If you would, please turn to
Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16, and I'm gonna
read from verse 15 to verse 20, which is the end of the chapter,
end of the book. Mark chapter 16, beginning in
verse 15. These are the words of Christ.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these
signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they
cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall
take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall
not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick
and they shall recover. So then, after the Lord had spoken
unto them, he was received up into heaven and sat on the right
hand of God. And they went forth and preached
everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the
word with signs following. Amen. I've entitled this He That Believes.
or he that believeth. Now, this is going to be a little
bit odd, even for us, because I do want to start out with this
one strange fact. This is a very disputed portion
of Scripture. Actually, from Mark chapter 16,
verse 9 to the end, a lot of people think that's not Scripture. They think it's not authentic.
Now, there's a reason why they think that. Well, reason number
one is because they're wrong. But reason number two is, supposedly,
the two oldest whole manuscripts in existence do not have Mark
16 verses 9 through 20. And that's true. Now, it's not
the oldest text. It's the oldest manuscript put
together as one. It's called the Vaticanus and
the Sinatus. And I'm not going to get into
a whole lot of detail, but I do want to put this out here because
some people will run into this. In the NIV, if you've got one,
it'll say in the margin, well actually in the break between
verse 8 and verse 9, the two most reliable early script, early
testaments or whatever, I think I wrote it down, don't have this
section of scripture. I would agree the two early assemblies
of a manuscript don't have it in there, but as to the reliability,
that's not even close. OK. And it does say that these two
codexes, which means they're handwritten, these two codexes
are the source for most modern translations. OK. That's another hint that it's
not a good thing. You really want to know the truth about
it. I'm quite certain that's a true statement, and I'm also
quite certain it might not be something to be proud of. Martin Luther didn't use it in
his German Bible. And the King James Version does
not use the Vaticanus or the Sinaiticus. And there's reasons
why. The Vaticanus is riddled with
errors, misspellings, and omissions. I'm not going to go into them,
but you can Google it. It'll tell you. And the Sinaiticus
is riddled with omissions. And this is the key point. The
reason they call it the Vaticanus is it was found in the Vatican,
supposedly. The reason they call it the Sinaiticus
is because it came from the Sinai region. It's an Alexandrian manuscript. Now, two things you need to know
about this. Alexandria was the place of origin, not the origin
of the Bible or anything, the guy named origin. Now, Origen
was infamous, they say famous, I say infamous, for taking out
of the scriptures whatever he didn't like. And the Encyclopedia Britannica
had a really nice statement about Origen. It says, everything in
Origen's theology ultimately turns upon the goodness of God
and the freedom of the creature. And if you know the truth, that
tells you exactly everything you need to know about origin.
Stay away from him. Now, that's not to say there's
not a lot of truth in other versions, but I'll go with this one. I
will. I'll go with the textus receptus,
the received text, over the Vaticanus or the Synapse any day of the
week. It does not hurt sometimes to
use them for contrast or for comparison. I do do that. I've got different Bible versions
on my program on my computer. I've got one thing that's got
four versions in it, but they leave this out, and that's wrong. There is one fellow who was fairly
honest about it, and this is what he said. One man, he summed
it up this way, while the added ending offers no new information,
nor does it contradict previous revealed events and or doctrine. Then he says both the external
and the internal evidence make it quite certain that Mark didn't
write it. Well, I'll give him the first part. It's true. That's the first part. Mark nine to 20 is true as the
rest of the scriptures. Now, whether Mark wrote it or
not, I don't know. He could have added it on later
himself when he was older and writing a little differently.
They seem to not take that into account. There were two guys that wrote
the book of Isaiah, Isaiah and Deutero Isaiah. They don't understand. If you look at things I wrote
when I was a young man, and you look at things that I write now,
there's a world of difference. My word choice is different,
everything. My grammar, my sentence structure
is sometimes worse. I can't help it. I use my own
shorthand. But here's the thing, this is
the truth of God in this book. So, what does it say? That was
basically kind of introduction and I wanted to say it. But verse 15, these are the words
of Christ. And he said unto them, go ye
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
This is called by some the Great Commission. And I really don't
have a problem with that because It's what Christ told us to do. Now, he is speaking directly
here to the 11. That's who he's speaking to,
the 11. Now, who are the 11? Well, the easiest way to figure
that out is the 12 minus Judas. That's what it is. It's the 11
apostles, because Judas is gone. This is Christ after his resurrection
speaking to his disciples before his ascension. He upbraided them in verse 14.
Afterward he appeared unto the 11 and they sat at meat and upbraided
them with their unbelief and hardness of heart because they
believed not them which had seen him after he had risen before
the 11 had seen him. They believe now. But he didn't
believe in his resurrection before he showed himself to it. And he upbraided them for that.
But what he's saying here, the first word he says is go. The
second word is ye. Go ye. You're gonna go where
God wants you to go. You're gonna be where God wants
you to be. Now how you get there is up to
him. He'll see to it that you go if
you are to go. But this is the order he gave
to these 11. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. This is a
matter of vocation. This is a matter of their job. And going and preaching the gospel
is a result of the vocation, the calling that these men were
called to. Christ gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. This is the vocation. Everything
else to this is secondary. This is number one. Christ said
it first because it is number one. Go and preach the gospel. Everything else is secondary
to preaching the word of Christ. We do other things here, but
it revolves around, hopefully, It revolves around preaching
the word of Christ, Neil. That was just mean, I'm sorry. Everything is secondary to this.
Now, we don't do a lot of things other places do. And I'm not
here to talk about them. But this is the whole point.
If whatever you're doing is not revolving around the preaching
of the gospel and the expounding, expanding of the gospel, it's
not part of the primary concern. It's it's secondary at best tertiary
at worst and useless for a lot of people. This is the job of the pastor
and the teacher, the evangelist and the prophet, and the apostles. That's where it started from.
The apostles are where we get our doctrine from. It's called
the apostolic doctrine for a reason. This is what they said, this
is what they wrote down, and this is what we preach. And it
is the primary, primary thing for the assembly of the saints
is the preaching of the gospel, is to preach it and to hear it. That's primary. But you also have to make sure
it's the gospel of Christ that is preached. Because Jesus said,
preach the gospel. He didn't say preach a gospel.
He didn't preach one of the gospels. He didn't say preach your gospel.
although it is yours. Paul called it my gospel, but
Paul also called it the gospel of Christ, the gospel of his
dear son, the gospel of God. There's only one gospel. You
got to make sure it's the only one gospel that you're preaching.
And that actually goes, you got to make sure it's only the one
gospel that you are hearing. See, that's on you. It's on me
when I'm sitting down there listening to Walter. It's on Walter while
he's sitting here listening to me. This is for everyone. Beloved, try the spirits. That's what he said. Try the
spirits to see whether or not they are telling the truth about
God because there are many false prophets. John wrote that about
2,000 years ago. I think there's a lot more now. Believe not every spirit but
try the spirits because there are false prophets and there
have always been false prophets. Look in the Old Testament. There
were those who said they were speaking for God and they weren't. There were those who spoke contrary
to the prophets, which are written in here. I don't know how many
thousands of years ago that was. Man has not changed. We are to
preach the gospel. And the gospel, I can tell you
this, is what Walter's been preaching the last few weeks. Jesus Christ
came to save sinners. That's good news. That's good
news. Jesus Christ came to call sinners
to repentance. That's good news. You notice that the gospel revolves
around the name Jesus. It better, it had better, or
it ain't the gospel. Jesus Christ has redeemed sinners. He did that about 2,000 years
ago. The Father and the Son are quickening
whom they will. That's the good news. Jesus Christ is bringing many
sons to glory. That's Hebrews 2 and 10. All
of our salvation from before the foundation of the world to
the inhabitation of the new heaven and the new earth is what? It's the work of God. And it's
a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ because he's the one that
does it all. The gospel is not the good news
that God needs your help. Because that ain't good news.
Because God's arm is not short that it cannot save. It's not
that he can't save without you reaching up. They sang that song. When he reached down, I reached
up. No. No, when he reached down, you
was in a pit. And you were so dumb you didn't even know you
were in a pit. Well, so dead. And now you are to remember the
pit from which you are digged You didn't dig your way out.
He brought you out. He lifted up the beggar off the
dunghill to sit him with princes and kings. And guess what? That beggar is sitting with princes
and kings. We were so bad, we didn't even
know which way was up. I reached up when he reached
down. Wish but it ain't so God Christ the Holy Spirit saves And he doesn't need man's cooperation
or man's help But he does say this next after he says preach
the gospel preach the gospel He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned there's a
result every time the gospel is preached. He that believeth is the first
part. This is one of the results of
preaching the gospel. Those who know Christ will believe
the gospel. Those who know Christ believe
Christ. Those that believe and are baptized
shall be saved. Now just the facts here, in this
statement, he doesn't tell us how we believe. He doesn't tell
us why we believe. He just says he that believes.
This is the point here, this is the point he's making. These
men, these 11, were to go out and preach, and he that believed
shall be saved. What did he say when he was going
to see Lazarus? He told Martha, he says, he that
lives and believes in me, in me, shall never die. Then he asked her, do you believe
that? That's the gospel. He that liveth and believes in
me shall never die. Do you believe that? Those are
his words, not mine. I can say them, I can repeat
them with full confidence that they are true because they are
the words of the Son of God just as these are here. He that lives in me, lives and
believes in me shall never die. The true gospel is to tell you
to believe him. Him. Him. You'll believe the
gospel. You'll believe the gospel. But
you'll only believe the gospel if you believe him. Him. What did he tell? He that liveth
and believeth, what? In me. In me. Just for a moment, I'm gonna
turn to John 3. 18, not 16, 18. And for the reference of some
people out there, John 3.18 comes after John 3.16, which is also
true. I know, I know. We're getting into numerology
here. John 3.18 comes after John 3.16, and they'll tell you to
read John 3.16 and believe it, but they won't tell you to read
John 3.18. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. But, ooh, that's a big but too. He that believeth not is condemned
already. I wonder why. Keep reading. Because he hath
not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You gotta believe him in order
to believe the gospel. Believe in things, it'll never
save you. He didn't say he that believes
the gospel, he said he that believes. He didn't say he that believes
the doctrine or the five points of Calvinism, which are true.
Not denigrating those, but those don't save you. They're not a
proof of salvation either. But you'll believe them if you
believe him. That's the way it works. If you believe him, you'll know
of the doctrine. That's scripture. If you believe
him, you'll know the doctrine. Why? Because he's gonna teach
it to you, it's in his word. We're not making anything up
here, it's in black and white. Now it does say and is baptized.
And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here because I don't
want to. The Church of Christ is wrong, okay? Have a nice day. Or excuse me, they said it on
the TV this morning. The Churches of Christ is wrong. The scripture doesn't say anything
against the one who's not baptized. It does say if you believe not.
It doesn't say if you're baptized not. Okay? I'm pretty sure that
thief that was on the cross with Jesus Christ was not baptized. And yet today, shalt thou be
with me in paradise. So if you want to, you can just
take that whole thing and just check it out. Now I am not against
baptism in any way, shape or form. And I will tell you this
because it's easy. It's in the scripture. The like
figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us. Oh, but they gotta keep reading. There's a little parenthesis
here, this is just perfect. It's like Peter knew they were
gonna do this. Not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism is the answer
of a good conscience toward God. Now, how in the world do you
get a good conscience before God? Believe his son. Believe his son. Believe his
son. What? By the resurrection of
Christ. Believe his son. Baptism shows
forth the belief in the resurrected Christ that was talking to these
11 men right here. Now, baptism is not necessary for
salvation, but if you believe him, be baptized, be baptized
by one who preaches the gospel. Because you want to know what
gospel you're confessing, which Christ you're confessing. You
know? Now just for argument's sake,
I can tell you how, how we fallen, depraved creatures do believe
him. Because Jesus told us how. more
than once, but I'm only going to one. It's John six and verse
29. And I love this verse too. I
can't help it. Well, John six, verse 28. This was Christ speaking with
some people. Then said they unto him, what shall we do that we
might work the works of God? This is the question asked Christ.
And I just heard Earl this morning on tape saying, You know, pay
attention to the questions in the scripture and look because
usually you'll get the answer. It might not be the answer that
those people get that they wanted, but you'll get the answer because
you're going to get Christ's answer here. What shall we do
that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said
unto them, this is the work of God. Okay, now you stop right
there for just a minute. You better pay attention. There
are several, what I call this is's. I know it's bad English. There are several times in the
book of John where you will read this is this. This is eternal
life. We'll hear this is the work of
God. If you want to know what the
work of God is here, read on because the son of God is fixing
to tell us. I don't have to speculate. I
don't have to interpret. This is the work of God that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. I don't think that's the answer
they were looking for. But that's the answer of Jesus Christ. I like that. I do. What does that mean? Well, it
means exactly what it says. Now, is this? I wrote this down so I wouldn't
mess it up. Now, is this the work that we are to do? Or is this the work of God in
us that we believe? These are my favorite questions.
Yes, the answer is yes. I love that. Yeah, it's the work
of God. Start with that one. Because
that's what Christ said. This is the work of God. Now
they wanted to know what they could do for the works of God.
Christ told them what the work of God is that you believe. It takes a work of God for you
to believe him. And it is your work to believe
him. You can have it both ways. Because
if you only got it one way, it ain't right. Because if you got
it one way, you're going to have it the other. If you believe
him, it's because he's worked in you. And if he's worked in
you, you're going to believe him. That tells you how we believe. And I'm going to tell you now,
I think I got figured out the why I believe. OK? Have you ever asked yourself,
why do I believe? Why? I have to. Walter, I have no
choice in the matter. I have to believe him. I know
it's hard, and it's kind of a hard concept, and I don't know if
I can relate it, but I'm going to do my best. I believe because
he has made me a believer. Just in the same way that I sin
because I'm a sinner. I can't help it. And I'm going
to tell you something, I can't help but believe in him. This is the work of God that
you believe in. Believe the son of God. It's the gospel. I don't quite
understand it, even after all these years, but I know this
is where I am. And this is what I do. I believe him. See, people get so wound up and
say, well, if I believed that the way you did, I wouldn't know
what to do. Great. That's actually not a bad place
to be in. Yeah, exactly, that's progress. But see, here's the
whole thing. If he said it, I believe it,
whether I understand it or not. Understanding is not called for
here. He said he that believes shall
be saved. Understanding will come. He will
give you understanding. There is a growth in the grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's
as real a thing as he that believeth, the same shall be saved. That's just the facts. But here's
the other fact. He that believes not, it's right
there with it. He that believes not, Guess what? This is also a result of preaching. He that believes, and he that
believes not. That's the only two grounds.
There's no neutral territory in the middle, well I'm waiting
to make my decision. That's hooey, you don't believe.
That's what it is. Walter, in some cases there ain't
no fence to sit on. Walter has a saying about fence
sitting that I'm not gonna bring up here. There ain't no fence to sit on
here. You either believe or you don't. And what will show it is the
preaching of the gospel. because it says of those who
preach the gospel, and that includes these apostles, that includes
everybody since then, Charles Spurgeon, myself, Walter, Earl
Cochran, every preacher, okay? We are the saver of life unto
life to those that believe. And we, it says we, are the saver
of death unto death to those who don't believe. What's the
difference? He that believes and he that
believes not. This is a result of every sermon
that's ever been preached. This is where it is. Go back
to John 3, 18. Again, he that believeth not
is condemned already. Why? Because he doesn't believe
in the only begotten Son of God. He doesn't believe him. That's
what it is. You either believe him or you
believe not him. You ain't gotta believe me. You
do have to believe this. This is his word. And if you
do believe, you will believe this. But it's not what you know,
it's who you know. And if you know him, he'll fix
the what you know. I'm not gonna go into the rest
of this so much at all, other than the fact that I will tell
you this. There was such a thing as apostolic power. Was. And I said was because I mean
was. We don't have apostolic power now. I would like to have
it. I'll be honest. But there's probably a real good
reason I don't. I don't know if you could actually
abuse apostolic power, but if there was a way, I'd probably
try and find it. There are some people I would
like to give boils to, I'm sorry. I can't help it. I repent, but
then I'll do it again. And taking up serpents, y'all,
don't do that, okay? This is not a command to take
up serpents and get bit with them. I don't know if y'all know
about the people down in Jolo, there was a church down there.
I don't know if they're still alive or not. That's what they
do, they're snake handlers, okay? That's not what this is talking
about, okay? Jesus Christ was not commanding
us to get a snake and put it in a box and save it for next
Sunday. There is a very valid illustration
in Acts where Paul was bit by a venomous serpent. And it bit
him on the hand. But Paul didn't put it in a sack
and save it for next Sunday. Or take it down to, he didn't
go down to the water where snakes was wanting to be handled. He
went down where prayer was wanting to be made. And he took that
snake that was in his hand and he shook it off in the fire.
In the fire. Because that's what you do with
a venomous beast. You don't hang around with it and play with
it. Because, you know, Jesus Christ said to the devil, when
he said, why don't you just jump off here and the angels will
keep you from dashing your foot. He said, it is written again
that thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. That's what it
is, okay? God protected his apostles, these
11, and others. But I'm gonna tell you something,
don't jump out in front of a bus and think God will save you.
He may save you, but he may leave you in the hospital for a while. Exactly. These were apostolic powers,
they're not my powers, and they're not yours. And the apostolic powers are
gone, but the command still stands, go and preach the gospel. That part still stands. We are
to continue in the apostolic, what? Doctrine. Not the apostolic
miracles. He gives them signs, says why?
They went forth and preached everywhere, says at first. And
the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs
following. This was for the establishment
of the church. The church is established now.
We've got his word here in written form. In black and white and
sometimes the words of Christ in red. We have his word, the church
is established. Those things are gone, but we
are still to go and preach the gospel, and guess what? We still
have the same results. Paul said it. Well, no, not Paul. I guess Luke wrote it in Acts
24 and verse 28, and he was writing of Paul's preaching. Some believe
the things that were spoken, and some believe not. So my request
to you is, Believe Christ. This is the one thing, okay? Believing not is the one thing
here that can be changed. You understand? Saul heard Stephen preach the
gospel and was consenting unto his death. He didn't believe
then. And if you look at this, I had
never noticed this before, but it says some believed, wait a
minute, not that part. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That believeth is not actually believes. It's he that
believed. It's in past tense, in the Aorist
tense. But it says he shall be saved in the future. Guess what? He that believed, that's past
tense, shall be damned. That can change. One day I didn't
believe Walter, and another day I did. Now, once you believe,
you're not ever gonna not believe. I will never leave thee. I will
never, I will never forsake thee. He brings you in and He keeps
you in. We are kept by the power of God through faith in Christ
Jesus. We believe Him. But the believe
not part, that can change. It takes the work of God, but
that's what He's doing. It's His work. Take heart in
that. Take heart in that. I know some people here that
when I first met them, they weren't believers. But I think they're
believers now. And I'd like to know some more.
I'd like to know some more. But this is the result of the
preaching the gospel. He that believeth shall be saved.
He that believeth not shall be damned. And that's where it lies. Our Father, thank you for this
time and this place. Lord, most of all, thank you
for your son, by whom you have given us all things in this world. Thank you, Lord. Be with Walter
as he comes and gives your message this morning. In Christ's name
we pray, amen.