Love that hymn, don't you? Love
His kingdom by God's grace. I love His kingdom. There was
a time I did not. I did not love His kingdom, did
not love His church, did not love the fellowship of the saints,
gathered together, did not love. It was anything but sweet, anything
but communion to me. It was torture. But God, now
I do. I really do. Mark chapter 16,
Gospel of Mark chapter 16, read with me a couple of verses. I'm going to have you turn to
several scriptures, okay, this morning. I'm just going to tell
you what God's Word says about what it means to believe. Our
Lord, after He appeared, verse 14, after He appeared unto the
eleven as they sat at me, and upbraided them with their unbelief. Boy, we need that now. And hardness
of heart. What hardens us? Well, our own
obstinance. And the world does. We listen
to others. And so he upbraided them, because
they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
And he said unto them, then he said, Go ye into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every preacher. He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be
damned. All right, I'm going to tell
you, I'm going to try to tell you what it is to believe. Our
Lord said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. I'm going to try to tell you
what it means, what it is to believe and be baptized, and
by doing that I will be preaching the gospel to you. Okay? Because the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. I just don't want to preach about
it. I want to preach it. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. He that believeth, all right?
What is it that we are to believe? He that believeth shall be saved. What is it to believe? What are
we to believe? Not what? God. We must believe that God
is God. Would you turn with me to Isaiah
45? Isaiah 45. Our Lord said in His prayer to
the Father in John 17, in verse 3, He said, This is life eternal. Now this is what He said. This
is what it means to be saved, to have eternal life. That they
might know Thee, the only true God. That's where it starts. It all started with God, and
so does salvation. It starts by us coming to know
God, who He is, which creates fear, which creates so much. In Isaiah 45, look at this. It says in verse 20, Assemble
yourselves and come, drawn near together, ye that are escaped
of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a God that cannot
save. And now what you hear today,
God cannot do anything unless you let it. Then it is not God. Tell ye, and bring them near. Tell them. Let them take counsel
together. Who hath declared this from ancient
times? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me,
a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Read
on. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God. There is none else. What does God mean? What does
the word God mean? Creator, sovereign, ruler, controller. Go back to Isaiah 43. Turn back
a page, two pages. Isaiah 43. This is salvation. Look at verse 10. This is what
he says to Jacob. He's chosen. Verse 10, you are
my witnesses, saith the Lord, my servant, whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord. Beside me there is no other,
no Savior. I have declared, I have saved,
I have showed no strange God among you. Therefore, you are
my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. He that believeth that God is
God shall be saved. God is God. What does that mean? He's our
Creator. Psalm 19 says the heavens declare His glory, the firmament
showeth His handiwork. Romans 1 talks about a whole
world full of people that don't acknowledge God. They don't believe
He's God. They believe the world just happened,
that there is no Creator. When the invisible things from
the creation of the world, His eternal power in God is clearly
seen, they're without excuse. But no, no, there's no God, it's
just evolution, it's this, it's chance, it's man is a God. And blinded, blinded. So God, when He comes in salvation,
the first thing He does is make you realize. He's God. And He's your Creator. And you're
in His hands. If He's your Creator, what does
that mean? He owns you. And what did He say? Cannot I
do with my own What I will. Yes, He can and He does. And you find that out. This is
the first thing you find out. That He worketh all things after
the counsel of His will. That He hath done whatsoever
He hath pleased in heaven and earth. This is the God of the
Bible. This is what every single person that God has chosen brings
to come to find out. First thing, He's God. What's that create? Here. He's judge. God is judge. We find this out,
don't we? Like in Exodus 33, he said, 34,
he said, I will by no means clear the guilt. God must punish sin. Why? Because God, we find this
out. Who is God? He's holy, holy, holy. He's a just God. Isn't that what?
First thing he said, I'm a just God. righteous in all his ways. Right before the Lord was destroyed,
Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham said this. He's pleading. Abraham
was pleading with the Lord to save, to spare five, just ten
righteous. If you just find ten righteous,
would you spare the city? No. Yes, he said, I would, but
there was not ten righteous. Scripture says there's none righteous.
No, not one. But there was one fellow in that city that the
Lord had chosen, and the Lord called him that righteous man.
Didn't He? That just man. Who? Lot. And that's another
story. But here's what Abraham said,
knowing that God, He's going to destroy this whole place.
He said, shall not the judge of the earth do right? He's righteous in all his ways. He cannot, he will not do wrong.
He's righteous. And that's what we find out. But God, and God is merciful. The truth is God is holy. He
will by no means clear the guilty. And God is merciful. Mercy and
truth have met together. Righteousness. How can God have
peace with sinners? They're guilty. How can God be
just and justify? How can mercy and truth meet
together? Righteousness and peace kiss each other. In Jesus Christ. You know these
things. I'm way ahead of myself. But
you know this thing, don't you? Oh, blessed, you're so blessed.
The world doesn't know and don't care. We know, don't we? We know. First
thing, we find out God is God. God is holy. God is love. God is love. God is merciful. God is gracious. God will pardon
sin. God will forgive all manner of
sins. How? Where? Let me go ahead and get
to the end. Let me declare the end from the
beginning. Do you know how God can love
and yet punish? Where is the love of God? Where
is the mercy of God? Where is it to be found? Jesus
Christ. God is our benefactor. We've
come to find that out. God is our blesser, our benefactor. Paul said this, what do we have
we have not received? And if we received it, how could
we glory as if we had not received it? We come to find out that
we've received every good and perfect gift that's come down
from above. We are, by the grace of God,
I am what I am. Have what I have. By the grace
of God, I've been kept by His power. By the grace of God, the
goodness of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, He spared
me. We look back over our lives and
we see how that God has, we've been, this is the God in whom
we live and move and have our being, the God in whom all our
ways and everything about us, the God who predestinated all
things, worketh all things. We come to find that out, don't
we? That's the first thing. And it
both gives us fear and faith. What is it to believe? It's to believe that God is God.
He that believeth that God is God won't only be saved, He is
being saved. That's why you believe. We believe,
secondly, that God's Word is true. He that believeth. The record has set to His seal
that He's true. God's Word is true. Romans Paul
said, Let God be true. And what? Every man a liar. Do you believe that? Do you really? Do you believe? Turn with me
to Acts 24. Acts 24. Do you believe that
man is a bald-faced, boring liar? He is! David said that, didn't
he? He comes forth from the womb
speaking lies. Where'd that come from? From the father of lies. It all
started in the garden, didn't it? Satan, father of lies. He
lied to our first parents. They believed a lie. So what
was our children born? Liars believe in lies. The only way they'll believe
the truth is God reveals it to them. Takes them out of captivity.
Acts 24, verse 14. Paul said this, this I confess
unto thee, after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my father, believing all things that are written in
the law and in the prophets. I believe every word of it. Do you? Do you sister? I'm looking
at that row of sisters right up that row there. Do you believe
that every word in this book is God's word, not man's? Didn't
Peter say this? This is no cunningly devised
fable. Old Peter, Simon Peter, he wouldn't
fall for nothing with it. He wouldn't fall for anybody.
You're not going to believe anything. It's not Simon Peter. Rough,
gruff fisherman. You ain't going to convince me
of nothing. Can you see Peter like that, Kelly? That's the
rabbi. Ain't nothing to do with that
religion. And Jesus Christ came walking.
He said, Simon, follow me. He believed everything that Christ
said hung on his every word. I do. Do you? I believe all things. I believe every word of this
book from Genesis to Revelation is the word of God Almighty. Not the words of men, but as
it is in truth, the word of God. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Spirit. God and survivors at sundry times
and divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophet. God
spake unto them. Those prophets weren't men that
just went out just speaking, but God chose them and raised
them up. And they were speaking the words of God. Isaiah and
Ezekiel and Daniel and Elijah and Elisha, those were men sent
by God. Their words were God's word,
not man's word. And then the apostles came along.
Eleven, twelve common ordinary men. Okay? But Jesus Christ,
God in human flesh, chose them and gave them His Word. And every
word that those apostles preached and taught and wrote in this
book is the Word of God. Not man. God. Now you have to be saved to believe
that. Because this whole world calls
into question everything. Don't they? Every word of it. I say it's up to your interpretation. Brothers and sisters, I'm not
interpreting the Scriptures this morning. I'm declaring it. I'm
not telling you this is what I think God says. I'm telling
you what He says. Okay? God's Word is true. He that believeth that Jesus
Christ is God is born of God. He that believeth That man who
walked this planet 2,000 years ago, born in Bethlehem Stable,
grew up in Nazareth, is God who created this planet. Yes! Now who believes that? How could you believe such a
story, such a fantastic story like that? How could you believe
that that baby, Isaiah 9, 6, says it doesn't? Unless a child
is born. There was a baby born in Bethlehem
2,000 years ago. Yes, a baby. Flesh and blood.
Flesh and bone. A baby. A Jewish maiden had a
baby. A virgin had a baby. You don't
believe that, do you? I do. A virgin had a child. A child was born. But it wasn't
any child. It wasn't her child, really.
It was God's child. God's Son. The Eternal Son was
given. The Son that was with God before
the world began. The Eternal Son was ever His
delight before the stars were in the sky, before the sun was
in play. The Son of God was with Him. God was manifesting. This is without controversy.
Oh man, it's a controversy with man, but not with us. It's without
controversy. God was manifesting today. God,
Immanuel, call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God
is with us. That man was God. He is God. Always has been and will be.
Jesus of Nazareth is God who created that. Do you believe
that? Do you? In all your heart? You're born
of God. The Holy One. The Son is the
Father. The Child is the Father. What
is it to believe? To believe that God is God is
to believe God's Word is truth. It's to believe that Jesus Christ
is God. It's to believe that man is nothing but a sinful,
wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, dead sinner. No good,
none righteous, none calling on God. He's worthless. Not just
that. It's to believe that I am. And
you find that out when you find out who got it. You find that
out when you find out who Jesus Christ is, like Simon Peter.
You know, he said, OK, OK, Rabbi, we'll cast an ad. What do you
know? We'll cast an ad on the right
side. And they couldn't take the fish in. And Simon Peter,
his knees. He said he knows every fish in
the sea. He called him into the net, and here he's come calling
me. He knows every thought in my
head. He knows what a sinner I am. He said, depart from me,
Lord, I'm a sinful man. He's come to find out that man
is God. And that man came for Him. And
Kelly, he realized, I'm nothing but a sinner through and through.
That's all I've done all my life. Haven't given God a thought all
my life. And here God's come for me. What's He going to do?
Destroy me? Has He come to destroy me? No, He's come to save you. That's why He revealed Himself
to you. He hit His knees. Depart from
me. No, no, no, no. He said, I'll
never depart from you. I came for you. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save who? Sinners. What kind of sinners? Romans 7 sinners. Paul said,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. David said it in Psalm
51, Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil
right in plain view. You're going to be just when
you speak and clear when you judge me. If you judge me, you're
my judge. I'm a sinner through and through.
If you catch me in the hell right now, I'll get what I deserve.
That's what he found out. That's what every single sinner
God comes to save finds out. I ain't nothing but a sinner. Now for the good news. You know,
it is good news, and you find that out. You've got to hear the bad news
before you hear the good news. What is it to believe? It's to
believe that Jesus Christ is salvation. That Jesus Christ
is the way. I can't get to God. I won't get
to God unless He takes me. Unless He does for me what I
cannot do. I know I need a righteousness
and I can't produce it. He is my righteousness. He's
the way. He's the truth. I don't know
the truth until He tells me the truth. He is life. His words are life. I hang on
His word. Like Simon Peter said, you have
words of life. It's to believe that Jesus Christ
is your all. Here's what it means to believe.
It means to believe that Jesus Christ is, He's all, He's all
I got. He's all my hope. Sinner as I
am, God holy as He is, that all my hope, all my plea
is in Jesus Christ. He's my Lord. He's my God. He's
my prophet. I depend on Him to tell me everything.
He's my priest. I confess all my sins to Him.
He's the high priest who must take His own precious blood into
the holy place and offer it up for me. It's not what I do with
the blood. No. Some of you may used to believe
that, didn't you? It's your faith in the blood
and your acceptance of the blood. Oh, you didn't know God, did
you? You just didn't know God. But
God. Like Saul of Tarsus called some
of you out of that darkness that's religious, that double darkness.
Refuge of lies, your decision, your will, what you did with
the blood of Christ. And you find out, it's not what
I do with it, it's what He does with it. You find out that if Christ shed
His precious blood for me, that's all. God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. That's all my hope. He's all,
He's my prophet, my priest, my king, my king. And I believe like old Martin
Luther, God's people find this out, that though the world with
devils filled, God is the ruler. My Lord reigneth. My Lord Jesus Christ controls
every devil, every demon. down to the hairs of my head,
everything. The Lord Jesus Christ is my King. He sat on His holy
hill of Zion, His beloved Son, and given me to Him. What about the fear? Fear him? You need not fear anyone.
He's king. He's not a figurehead, brothers
and sisters. He is king. He's king of kings. Doesn't the scripture say that
the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord? He turns it with
his red robe. Don't you love that? Doesn't that give you peace?
Come on now. Doesn't that give you joy? We
rejoice in the Lord. We worship God in the Spirit,
and we rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is Lord. God
has made Him our Lord. There was a time when we made
some Jesus Lord, some of them. Wasn't God merciful to you? Isn't
that such blasphemy? that you thought at one time
that you actually made Him Lord of your life. But God, He showed
us all, and He showed some of you, didn't He? This is when
salvation comes. See, woman at the well, you don't
know what you believe. You didn't know what you believed,
did you? Boy, you do now, don't you? If I asked you what you
believe, you wouldn't say anything about anything. You'd say Him.
It's not a what, it's a who. It's not a place or a thing,
it's a person. What is it to believe? It's to
believe that Jesus Christ is my righteousness. Surely, Isaiah
45 says, surely shall one say, and the Lord have our righteousness
and strength. Here's one, anybody? Surely,
all the seed of Israel will be justified in Him. And that's
the passage that says, look unto me and be ye saved. As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that they that look to him, they that
believe on him, shall have everlasting life. You know, salvation is
just looking to Christ. That's it. Salvation is just
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believing on, casting all your
care on Him, casting all your sins on the head of the scapegoat.
Salvation is just totally, completely casting your whole mind, body,
soul, strength, life, heart, your family, everything about
you, on Him. Please, Lord, save me. He's got
big shoulders. He said, look unto me and be
your Savior. Just look. I am God, he said. Surely there
is one. I am one. How about you? There is one. To believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, to believe that Jesus Christ is all, is
to believe that He is your Lamb. You have to have a Lamb. He is
the Lamb slain. He's my lamb. He's my hope. He's
my peace. He's my joy. I rejoice. Do you
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you rejoice in him and his
gospel? Do you rejoice in what you're
hearing right now? Do you love what you're hearing
right now? Sally Miller, do you believe
everything I've said thus far? Tom Canterbury, do you believe
everything you've heard? Don't just believe it. Do you
love it? This is salvation. When God puts
the love of the truth in. What's the truth? You know what?
It's a person. A person. Come to know Him. No man knoweth the Father, but
the Son, and he that hath the Son will reveal Him. Neither
knoweth any man the Son, but the Father. It's a revelation. And this is salvation. When God
comes to you through what I'm doing right now, miracle of miracles,
That God comes through the preaching. We have this treasure, an earthen
vessel, that the excellence of the power might be of God. It
might be clearly seen. This is God speaking through
this fish eye. He speaks to your heart very
really. Very really. He said, My sheep
hear my voice. And you find out who God is.
And you find out what the Word says about you. You find out
what you are. And you find out who Jesus Christ
is. And you believe. You believe. And you know what God says? Saved. Saved. He that believeth shall
be saved. And is baptized. Oh, you see, I don't believe
in baptism. I don't either. But now, who
said that? The Lord did. And it's baptized. What is baptism? Well, baptism is the first public
confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the last,
because you're confessing from then on by your life. But it's the first public, this
is what the Lord said to do. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. What is baptism? Well, it's a
picture of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And everyone that does that says,
I've heard. How shall they hear without a
preacher? I've believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I repent of my sins. I'm a sinner
through and through. But my hope is that Jesus Christ
is my substitute. That Jesus Christ hung on that
cross was made sin for me. That he was bearing my sins in
his body on that tree when he was crucified. It wasn't an offer
to me, but an offer to God for my sin. I believe that Christ
bore my sins on Calvary's tree, and he was buried. And he took
my sins and separated them from me as far as the east is from
the west. He took my sins away, paid for
all of them, buried my sins. That's what you do when I'm going
to put two people under the water and bury them. Crucified with
Christ, buried, they're not going to stay there. Going to live
their life. Going to bring them out. Going
to bring them up. Quickened. Risen with Christ. To walk in newness of life. How's
that? Not with the world. With God's
people. By faith. To walk by faith. In
the Son of God who lived and loved me. Lived for me. And died
for me. And ever lives to make intercession.
Baptism is a public confession. Not yourself. You're not confessing
yourself. And some people wait until they
feel good, feel more faith, until they feel more repentant. That's
not what baptism is. You'll never repent like y'all
did. You'll never feel that you have enough faith. You'll never
feel that way. You're not confessing yourself, you're confessing Him.
What you're saying is, I believe, it's not as strong as I want
it to be, but I do believe that Jesus Christ is my whole, my
all. That's all. That's all it is.
It's confessing that Christ is all. And it's a public avowal,
it's a public commitment, what you're saying to everybody. That I'm married to Christ. It's like a marriage ceremony.
You know, you don't really love someone until you commit to them
in marriage, do you? You don't try it out, you don't
live together. No, no. That's not... Marriage is commitment,
isn't it? And what you say when you're
married, Margaret, when you took Mac and Debra, Red, years ago,
you said, this is the man I love. This is my husband. This is my
head. We're one now. And that's what
baptism is. This is my head. This is my husband. This is my Lord. This is my Savior. This is my life. I want to be
committed, totally committed to Him. Take me, all of me, just
immerse me in Christ. The Lord used the ark as a picture
baptism did. That eight souls were saved by
water, that they were all inside that ark and that flood just
covered that ark. Waves beat on that ark, just
crashed down on that ark. There was a time when the rain
was falling so hard and the waves crashing so hard you couldn't
see that ark. What happened to everybody inside?
Saved. The Ark took all that punishment.
Everybody inside was saved. In just a little while, they're
going to open the door, and it's going to be a whole new world.
Same with us. That's what this is a picture
of. It's an answer of a good conscience, convicted by sin,
convinced of the truth, obedient. We always say these words. In
obedience to the divine command of Christ Jesus, my Lord, I baptize
you, my brother, my sister, in the name of, in Matthew's gospel,
he said, go baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. That's what baptism is. It doesn't save us. It doesn't
put away any sins. It's just Franklin County well
water. But it's a public confession of faith in Christ, that He's
your salvation and He's your God. And you want to tell everybody
that He is. Is that what you believe, Sally
Miller? Sally Miller's coming this morning to confess Christ
and believe it. Tom Canterbury, is that your
faith? Okay.