plan is for salvation so we can be truly forgiven of sin and be given assurance that we have eternal life when we pass from this world and we can serve God while we’re here and know who we’re serving see so that’s this is a tragic tragic tragic thing his internet search we now know in the days before his horrifying act revealed the fact that he was looking for forgiveness of sin and he thought that if he killed these people God killed himself would become a martyr to his faith and be would be forgiven forever well you know what he’s finding out he’s found out now that is not true and it’s too late now see Christ is the answer so here’s the fourth matter you should seriously consider if you’re serious about becoming a Biblical Christian it is true that there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves but the Bible does tell us to seek the Lord so the last matter is this it’s the matter of belief believing the gospel means to obey the message concerning our Lord Jesus Christ that he is the son of God that he is God’s Own Way of Salvation and that God sent Jesus to the cross that God would put all our sins on him and punish them in him see that is good those are true facts that comes from the word of God but do you believe them if you never believe them they never will have the effect in your life that they should have salvation must not only be granted it must be received so have you ever received the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ have you ever obeyed the gospel have you ever sought the Lord to save you see to seek the Lord means that you acknowledge your own sin and guilt and plead with God to save you from its consequences and that this can and will be done because this is what Jesus accomplished on the cross that God makes us Christians not only by forgiving our sins but also by dealing with the root of our problem and it’s not our sinfulness it’s not our sinful Behavior but our sin nature which dictates our actions see he changes our nature in Salvation by giving us new desires and new longings and new Ambitions and New Attitudes this is done by the power of the Holy Spirit which becomes a motivating force in all Christians lives when someone becomes a Christian he or she is a new person old things have passed away behold All Things become new and Christ now rules and Reigns in that person’s heart and life that’s what it means so I pray this morning that the Holy Spirit May sweetly whisper in your heart yield for Jesus invites you to come come right now repent of your unbelief ask Jesus to rescue you from your sins condemnation and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior now we’re going to have a baptism right after I’m done which is going to be in a minute but all these people had to hear the gospel they had to hear about who God was how God views sin what salvation is and whether they believed or not that’s all covered there so see in other words all of us have to come in our life and stop the foolish labor of trying to establish our own righteousness before God we have to stop trying to offer something to God to earn salvation we have to stop leaning upon our pride Give It Up and fling yourself upon the mercy of God for pardoning Grace that’s the only way to be saved and that’s exactly why God came so if you believe these things and you you really want to become a Biblical Christian then there is only one thing you could do there’s a one thing you must do you must repent of your sins it says right there on your sheet the last couple verses it says in Mark 1 15 saying the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the gospel and then of course in Acts 16 31 to trust in Jesus Christ Alone to save you and to hate your own sin it says repent and he says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your household then of course repentant towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so true saving faith always responds in obedience to God so plead with God to have mercy on you that is not to give you what you deserve and what do we all deserve we all deserve condemnation and Hell but it because of Christ we don’t have to have that so when you seek the Lord like this you can be sure that he will not turn you away because Jesus says anybody who comes unto me with a repentant broken heart over their sin I will no wise cast out God’s always inviting people to Salvation that’s what he’s come to do and those who people respond to it they begin to understand what else God wants them to do and the other character qualities of God and they begin to realize the rich treasure that God’s given us in the word of God and believe me it is treasure it is better than any amount of gold or silver or money anybody could give you or possessions is the word of God so if you have been listening then these four matters should be clearer to you than they were before and I pray that you take them seriously so that you would seek the Lord and you receive his way of salvation in the person of Jesus Christ if you need more information about this because you don’t know where you stand before God then you could see me afterwards pull me aside after we baptize these people and talk with me about it or you can see one of our elders here or people in our church and they can share more with you because this is God’s Great concern that you would be saved and he could rescue you from a horrible future if you’re not now those who are being baptized you can be dismissed to get ready let me have a word of prayer and then I’ll turn it over to Greg let’s pray Lord Jesus I do thank you this morning I thank you Lord that you did not leave your message in some box somewhere that no one could find that Lord your message is meant for the mountaintops for the house tops for the roofs that you’re proclaiming Your Truth all over the place all over the world and it’s still going out and it’s still saving people from all tribes and Nations so Lord we thank you for that thank you Lord if people hear no U.S Lord and say thank you for our Salvation And for those who don’t know you yet Lord please use the word of God today to bring conviction in their own life so they too may know the joy of that Believers have of trusting in Jesus Christ as their lord and savior and I pray now Lord that you would be with those who are being baptized give them just Grace to speak and just use them Lord to challenge us today and encourage us that God is still at work in this world and I pray this in Jesus name amen