Which?

When I started preparing this sermon I was thinking of a funny introductory comment.

Normally a quick joke is enough to suffice but all I could find was pictures of broomsticks, cauldrons, potions, and spells!

While I won’t be preaching over witchcraft, I will be bringing up choices that can be just as dangerous if we are not careful.

Choices for instance like the rich young ruler asked Jesus, he wanted to know which commandments to follow and maybe figure out which he could slide by without doing.

He wanted to pick and choose but Jesus’ answer challenges us to look deeper.

As we examine this topic of “Which” it introduces a thought, that some things are more important that others, but which ones?

Let us as Christians, refuse the unimportant and devote ourselves to the important things found in the Bible

2 Timothy 2:23 NKJV

But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.

So what are some important questions that have to do with salvation?

Prayer

There are two ways to begin each day:

With prayer or without prayer. The question is, which one will you do?

Psalm 55:17 “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.”

David, a mighty king decided that he would start every single morning in prayer with God

Daniel 6:10 “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”

Daniel, a Mighty prophet decided he would spend the most important parts of his day, even if it meant his life in prayer

1 Timothy 5:5 “Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.”

Finally, Paul shows us that even the poor widow at home ought to pray both night and day.

The example for us is that no matter if we are the greatest of the great, ruling over an entire country, or if we are a devout man in a foreign land, or maybe even a poor widow at home, we have an obligation, to pray.

Which will you choose?

The Lord’s Day

There are two ways to spend each Lord’s Day: Idly or devotionally.

We each spend the Lord’s Day one of these two ways.

The question really is, which way do you spend it?

Hebrews 10:25–26 “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,”

We are commanded to not forsake the gathering together, for if we go on and do this we in fact are choosing to sin it against God.

Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.”

Why is it reasonable that you spend each Lord’s Day here as often as you can? because God died for you, it is only reasonable that you live for Him

Acts 20:7 “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.”

They gathered together on the first day of the week, much like we do today, and like them I will be preaching until midnight! (joke)

But seriously, we ought to take this as a blessing, God has allowed us to worship Him, we ought to be glad

Revelation 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,”

My question is are you in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day?

Saved and the Lost

There are two classes of people in the world: The saved and the lost. Which class of people do you belong?

Mark 16:15–16 “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

Jesus shows only two sets of people here, those who heard believed, and obeyed, He called the saved.

Those who heard but chose not to believe He called the condemned

Acts 2:47 “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

The saved are added to the church, those who are saved in the the church of Christ, those who are not in the church are not saved

Matthew 7:21–23 ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

There are some who believe that being a good person will save them, but make no mistake, God isn’t in the business of saving good people.

There is only one who is good and that is God. God is in the business of saving obedient and penitent sinners

Matthew 25:31–33 ““When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.”

There were not pigs, donkeys, or reptiles. On the last day, there will be two groups, the obedient sheep of Christ and the disobedient goats of the world.

1 John 2:3–4 “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

There are the saved who keep the commandments of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and then there are liars, sinners, who do not

2 Thessalonians 1:5–9 “which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer; since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,”

The Lord shows us again, 2 groups here, those who obey God, and those who do not.

Those who obey are going to be counted worthy of the kingdom

Those who do not will be punished according to their deeds

Two Masters: God and Satan

Today if you are alive and listening then you are serving a master.

You are choosing right now to serve either God or Satan, the question is, which?

Matthew 6:24 ““No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

You cannot say to yourself that you can simply have one fit in the Word of God and the other in the world of sin. These two cannot co-exist

As James would say in James 4:4 “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1 John 3:8 “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Habitual sin shows allegiance to the devil, but Christ came to break that awfully horrible bondage

Ephesians 2:2 “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,”

Those who walk in the world are sons of disobedience and serve the father of lies

Kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of darkness

There are but only two kingdoms in this world: Which, are you a citizen of?

Matthew 12:26 “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?”

Jesus clearly demonstrates here that Satan does in point of fact have a kingdom, and like we just look at, he does have followers, and “sons”

Colossians 1:12–14 “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

We who have been baptized have contacted the blood of Christ and received the forgiveness of sins. God then conveyed us out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His Son.

Those who haven’t been baptized into Christ still are facing this condemnation as they are in the kingdom of darkness

John 3:3–5 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Jesus again assures us that in order to enter the kingdom we must be born again of water.

It is this faith which Jackson preached on last week that saves us, not the fake faith of the world, but the true obedient faith that puts one into Christ.

Two Roads To Travel

From this point in time right now, up until eternity, there are only two roads to travel. The question is which road are you currently traveling on?

Isaiah 35:8–10 “A highway shall be there, and a road, And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, But it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, Shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

Isaiah prophesied in the long ago that there would be a highway that led to Holiness.

This dear friends is the road we all want to travel on

Matthew 7:13–14 ““Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Many will follow the broad way, when you see the vast majority of a world flock to a particular sin, do not be conformed

Instead pursue the narrow gate, pursue the highway of holiness that Isaiah spoke up and enter into the reward

Eventually this race you run on the highway will end and you will die.

“in Christ” or “in sin”

Did you know there are actually two ways to die?

How many ways does the Bible say you can die? Two

The Bible clearly teaches there are those who die “in Christ” and those who die “in their sins”.

You, me, all of us will die one of those two deaths...

Which one will it be for you?

Numbers 23:10 ““Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!””

Isn’t it interesting there is a righteous death. As we examined this morning, those who understand the will of the Lord, and obey it, they will die the death of the righteous.

What of those who do not follow these teachings?

John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.””

There are some who will die in their sins, as we have already said, there will be many on that day who say, “Lord, Lord” yet they did not the will of the Father

They and many others will die in their sins

Revelation 21:8 “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.””

Friends, be honest with me tonight, do you fall into any of these categories? If you do, while there is still life, there is still hope

The bible tells us in (next verse)

Revelation 21:27 “But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

The big question has to be, where is your name when you die? Which book are you in? Do you belong to satan or God?

Do you belong to Satan or to God?

We know the Lord will tell those written in His book, (next verse)

Revelation 22:14 “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.”

Won’t it be wonderful there? Won’t it be amazing to enter into glory? Paul had this to say on the matter

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Heaven or Hell

There are only two locations after the judgement, Heaven or Hell: Which, which one of these places will you go?

Matthew 25:46 “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.””

Will you be part of the righteous that enter into eternal life, or a part of those who go into everlasting punishment, those who did not obey the gospel?

Which Will You Choose

There is only two choices you can make today:

You will either leave here tonight and say “Yes” to the Lord’s invitation and be granted full access into His Kingdom, or you will walk out of here, deny the Lord, and judge yourself condemned.

Which one will it be for you today?

2 Corinthians 6:2 “For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

If you are waiting today for a better time to be baptized, a better time to repent, you don’t know if this is the last time and you are literally playing with the fire.

Hebrews 3:7–8 “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness,”

We look back on Old Testament stories and sometimes snark at those in them thinking to ourselves, “I Wouldn’t do that, I would serve God”

I would tell you the same thing Joshua did

Joshua 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.””

Joshua wasn’t scared to stand up to those around Him, because he knew the goodness and the severity of God

Proverbs 1:24–28 “Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.”

This can be a frightening thing for Christians to hear who haven’t repented and for the unbaptized to listen to, but you have time to make things right with God as together we stand and sing.