The Gospel: Belief and Baptism
(Mk. 16:16)
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mk. 16:16)
If the congregations of the Lord’s church were what they should be….if we were what we proclaimed, it would be a very simple matter to preach to you what was needed. If we were all devout Christians (in the most zealous of senses) then we would all hear a sermon from the word of God as a soldier hears orders from their commanding officer: the words would be short, sharp, plain, clear, and concise. If we were what we claimed to be…we would simply want to hear what we had to do to be saved! The more plainly it could be spoken...the better it would be. Well, I’m going to try to preach the plainest gospel sermon I can deliver…plainly speaking to you about the WAY of salvation. If you want to be saved, listen to the text this morning, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.”
These words are preceded by other importance words that we all know very well: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (and what is that gospel?) “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…” The gospel is for every creature! Wherever there is an understanding man, woman, or child, the gospel of Christ is to be preached to that person. You, who are gathered her this morning clearly fit this description, and therefore the gospel must be preached to you in all its simplicity.
Yet, if we are commanded to preach this gospel every creature, then it is also implied that YOU MUST HEAR IT. To hear the gospel without attention to it…to hear the gospel without having a resolve to obey it is useless. So, hear the gospel this morning as if Christ were standing over you watching to see if you understand and obey.
The gospel is sent to every creature, because every creature needs it. We cannot save ourselves from sin…we cannot cover our own transgressions. We need to be saved from our sins…we need to be rescued from the darkness, and the gospel of Christ is the Way. We believe that, because the Bible tells us that Christ is THE WAY, the truth and the LIFE! If you have not yet come to believe in Christ as the Son of God, then you are lost, and you cannot be saved. WITHOUT THIS fundamental faith, we cannot hope to have salvation; for the text says, “He that believeth not shall be damned.”
To those of you who have come to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, it is time to stir ourselves to remembrance because we still have a lot of creatures in the world that have not yet heard this gospel. Some people have never taught the word of God to anybody. If you have reached the point of salvation from sin…then you have reached the responsibility to teach others in the world about it. One preacher said that “if some of God’s people were paid ten dollars an hour for all that they had done for the Lord in their life, they couldn’t even fill up their own gas tank; and I’m afraid that statement is entirely true. Some have done so little to spread this simple teaching, that the world is no better for having you in it. Maybe I speak to bluntly and plainly, but the whole point of the gospel is to LIGHT UP the dark world, but a Christian light set under a bushel will never do. If there are some here who have never yet told anyone about the gospel, go tell that good news and help spread the gospel to every creature.
I wish that we all were soldier of the cross, and I wish we all carried out our orders as a soldier would. If you’re given an order, you carry it out in the best way you can with the most energy that you can expend. Every soldier of the cross has to carry out the orders of the cross, “Go ye, therefore, and make disciples…tell every creature in the world the words of our Lord, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…”
I want to do my part this morning to tell you 1). about belief 2). About baptism, and 3) about being saved. The text could not be any clearer on these three points.
I. BELIEF
We know that we are commanded to believe by this verse, but WHAT are we to believe? First, we are to know and believe that we have broken the laws of God, and because of that we are under condemnation. Yet, we are also to know and believe that GOD (in His infinite love and mercy) sent His Son Jesus into the world that we may LIVE THROUGH HIM! We are to believe in His Divine and only-begotten Son…we are to believe that He was made flesh and that he was tempted as we are….that He felt as we feel…that He gave Himself to be a sacrifice for guilty souls like us. We are to believe that Christ died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” We are to believe that he took upon Himself the sins of His people!” We are to believe that He bare our sins in His body upon that cross of Calvary. We are to believe that HE SUFFERED in the room, stead, and place of all those who have sinned and ever will sin. Believe that on the cross His blood was shed, and by the shedding of that blood He blotted out the iniquity of all those who obey Him. This is what we are to believe: that He was laid in the grave, and on the third day the stone was rolled away, and rose up for the justification of HIS PEOPLE. We are to believe that He is on the right hand of glory, and He is making intercession for His saints. We BELIEVE that Jesus Christ (the very Son of God) was given to us as a sacrifice for our sin.
The question then is WHO we believe IN. If we are to be saved, we must trust in a person…the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In believing the words of the Scriptures, you and I come to believe, not only IN those words, but in the Person of God the Son. If you want to be saved, you must come to know, trust, and believe in HIM who died for you.
I don’t know how much plainer this can get, but there is a warning that goes with this. Don’t say, “I understand the plan of salvation very well, I understand it perfectly.” People it’s one thing to understand the steps to salvation as outlined by the Scriptures, but it’s quite another thing altogether to BELIEVE in Jesus Christ, and believe that HE is able to save your soul. Let’s say that it’s a stormy and rainy night, and as the rain pours down, there’s a man sitting out in the streets exposed to all the elements and soaked through to the bone. This man, soaked through with rain reads the plans of a house as he sits there on the wet pavement, and he says, “I’m alright, I understand the plans of my house.” You see…he’s looking at the plans of the house; he has a view of the front door, he knows where all the rooms and windows are supposed to be, BUT HE IS STILL GETTING SOAKED THROUGH WHILE THE STORM RAGES ON! “But I understand the plans of the house…”…it doesn’t matter if you understand the plan, if you don’t go through the door into the house! You may know the steps of the plan of salvation…you may know every verse in the Bible that goes along with those steps, but unless you come to Christ and cast your cares upon HIM…you are still in the storm of sin. So, come to Him FIRST, in simple faith and believe that He is able to save you.
II. BAPTISM
Remember, you are a soldier in the army of Christ, and Christ has told you your marching orders. He has said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mk. 16:16) BUT, before we get into this point, I want you to realize that I DID NOT make this text. I am not taking this text out of context, but I am simply speaking the words of the Lord. I had no hand in making this Bible, and I am told to take God’s word as he said it…so here I read these words: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” Now, we can only go by the Book, we can only carry out the commands that the Master and Captain has told us to carry out. The book of God has this in it, so I have to stick to the truth as it is written, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.”
First, to remind us all, our Savior’s words teach us that baptism follows faith: He that believeth (has faith) and is baptized…” Never neglect the ORDER of things as they come in the Scriptures. If God puts them 1, then 2, then 3…we have no right to put them 3, then 2, then 1. Now, some in the church have taken this verse to say, “He that is baptized and believes shall be saved,” but that’s not what it says. When Kacie makes peanut butter chocolate balls, first of all she has to make the gooey peanut butter inside, then she has to dunk those babies into the chocolate in order for them to be eaten. 1). Make the gooey inside, 2). Dunk them in the chocolate, 3) eat them. Can I rearrange those and still eat a peanut-butter chocolate ball to eat at the end? NO WAY
We don’t even dare to rearrange the orders of the Captain of our salvation. We have no right to baptize someone until they have come to BELIEVE in Christ as their Savior. Remember how Philip did it in Acts 8, when the Ethiopian eunuch said asked, “Here is water, what hinders me to be baptized?” Remember what Phillip said, “If YOU BELIEVE…if you believe with all your heart you may. If you do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, then you have no business being baptized in the first place. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,” and that is the Divine order of things. In the entirety of the NT you will always find that those who believed, were baptized. They believe in Jesus as Lord, and then they were baptized into His name.
The matter of baptism is always linked with faith. Over and over and over in the NT you will find this to be true. Also, there are numerous passages in which baptism is connected to salvation (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, I Pet. 3:21), and in every passage baptism comes before salvation. Baptism is connected with God’s work of salvation, as it says also in our text: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…”
But also I want you to realize, that there is nothing saving in act of applying water to skin. Peter points this out also in I Pet 3:21 when he says, “It is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.” Literal water cannot wash away any sin…this would be going back to the old ceremonies of Mosaic Law where they constantly washed themselves in order to be ceremonially clean. Though there were washings performed for every unclean thing touched or come in contact with, not one washing of the OT ever took away the sins of a man because only the blood of Jesus that can do that.
So, why do you suppose that baptism is put into this prominent position by the Lord is Mk 16:16? Why is it that he said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved?” According to our text, there has to be an inward faith, before baptism can ever be accomplished. I think I have missed the point so many times of what baptism IS (not simply what baptism does). We know what baptism does…we know that it can’t be left out, we know that it bring us into the representation of the death, burial, and resurrection of our souls through Christ’s blood (Rom. 6:3-4), WE KNOW THESE THINGS, and while it is necessary for salvation…is it not a confession of sorts, is it not an ultimate expression of faith (as Christ HIMSELF has said, “He that believeth)
This fits perfectly with the plan of salvation because confession (which we will talk more on tonight) is necessary to prove our faith in Christ. Baptism (as well as being a contact with Jesus’ blood) is a way to openly confess our faith to others. Just think about the day of Pentecost, when those 3,000 souls were convicted of crucifying the Son of God, was their baptism not a confession of their sin and of their belief in Christ as the Son of God? YES, ABSOLUTELY! Though it was the means in which their souls were washed clean of sin, it was also the greatest confession that they could ever give in front of thousands of Jews. In light of this remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:32-33, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess before the Father which is in heaven, but whosoever shall deny me (this means those that DO NOT CONFESS), him will I also deny before the father.”
People, baptism is a test of our obedience to the commands of God. A soul that believes in Christ and has faith in Him as the Savior of all man WILL follow His words. If Christ says, Go and do this,” and a soul refuses to do it, then that soul refuses to bow to its Master. Some people say that baptism is not essential…well what did Christ say? “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…”
Let’s say you were at a restaurant, and you tell the waiter that you want some water to drink with your meal. The waiter comes back and gives you your food, but he doesn’t give you your water. You ask him why he hasn’t brought your water, and he says, “because it’s not essential…you can eat your meal without it.” I tell you the only thing that would be non-essential…it would be non-essential for that waiter to be your waiter anymore. You told that waiter very plainly to give you water, and he blatantly disregarded your plain order.
“he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…” These are the plain orders of the Lord. If he has given these orders to you…will you refuse to obey them? It’s the same thing as if Jesus would have told the world that all they had to do in order to be saved was to believe and pick up 7 stones, and carry them in your pocket for seven days. SOMEBODY down the line would have said, “Picking up these stones is non-essential!” Brethren, things become essential as soon as Jesus says them, and it’s the same way with baptism…you and I are bound to obey.
III. BEING SAVED
We know what this sentence entails….salvation from the punishment of sin. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” His transgressions are forgiven, his iniquities are blotted out, and his soul is made whiter than snow. Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come to Him. He is able to forgive and blot out the vilest of sins, and His blood is able to save the most wicked of all souls.
“he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.” This is the way…will you accept it, as together we stand…