Randy Little - Salvation_ Now Is The Acceptable Time

7:12PM May 12, 2024

Speakers:

Randy Little

Keywords:

obey

jesus

god

baptized

faith

sin

verse

saved

command

salvation

death

christ

born

lord

understand

repent

life

ananias

told

word

Thank you for being here with us today. Several weeks ago, I had been studying and had in mind what I was going to preach about today. Had timelines and things and last week during Kenny sermon, I was sitting there. And as he spoke to us about Alyse Nash, and her confidence and calm, even though she's dying with brain cancer, it struck me. And so I thought, you know, I just need to preach a basic lesson about salvation. And so that's what we're going to talk about today.

Now is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation. Those are not my words. Those are the words of the Apostle Paul. And as we'll see, towards the end of the lesson, we'll look at that passage in second Corinthians chapter six. During this lesson, if you've obeyed the gospel, pay attention, you may hear something that when you're talking to a neighbor, a friend or family member, might help you in your ability to teach them God's truth. If you haven't obeyed the gospel, then for sure pay attention. So you might ask salvation, salvation from what? The second death, the lake of fire. In thinking about the second death, we're gonna look, there's only four times that phrase is mentioned in the New Testament, the second death. All four times are found in Revelation. So we'll look at that. We'll look at all four of those passages. But I want us to remember two things about the Lake of Fire, which is the second death. Number one, God did not create hell for man. God did not create hell for you and I .The Scriptures teach that God made hell for the devil and his angels. Point number two, God has never sent anyone to hell. We choose to go there when we refuse to obey God's command to be saved. When we refuse his salvation, that he's provided for us, as we've sung about today, our Savior Jesus. So I want us to remember those two points. Revelation chapter two, Jesus is speaking to the church at Smyrna. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." In early revelation, he's speaking to seven churches. 'He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death." We have to overcome. The verse that Mike read for us told us that whatever whoever is born of God overcomes the world. "Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power." Okay? So, "Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in this first resurrection." So what is the first resurrection? It's a spiritual resurrection that occurs when we enter the watery grave of baptism. The Scripture teaches us that we are dead in our trespasses and sin, we are spiritually dead. But God through His Spirit, the same spirit that he was able to raise Jesus from physical death, He raises us in newness of life, Romans chapter six. He raises us to spiritual life. And if one is participated in that first resurrection, the second death has no power. "But they will be priests of God and of Christ" as we're told in Peter. When we obey the gospel, we became a royal priesthood, a holy nation, for God, and we're supposed to proclaim His excellencies and everything he's done for us. That's what this says, "they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for 1000 years." That 1000 year period there is not literal. It's symbolic of a long time. Of what time. It's from the time when Jesus came, his first coming when he established the kingdom in early Acts and His Second Coming. So some people would say the first advent and the second advent. That's time period we're living in now. Jesus is reigning. He's at the right hand of God. Daniel chapter seven, the prophecy said, "The Son of Man will arise in heaven, being presented in the clouds before the Ancient of Days to receive dominion, power and glory." So when Jesus rose from the dead, when He ascended and left earth, God, the Ancient of Days gave him dominion, glory, and the kingdom. It's that kingdom. "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire." This is the second death, the lake of fire. Jesus conquered death. "Oh, death, where is thy sting?" He conquered it on the cross. So if you have taken part in the first resurrection, the second death, that like a fire, has no power over you. You don't have to worry about that. The last passage and revelation that mentioned second death is this. And you can try and follow along in your Bibles. But I put every verse on the slide so we can go quickly. And all of these are the New American Standard Bible. "But for the cowardly, and unbelieving and abominable, murderers, and immoral persons, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part will be in the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." So we need salvation from the second death. We need to be saved so we don't go to hell. And remember, we will send ourselves there by our disbelief, by our disobedience.

Alyse Nash is a young woman that Kenny mentioned last week, 38 year old female with terminal brain cancer on hospice. She has two small boys. She threw a party - come to my dying party. Kenny said there were over 200 people in attendance. So how can you throw a party when you're dying? She has peace. She has calm. That's what we need. I believe Alyse understands and knows that she has partaken in that first resurrection. She has been saved. She's obeyed the gospel. She has been born of God. And that the second death has no power over her. She understands that she's been born of God. So the question today is, have you been born of God? If you have not experienced the new birth, then you are spiritually dead in your sins and trespasses. In Ephesians Paul's writing to the Christians there. And that's why the verb tense is past tense. It says "were." "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. In which you formally walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience." So, before we are saved, before we obey the gospel, we are dead. We're spiritually dead. Okay? You might be saying, well, you know, I don't know that I've sinned, I'm a pretty good person. I listen to my mom and dad. I obey. I do what I'm told. I'm not sure I've ever sinned. God's word tells us here Paul writes, inspired, by the Holy Spirit and Romans 3:23 a verse we're all familiar with, "For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God." So every one since every one of us is a sinner. First John 1:8, "if we say that we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." If we say we have no sin, I can think of a sin right there: pride and arrogance. "If we say that we've not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." "The wages of sin is death." Not just physical death, but spiritual death, the second death, the lake of fire. So, the first step in becoming a Christian is realizing you're sinner, you need a savior, you realize you've not been born again, and that you've not taken part in the first resurrection. Therefore, you come to understand you're not only headed for physical death, the first death that applies to every human being, but you're also headed for the second death, which is eternal punishment and separation from God in the lake of fire.

In John chapter one, it reads, beginning in verse 12, "but as many as received Him, to them, he gave the right to become," future tense, "the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of man, but born of God." So that's critical. That's what we have to be we have to be born of God we have to expect It set new birth. Jesus in talking to Nicodemus, the first thing he said was "truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God." You have to be born again. Jesus answered, "Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water in the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." If you want to enter in you have to enter in on his terms, and he's laid it out for us. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." So we're all born of the flesh. Every one of us here today is flesh and blood, we're all of the flesh, we were born to the flesh, we understand that. But if we've experienced the new birth, if we've been born again, if we've obeyed the gospel, and taken part in that first resurrection, the spiritual resurrection that God provides for us, we're born in the Spirit. And we are spirit. Romans eight, verse nine.

So, everyone must choose which path to take, there's only two paths, there's only two roads to go down. We're gonna look at a passage from Matthew seven, Jesus talks about those two roads, he talks about the gate that you're going to enter. And there's only two gates, there's only two roads, there's only two paths. One path is wide, it's easy. It's the default path. It's the one everybody in the world mostly is going down. The second path is narrow, the gate is small, it's narrow. In Luke, we're told you have to strive to enter in, and few that find it and that gate leads to life. So, the two paths, we can either be born twice and die once or we can be born once and die twice, you get that now don't you. The two births. were all born physically, every one of us is experienced that. The second birth is being born again. Making the decision to obey the truth, obey the gospel, to become saved. Then you're only going to experience one death, physical death. The second death has no power over those who have partaken of that first spiritual resurrection. The second road is one birth and two deaths. Okay, we're born physically. And then we grow up, we understand God's word maybe. But we say, I don't believe it. I just don't believe it. So, I'm not gonna obey it. We'll see in a minute where belief and obedience in God's mind is tied together. In the human mind, it's not, but in God's mind it is. And so, the person says, I like, I like my life. I like how it's going, I don't feel the need of anything. I'm okay. And they never, they keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, and they never make the decision to follow Christ, to become a Christian. So that person is subjected to two deaths. They're going to die physically like all of us. But they're also subject to that second death, spiritual death, the lake of fire. Jesus says in Matthew seven, "enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow, that leads to life. And there are a few that find it." "The gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life. And there are few that find it." Everyone in the world is too busy. We're too busy with work, our career, our life. Life happens. Marriage, children, grandchildren. It's easy not to think about abstract things, about things that we can't see feel or touch.

How does one experience a new birth? How can I be born again? God's love, mercy and grace is what makes it all possible. If it weren't for the love of God, His mercy and grace, none of us could be saved. In Ephesians chapter two, it says "but God being rich and mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgression made us alive together with Christ by grace, you've been saved." Remember, he's writing to Christians. He's writing to people who've been taught about Jesus, who've been taught about the new birth and have made the decision to obey the gospel. They've been born again and he tells them. He said, God being rich in mercy. Why was he rich in mercy? Because of His great love with which he loved us even when we were dead. Even before we made the decision to become a Christian, we're spiritually dead in our sins and trespasses. We saw that. But he made us alive together with Christ. That's that first resurrection. When we obey the gospel, the spirit Word of God raises us in newness of life. It's a spiritual rebirth. Our spirit is reborn. And it all happens because of grace. As Jimmy prayed: the unmerited love of God. Faith is essential. "For by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one may boast. For by grace, you've been saved through faith." God had to reach down to man. And he did that through his love, mercy and grace. If we respond with obedient faith, then we can experience a new birth. Verse nine makes a great point. None of us will ever, ever, ever be able to do enough good works. I do this, I do that, I go to church, I give, I don't cuss. I do this, I don't cheat on my wife or my spouse. I'm... No. Remember what we read? Everyone sins. We all fall short. We could never work our way into heaven. Hebrews 11: "Without faith, it's impossible to please Him," that being God, "for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is rewarder of those who seek Him." So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. That's the key. How do we get this faith? It doesn't happen magically. We don't wake up one morning and all of a sudden we have faith. That's not how it happens. It only happens through God's word. God's Word is living and powerful. His speech is able to create: let there be light. That's how he spoke everything into creation. And when his word speaks, he doesn't speak to us today audibly. We don't hear God. You know, he doesn't say Randy, do this, do that. He speaks to me through his word. But it's living and powerful, and it creates. And as we come to understand who God is, we come to understand that Jesus is His Son, born of a virgin, Son of man. Born of God, Son of God. And what he did on the cross for us. We come to know about his life that he was perfect, sinless, a perfect Passover Lamb without blemish. And the love that he had for us. He laid down his life like he tells us in John. No one took my life from me, I lay it down for you voluntarily. He laid it down. That's how we get faith. It only comes through the word.

But once we hear all of that, and once we understand it, and it starts to click, and all the dots get connected, then the balls in our court. We're either gonna obey the command, or we're not. Believing is essential. And remember, belief equals obedience, unbelief equals disobedience. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." If this were the only verse we had in the Bible, then the only thing we would say about salvation is it takes one thing, belief. That's it, because that's all that verse talks about. But thankfully, we have a lot more verses in the New Testament. And it tells us what belief is and what God thinks of belief. Later in that same chapter in John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life." If you've experienced that first resurrection, you've passed, John, chapter five tells us you've passed from death to life. You've experienced spiritual resurrection. But look what it says, "But he does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him." See that? Belief, obedience. If we believe we have eternal life, but if we don't obey, we don't have life. We're not going to see life and the wrath of God abides on us. Hebrews five, "although he was the Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." That's Jesus. "And having been made perfect, He," Jesus, "became to all those who obey Him, the source of eternal salvation." Verse nine can easily read: and having been made perfect, He became to all those who believe in Him the source of eternal salvation. It could have said that: believe in him. In God's mind, belief and obedience, same concept. You can't have one without the other. Hebrews three, "and to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who were disobedient?" Talking about the Sabbath day rest, which is also symbolic of the future rest, the eternal rest, heaven. Who was not able to enter his rest? Those who were disobedient. It could have stopped there. But the Holy Spirit, through inspiration, the Hebrew writer goes on to make it more clear for us. Look what verse 19 says. "So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief." See that? God says they were not able to enter my rest because of disobedience. See, they were not able to enter because of unbelief. Disobedience equals unbelief. Obedience equals belief.

Confession is essential. Romans 10:9, "if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." So there's a couple more requirements. We have to confess with our mouth, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and we have to truly believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. But you know what? If we believe that we're going to obey. Repentance is essential. Matthew 4:17, this is when Jesus began His public ministry. "From that time." What time? The time that he began preaching. "he came about saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." If you look, a few verses, a chapter earlier talked about John the Baptist, when he came, those are the same things he preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Jesus, in Luke 13, "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." Unless you repent you will experience the second death, you will experience the lake of fire. Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Notice two things, or several things. Number one, "Repent and be baptized." There's a conjunction there. You have to do both. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus. And what's it say? "Each of you." It's a command. Every one of you. God doesn't say, hey, consider this. I've offered my son, he died for you. Why don't you consider being saved? Why don't you think about it. Consider it. He commands it. Each of you, every one of you, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and what are you going to receive? Two things. You're going to see remission of sin, forgiveness of sin, and you'll receive God's Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, as a gift. Baptism is essential. Jesus, in Mark's account of the Great Commission, these are the words of Jesus, "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved, but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." Believe and be baptized shall be saved. Two things. You got to believe and you got to be baptized. What's that equal? Salvation. So here is something else and these are the words of Jesus. One time I was talking to a preacher that said, "Randy, but you're missing the point. Look, he who is disbelief shall be condemned, doesn't say he has not been baptized shall be condemned. Believing is the important thing." The reason why it doesn't say here, that you're going to be condemned, if you're not baptized, is because Jesus was a man of few words. I was reminded of that multiple times this week from my children. He is a man of few words. In his prayer, in his teaching, in his sermons. Okay? Remember what we've talked about. If you don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, are you going to confess Him before men? As Lord? Are you going to repent and turn your life around and change your life? Are you going to allow someone to dunk you in water if you don't believe? Its like saying, You know what, if you don't make it to first, you don't score. You don't have to say anything about touching second, third or home plate. It's understood. It's implied. Of course if you don't believe you're condemned already. Hebrews 11 "By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen in reverence prepared an ark." Why did he prepare an ark? "For the salvation of his household. By which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith." By faith, Noah prepared an ark. God said, hey, it's gonna rain, there's gonna come a flood. There had never been a flood. I'm sure Noah thought I'm not sure what you're talking about. We don't have to understand fully every one of God's commands. We will in time. But he understood God said, you build this big boat. And he built it. And it says for the salvation of his household. Peter uses this in first Peter chapter three. Look what Peter says about salvation. Beginning in verse 20, "when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water, corresponding to that." Corresponding to what? The Ark. "Baptism now saves you." The ark was a manifestation of Noah's faith. God gave him a command, he did it. Baptism is a manifestation of one's faith. God commands it. And you either do it or you don't do it. But the writer goes on to say "not the removal of dirt from the flesh." It's not the water in this baptistry that takes away sin. Absolutely not. It is the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. It's just God chose that command for us to do to be able to touch the blood of His Son that was offered over 2000 years ago. When we obey the command to be baptized, it is an appeal to God from a good conscience. We're obeying the command. You know, I love it. Our brethren in Zimbabwe, when Taka talks about eight people obeyed the gospel this past Sunday, here or there. Shingai And Moses helped them. He doesn't say Shingai And Moses baptized them. He says Shingai And Moses helped them obey the command. If God would have said seven jumping jacks, then we would have to do seven jumping jacks. And it's not the jumping jacks that saves us. It's our faith. We're willing to do what God says. Another verse, "for all who were baptized into Christ and clothed yourself with Christ." It's how we put on Christ. Joel chapter two, "And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered." Some translations say "will be saved." In Romans chapter 10, Paul refers to this prophecy from Joel. He says, "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." In Acts 2, Peter in giving that sermon on the day of Pentecost, he refers also to this prophecy from Joel. "And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." How do we call on the name of the Lord? There was a point in my life where I thought it was through prayer. Well, in first John one nine, we're told that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to cleanse us from our sins and all unrighteousness." But that is for someone who's already obeyed the gospel. How do we call on the name of the Lord. Saul, before his conversion, he's on the road, he meets the Lord. He has a miraculous encounter with the Lord. He's blinded. A lot of people believe that Saul was converted on the road to Damascus. I'll submit to you he was not. He was introduced to God on the road to Damascus, he met Jesus. It changed his life. There's evidence of repentance. Instead of going to Damascus to bind and persecute Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem to persecute them. He went there because Jesus said, find a man named and that you'll be told what you must do. You'll be told what you must do. He believes. He's had a miraculous encounter. That's what it took to slap him in the face to wake him up. But he now believes. He's confessed because he said, Lord, who are you? Before Jesus spoke to him? And now he's repented. So he's done three things. But we can tell from the account. And putting the account of Acts nine, Saul's conversion, with the accounts in Acts 22, that his sins were not yet forgiven. Even though he's met the Lord. He believes in the Lord. He's confessed the Lord and he's repented. Okay? He was in Damascus, three days the text tells us. He didn't eat or drink. He fasted for three days. And then Ananias comes to him to tell him what he must do. And look what the text says. Acts 22 Verse 16. Ananias says, "Now why do you delay?" Some versions say, arise, why tarry? Get up, be baptized, washaway your sins calling on his name. The way we call on the name of the Lord is to be baptized in the name of the Lord. To submit to his authority. To obey the command. And when we do that, we receive remission of sin, and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Urgency. "Why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, wash away your sins calling on his name." That's how we call on this name. So what happened? He did. Ananias baptized him. And then his sins were forgiven. Three days later, after he met the Lord on the road to Damascus.

So what's involved in salvation? We've seen that it's God's love, mercy and grace that makes it all possible. Faith. We have to hear the Word of God and develop faith. We have to understand the story of Jesus, who he is and what he's done for us. And then that, at that point, then we come to believe who Jesus is. We confess that he's Lord, we repent and we obey the command. What are the spiritual terms for salvation? You know, I grew up, I was told you have to pray to receive Christ as personal Lord and Savior. So when I was studying this, I looked for that phrase, those terms, in the New Testament, I couldn't find them. These are the ones I found. We've already looked at Mark 16:16, it says, "be saved." John, 3:7, "Do not be amazed that I said, You must be born again." Look at this in second Thessalonians, beginning with halfway through verse seven, "when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." If we don't obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, that means we don't know God. And when Jesus returns the second time, with His mighty angels, we don't want to have retribution. We don't want to experience the second death, the lake of fire. So obey the gospel. First, Peter 1:22, "since you have been obedient to the truth, purifu your souls." How did they purify their souls? Obeying the truth, obeying the command. What command? To believe. John chapter six says "even believing is a work of God." That you believe that he is. Believing. That's a command. To believe, to repent, to confess and to be obedient in baptism.

In Romans, there's a lot in Romans, and a lot of people talk about justification by faith only. Belief only. That baptisms never a part of it. I want you to notice the book ends in Romans chapter one and chapter 16. How faith and obedience as we've seen, is tied together. Romans chapter one, verse five, "through whom we have received grace and apostleship." Paul says, We have received God's grace and apostleship. Why? Why have we received that? What's the mission? "To bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for his namesake." The obedience of faith. And then the last chapter of Romans 16, we're gonna see the same book end. "But now as manifested by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God has been made known to all the nations." And the Scriptures be making known to all people. Why? So they can get faith. Why? So they can come to believe, to confess to repent and to obey, the command to be baptized. "Leading to the obedience of faith." There it is, again, the obedience of faith. Acts six, verse seven, "the word of God kept on spreading and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith." So these are Levites. These are Jews, priest in Judaism, but they were coming to understand that Jesus was truly the Messiah, and they were becoming obedient to the faith.

Have you been saved today? Have you been born again? Have you obeyed the gospel? Have you obeyed the truth? Have you been obedient to the faith? If not, then why not now? In Acts 17, it says "therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent." That's the New American Standard. A lot of translations there say, God is now commanding, God now commands. Who? All people everywhere to repent, okay? It's not - God doesn't say, you know, wait till you're an old man or a woman and then maybe on your deathbed and you know, get someone to help you obey the commands. He doesn't say that. Now. If you understand. Now. There's urgency, just like Ananias told Saul. Arise, why tarry, be baptized, washing away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. God is now commanding all people everywhere to repent, because God knows about the second death. He made that lake of fire for Satan and his angels. He does not want one of us to experience that. Not one. At the end of second Corinthians five, we're almost done here. Thanks for your attention. "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God we're making an appeal through us." So Paul is saying, you know, him, Silas, Timothy, Titus, everyone with Paul, we're ambassadors for Christ. And so God were making an appeal through us. We beg you, some translations say implore. We implore you, on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. So if Paul was here today, that's exactly what he'd be telling us. We beg you, we implore you. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." We have to be in Christ. And the only way we get in Christ is to obey the gospel. First Corinthians chapter 12. Verse 13, says, "For by one Spirit, you've been baptized into one body." That body is the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. In first Corinthians chapter six, it talks about "when we join ourselves to the Lord, we become one spirit with him." Paul here at the end of chapter five then goes on in the beginning in chapter six and says, "and working together with him, we also urge you." So we beg you, we urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. But God's grace makes it available to everyone. Don't let that go in vain, act upon it. Act upon His love, mercy and grace. "For he says, at the acceptable time." Now Paul's going to quote Isaiah the prophet, "he says that the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is a day of salvation." So that first slide talking about salvation, it said, now's the acceptable time, today is a day of salvation. Those aren't my words. Those are words that the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to write. Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. One slide. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." We haven't heard the Holy Spirit today audibly speak to us. But in a way we have because we've read God's word. And the Holy Spirit inspired this word, this is all we have to go by. And we've looked at multiple passages to talk about all these different things. "He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death." He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death. And this is a verse, we're going to end here, this is a verse that Mike read for us. "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is a victory that has overcome the world, our faith." So, I would ask you today if you have never obeyed the gospel, is your faith strong enough? That it is going to allow you to obey the command. That it is going to motivate you to step out from where you're sitting to come forward, to make the good confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. To repent and say, I'm gonna live for Jesus instead of myself. And I want to obey the command to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost so I can receive remission of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Is your faith strong enough? Is your faith strong enough?