IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE WHAT YOU BELIEVE!
Concerning: (1) Salvation. (2) Service.
II Peter 1:5-11 – And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Salvation
I. John 14:5,6 - Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by Him.
A. Example: Man taking poison instead of headache pills. He was honest and sincere, but also very dead!!
B. Example: Man cutting and dragging 220-volt electric lines and saying that's not as risky as trying to go to heaven without trusting Jesus.
II. Grace defined: Unmerited favor; kindness; God’s forgiving mercy; gifts freely bestowed by God. Mercy is always toward the guilty, never to the innocent.
A. Compare: Luke 18:9-14 – The Pharisee and the publican – Jesus gave this parable to those that trusted in themselves that they were righteous.
1. That is – they were trusting in their good works to come into favor with God.
2. They trusted in "being good", in their obeying the commandments of God to give them favor with God.
B. Tell the conversation between Millard Chapman and the Catholic priest at St. Marie, Illinois.
1. The priest told him they were at complete opposite extremes.
2. Millard Chapman, as a Baptist, believed there was nothing at all a person could do to be saved, but the priest believed, according to the Catholic church teaching, there were many things a person could do to gain the grace and mercy of God.
3. The priest said they were doing everything they could do to be saved and faithful, but Baptist trust completely and wholly in God without depending on any of their works.
C. Some people trust in good deeds, forgetting:
1. Romans 3:10 - There is none good, no, not one.
2. Isaiah 64:6 - All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
3. Matthew 7:21-23 - Workers of good deeds go to hell because they didn't trust in Jesus first. "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."
4. Some people trust their being baptized or their church membership forgetting:
5. Judas Iscariot was baptized and a church member: even held an office in the church, yet when he died, he didn't go to heaven, but hell.
D. II Timothy 2:1-5 – Must strive lawfully. Must be saved God's way and must serve God's way.
1. Example: The man who ran a race with other contestants. He came in first (before all the other racers), but lost the race because he broke a rule of the race and was disqualified.
2. Proverbs 14:12, 16:25 - There is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is the way of death. Just because we think we are serving God the right way doesn't mean we are. We must get instructions from the Bible, not from our minds.
3. Matthew 7:21-23 - These folks thought they were saved, but wound up in hell because they tried to be saved some other way except through Jesus Christ. There are people who try to serve God some other way except through the Lord's church, and they will wind up saved, but with not rewards, because they didn't do it God's way.
4. Matthew 7:13,14 - Strait is the gate, narrow is the way that leads to life eternal and few there be that find it.
Service
I. We must serve God through His church.
A. Ephesians 2:10 – We (all saved people) are the workmanship of God, created unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
B. Ephesians 3:21 - Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
1. Matthew 16:18 - Jesus went to a lot of trouble to build His kind of churches if He didn't intend for us to serve Him in one of those churches.
2. Ephesians 4:11,12 - God has put apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor and teachers in His local churches in order that His people will grow into mature Christians.
C. Remember that some churches do not teach the truth of the Bible. Some teach doctrines of the Devil. All churches don't teach the same thing.