Savage Street Church of Christ

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06_24_2018_GodsPlanForRedeemingMan_DonRuhl

God’s Plan for Redeeming Man

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • June 24, In the year of our Lord, 2018

Prelude:

1. How does the Bible answer the question:
   1. “What must I do to be saved?”
   2. Many preachers and churches have answers, but
      1. what does the Bible say?
      2. What did Jesus want the church to teach?
2. We need to be saved because we have become lost.
   1. Luke 15.3–7
   2. Isa 53.6
3. People spend their lives chained to their sins.
   1. The consequences of sin: It required the sacrifice of Jesus
   2. The payment is so great we cannot pay the debt ourselves

Persuasion:

1. What Shall We Do?
   1. You just heard a reading of Acts 2.33–37
      1. Peter declared
         1. the identity of Jesus
         2. they were guilty of killing Him
      2. That hit them hard:
         
         37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2.37).
         
      3. Peter gave them an answer:
         
         38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2.38).
         
   2. Can you think of a greater question to ask?
      1. However, Jesus already paid the price.
      2. What else could there be for us to do?
         1. The Book of Acts shows others asking similar questions.
         2. They always had to do something.
   3. Paul asked the question:
      1. Acts 9.4–6
      2. The answer: Acts
         1. 9.18
         2. 22.16
   4. The treasurer from Ethiopia asked a question:
      1. Acts 8.36
      2. Why the urgency?
   5. A Roman jailer wanted to know what he had to do to be saved:
      1. Acts 16.30–33
      2. Why could they not wait?
2. Why Were These People Baptized?
   1. Consider three truths:
      1. Without Christ, we are lost.
      2. God knew that we could not pay for our sins.
         1. He sent Jesus to pay the price.
         2. What He suffered on the cross was the hell we should taste.
      3. The conversions in Acts that we just saw:
         1. The people were moved to repentance by their faith.
         2. Their faith led them to confession.
         3. Their faith led them to baptism immediately.
   2. Why were they all baptized immediately?
      1. What do you do when your hands are dirty?
      2. We wash them.
         1. What should we do when our souls are dirty?
         2. We need to wash away the sins by the blood of Jesus.
   3. Paul reminded the Roman Christians what happened at their baptisms.
      1. Romans 6.1–3
         
         1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (Romans 6.1–3).
         
      2. We cannot die on a cross as Jesus did.
         1. Yet, we still must die to sin.
         2. What that means is
            1. that we need to die to the desire to sin and
            2. renounce our sins and
               1. turn to God.
               2. That is what the Bible calls repentance.
      3. When we renounce sin, a symbolic burial needs to take place.
         1. We are baptized into the death of Christ.
         2. We are also buried with Him symbolically:
            
            4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6.4).
            
         3. Paul explained further:
            
            5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection… (Romans 6.5).
            
      4. Jesus also arose from the dead.
         1. Since we die with Him and
         2. since we are buried with Him,
            1. we are also raised with Him:
               
               6 …knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6.6–7).
               
   4. Just think of what this means:
      
      26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Galatians 3.26–27).
      

Exhortation:

1. First Point