Do you need to obey?

Do you need to obey?

Yes!

Are you saved by your obedience?

No!

There are certain things we must not speak of.

Especially the work of salvation.

We must cover our mouth with our hand and tremble at the thought of it.

Psalm 115:1
New King James Version (NKJV)
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy,
Because of Your truth.

Psalm 51:1
New King James Version (NKJV)
51 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.

Luke 18:13
New Living Translation (NLT)
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’

Jesus died! The Lord has died!

Matthew 27:50-54 NKJV
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

If Christianity is all about following rules and regulation, we have missed the whole point.

I mean.. He died! He really died!

And here you are fussing over how not to lose the inheritance Christ has promised you?

Especially that of baptism in which you put your faith upon. The idol which you have erected for yourselves?

You have trampled on what is beautiful; the grace of God and make yourselves loathsome before His eyes by embracing baptism as a prerequisite to salvation.

You went all out to win one convert, and when he is won, you make him loathsome before the Lord by teaching him baptism as a prerequisite to salvation thereby despising the work of the spirit who alone regenerates a person.

Matthew 23:15
New King James Version (NKJV)
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.

Romans 8:32-35 NKJV
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Numbers 23:19 ESV
God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Is not the giver more precious than the gift?

Luke 10:41-42 NKJV
And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

The way of righteousness is Christ and nothing else. Not baptism. Not obedience.

On one hand you profess Jesus is the only way and on the other you teaches baptism as a prerequisite to salvation..

Matthew 21:31-32 ESV
Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

John MacArthur Commentary

The way of righteousness:
The repentance and faith that results in the imputation of God's righteouness (Refer Roman 3:21)

Tax collectors and the prostitutes:
The pariahs of Jewish society, most publicly despised by the chief priests and elders, had found salvation while the self-righteous leaders had not. (Refer Roman 10:3)

Romans 3:21
New Living Translation (NLT)
21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses[a] and the prophets long ago.

Romans 10:3
New Living Translation (NLT)
3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

The will of the Lord is that you believe in Him.

John 6:40
New King James Version (NKJV)
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Will you respect the Son. Or do you only want the inheritance?

Is He the only way or is He part of the formula?

Matthew 21:37-41 ESV
Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”

Matthew Henry
Our Saviour, in his question, declares that the Lord of the vineyard will come, and when he comes he will surely destroy the wicked. The chief priests and the elders were the builders, and they would not admit his doctrine or laws; they threw him aside as a despised stone. But he who was rejected by the Jews, was embraced by the Gentiles. Christ knows who will bring forth gospel fruits in the use of gospel means. The unbelief of sinners will be their ruin. But God has many ways of restraining the remainders of wrath, as he has of making that which breaks out redound to his praise. May Christ become more and more precious to our souls, as the firm Foundation and Cornerstone of his church. May we be willing to follow him, though despised and hated for his sake.

~Charles Spurgeon
"You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself."