Taking Away Our False Security

[0:00] this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia it is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of god's word take and go with me to romans chapter 2 and we'll finish the chapter of rome uh romans chapter 2 today and you might write down somewhere taking away our false security taking away our false security and here's what is going on in romans chapter 2 the apostle paul is saying to the jews to the jewish nation he is saying hey guys listen to me uh you can't trust all of these things that you're currently trusting you can't trust the fact that you're a jew you can't trust the fact that you know the law you can't trust the fact that you've been circumcised you've got to give up all of those things and realize only one you can trust is jesus christ this passage is extremely applicable to us because you and i trust well we're a member of a church and we've been baptized like circumcised we're like a jew we're a member of a church like circumcised we've been baptized and boy don't we know the bible we're a bible studying people and it's so easy to become very cocky in what you think you know and the fact that you're a member of a certain group or the fact that you have been baptized or have some externals and not put your trust in jesus and so by the end of this chapter the jews will be stripped down to nothing to realize it is jesus and only jesus and that's where we all need to be read with me if you would romans chapter 2 verses 17 down to the end of the chapter if you would romans 2 17 behold thou art called a jew and rest us in the law and make us thy boast of god and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent being instructed out of the law thou art confident that thou of thyself art a god of the blind a light of them which are in darkness an instructor of the foolish a teacher of babes which has the form of knowledge and of the truth and the law thou therefore that which teachest another teaches thou not thyself thou that preachest a man should not steal dost thou steal thou that says a man should not commit adultery dost thou commit adultery thou abhorrest idols dost thou commit sacrilege thou that makest thy boast of the law through the breaking of the law dishonorest thou god verse 24 super strong underline it for the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles through you for the name of god is blasphemed through the gentiles people make fun of god because of you jews as it is written verse 25 for circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law shall not his uncircumcision be counted for righteous for circumcision and shall not uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfill the law judge thee who by the letter and circumcision does transgress the law for he's not a jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a jew which is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of god let's bow our heads for a word of prayer if you would father i pray that tonight you would work or this morning you'd work in our lives i pray that your name would be honored and glorified god i pray that you would leave us this morning trusting you and only you and trusting the finished work of jesus christ on the cross i pray god that you would help us learn today as born again people that we are trusting you i pray you'd help us learn how we might take your word and show others how that they might know jesus as their savior and i pray god for those that might not know you this morning that today they would be humbled at your feet to realize that

[4:04] you are the only way for us to be saved and i'll give you great praise and great honor and great glory in jesus name amen the first thing you might want to write down somewhere is salvation is more than knowing something salvation is more than knowing something look if you would in romans chapter 2 verse 17 where we just read the bible says behold thou art thou art called a jew and rest us in the law you rest in the law and you make your boast of god verse 18 you know his will you even know how to choose what's right and you're instructed in law in verse 19 and you're you're confident and you're but you yourself that you are a god to the blind and a light to those guys in darkness and you're verse 20 sure that you're an instructor of foolishness and a teacher of babes which has the form of knowledge and the truth in the law the jews rested in one thing they knew the law they had the law they knew what it said they knew god's will they had been taught and approved of god and what it said they taught everybody else the law they felt like they had the law and they were teaching others that didn't have the law they were instructors they were confident what they had the problem is knowing and not doing you know you can know a whole lot of things you can have a lot of head knowledge about christ and no heart knowledge about christ you can know a lot of bible and not be born again they taught others but they didn't live up to the their own knowledge look at romans 2 13 right there in front of you romans 2 13 for not the hearers of the law are just before god but the doers of the law it wasn't that you knew what the bible said it was hey i know what it says and i'll do that it wasn't that you knew what the old testament said it was that you would do it they taught everybody else but they didn't do it themselves in verse 21 he said you teach it but are you do you do it you tell them not to commit adultery but you do you commit adultery he said hey you claim to have the law and have the word of god but i question whether or not you are putting any of it into practice in romans chapter 2 and verse 17 he said you brag about knowing god but you're the ones who dishonor god look at romans chapter 2 and verse 17 thou art called a jew and rest us in the law now look that and make us thy boast of god look at verse 23 thou that make us thy boast of the law and through the breaking of the law dishonor thou god you say you you know the law you say you know god but are you dishonoring god by saying one thing and doing another verse 24 the name of god is blasphemed among the gentiles through you as it is written so here's just a little thing to start off i'm going to give you five things that you might write down today and uh the first three are the things that he's going to show us our weaknesses and then we'll head towards what we're supposed to do and the first thing i want you to look at is hey knowing the bible knowing the bible doesn't mean you're necessarily saved you know there's been a lot of people saying the bible for a long time they got a head full of bible and he said hey you might know the bible but you haven't applied the bible you might know that jesus is lord but you haven't made him lord you might know that jesus died on a cross and paid your sin to it but you've not humbled yourself and came to him to be saved so he says to them are you judging others when and you're not able to judge yourselves are you teaching others and you're not able to teach yourselves uh you can't plead ignorance because you've already bragged about knowing i would just say to you this morning you know i've grown up in the southeast and i have grown up uh i i've spent my life well except as a missionary i spent my life in the southeast and if anybody thinks we know the bible it's us we're a part of the bible belt we're the buckle on the bible belt but if we know the things of god we would brag about hey we know in fact is in a in in our church everybody can spout off bible we've memorized bible and we've learned bible and so the jews they knew the law they memorized the law

[8:05] they knew all about the law but they did not know jesus christ they didn't understand what the law was about and so today i would challenge you to look at yourself and say have i learned all the facts about jesus have i memorized all the books of the bible can i quote bible verses but have i come to a place in my life to realize it's not about what i know it's about who i know it's not about the fact that i have learned a lot of bible stories well in our churches even we are good at telling everybody all the bible stories and filling up with a bunch of bible knowledge but maybe that we've never come to a place in our life when we're where we repented of our sin and trusted jesus christ and that's what he says these jews boy you're jews and you are bragging about one major thing you have the law and you do have the law they wrote the old testament god used jews to write the old testament god used jews all the way right now in romans he's still using them but they are resting in the wrong thing it is not about what you know it's not about how much law you've learned and fact is the law you've learned if anything is going to only condemn you more it's only going to condemn you more do you realize every time you come to church and all the more bible you learn and all we go through verse after verse that's really not going to help you unless you apply it to your heart and say this is not about knowing it's not about knowing it's about living the bible says in james chapter 3 and verse 1 my brethren be not many masters knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation don't a lot of you become teachers don't a lot of you become leaders because if you are a no bible knower and a bible teacher you can expect stronger judgment you can expect god to say you knew and that's it the servant who knew gets more stripes when he gets beaten he gets beaten because he knew more so i will take you to the second one but i would challenge you this morning to do to do this i grew up and by the way can i just say i've preached in jail and i've been standing outside a jail jail cell and guys are standing inside and i'm preaching to them and i've had them say to me i know all those verses i know all those verses i used to be a deacon i used to be a sunday school teacher and i'm like well what in the world are you doing back behind there because but they know but it never affected their life they know but they never they might have memorized the ten commandments but they never affected their life they might have gone to sunday school they might know the books of the bible and they may be able to argue argue theology with you but hey mr jew if you know and you don't follow through then it will be more condemnation look at the second one the second was salvation is more than being a member salvation is more than being a member in romans chapter 2 verse 17 the bible said thou call us thou art called a jew thou art called a jew and rest us in the law and make us thy boast of god you know what they were doing they were saying hey we're jews we are the chosen people we're the chosen people in verse 19 they were confident and they taught everybody and they led everybody and they they thought their membership in the nation of israel they thought they're being a part of the nation of israel would take them to god they felt like they were the chosen the jewish nation the circumcision and therefore god was pleased with them but you can't expect to be born into a group and raised in a group and that to be your inward reality you cannot expect to be born in a group and raised in a group and expect that to be your inward reality could i say that's why we lose our children because we bring them to church and we teach them all the minimal stuff and they learn all enough bible just to be dangerous and they don't know jesus and they we get them into the membership of the church we get their name on the roll of the church but nothing ever happened inside and they never were born again the apostle paul the apostle paul was born in that group and raised in that group but he realized that being born a jew wasn't enough look at with me if you would at philippians chapter 3 and verse 4 philippians

[12:05] chapter 3 and verse 4 the first thing is knowledge is not enough knowing is not enough the second thing is being a member is not enough in philippians chapter 3 and verse 4 paul said though i might also have confidence in the flesh if any uh if any other man thinks that he hath wherever he might trust in the flesh i'm lower paul said if you think that you were born a jew and you think you have a right to brag i'll just go ahead and tell you i got more reasons to brag than any of you guys in verse 5 he said i was circumcised on the eighth day exactly like i was supposed to i'm of the stock of israel i'm of the tribe of benjamin i'm a hebrew of the hebrews and it's touching the law of pharisee i'm in the best group of all the groups i'm like a hebrew of the i'm an american of an american like a talk show soho says you're a great american well this guy was a great american of the americans he was way up there and he said and by the way i'm a pharisee verse 6 he says concerning zeal persecuting the church touching righteousness which is in the law blameless paul said hey you want to talk before i got saved i was a very good guy i was so good that if you'd have pulled out the 10 commandments and laid them down there i would have been blameless didn't break any rules kept all the rules kept all the pharisee rules i am i was a good man look at verse 7 philippians 3 7 but what things were gained to me those i counted lost for christ yea doubtless and i count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of christ jesus my lord for whom i suffered the loss of all things and do count them as dung but dung that i may win christ paul said i look at everything i look at where i was born i look at my family i look at the way i was raised i look at the nation i'm from and i looked at all of that and i realized hey it's a waste i look at how i followed all the rules and i've done everything i ought to do and i found out it's jesus and it's only jesus verse 9 is a verse that ought to become very real to you look at chapter 3 verse 9 philippians 3 and verse 9 paul said and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of christ the righteousness which is of god by faith paul said you know what i was so good i was blameless i persecuted the church i kept all the rules i was born right circumcised right you want to talk about i'm a jew of the jews i'm a hebrew of the hebrews i'm a pharisee and i found out something my righteousness doesn't measure up i'm never good enough and even though i was born right and raised right and even though i was a member of the greatest group on the planet of the earth and i was one of the chosen people i figured out it wasn't enough i needed the righteousness of christ do you know what ends up happening in our in our society in fact is the question is have you joined the church the question is have you joined the church i mean that's the question have you joined the church do you go to church are you part of the church and the truth is paul would say yeah well there's a whole lot of church people going to go to hell paul would say there's a whole lot of church people going to go to hell a whole lot of people that know the bible and go to church are going to go to hell you can't rest in those things paul said paul said hey i had all of it and i could have stacked it up with any of you guys and i could have had a competition with any of you guys but i knew i didn't make it look if you would in romans chapter 10 and verse 1 romans chapter 10 and verse 1 we're headed towards that passage as we go through romans the jews had a zeal for god but it wasn't according to knowledge the jews were the group and the jews had the book but the jews were serving god but it wasn't according to the book even though they had the book in romans chapter 10 and verse 1 brethren my heart's desire and prayer for god to god for israel is that they might be saved god i want you to save the israelites verse 2 i bear them record that they have a zeal of god but not according to knowledge would you underline that in your bible not according to knowledge for the they being ignorant of god's righteousness and going about to establish their

[16:06] own righteousness have not submitted themselves on the righteousness of god would you underline in verse 3 establish their own righteousness would you look this way just a second here's what he was saying he said hey you know all the rules you know what the bible says you got the law memorized you're a teacher of the law and you explain the law to everybody boy you're a bible scholar you're a bible teaching a bible preaching machine and you're a member of the church and he said that what you want to go around and do is say look watch this i'm a good guy i am blameless i was born right raised right know the book and i have all these credentials to my name i want to establish my righteousness i want to establish my righteousness the old testament jews use the law and the rules as a way to measure themselves they use the charts the way to say i am exactly where i ought to be i'm at the exact growth rate i ought to be on the growth percentile chart i have everything i ought to have when you check me out i measure up i weigh the right thing i'm the right height i'm the right size everything about me is right see look at the rules and paul's going to say to them did you know that god never wrote the old testament so you could be able to go around bragging over each other had they walk in the room can you just hear paul before you get saved in philippians 3 did you hear what he said they're all sitting around talking and and one of them says you know i really believe i'll get to heaven really do sure i do i really believe i will how you gonna get to heaven man i'm a good guy i got it all together i've been doing the right stuff going to the right places member of the right group and paul said look buddy if you want to talk about what you got let me just say i can say a whole lot better stuff than you can i was born the right group i was circumcised on the right day i was raised the right way and everything has been wonderful in my life and i figured out something it was worthless i want you to look if you went at romans chapter 10 and verse 4 romans chapter 10 and verse 4 this is where he's leading us it's not about knowing the law and it's not about being a member of the group it's about realizing that jesus christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it look at verse 4 for christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it you know what he was saying why do you think god gave the law would you look this way just a second what romans is all about is to say this you have sinned you are a failure all have sinned and come short of the glory of god there is none righteous no not one in every epoch of time and every dispensation as the lord has worked in our lives he has shown us man you failed in the garden you failed when there wasn't any law and you were out of the garden you failed and by genesis chapter six you're already bad mess up again and and then and then i bring in the jewish nation and you fail there and then i bring in the law and you fail there and then i bring in grace and you fail there everything and every everything that ever happens you are just a bunch of failures failures that's the whole point of the law god wants to bring us to our knees god wants to bring us to a place when we say i am an utter and an abject failure i have blown it with my life and i need jesus and what he did on the cross at calvary for the christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth it's not about your bragging rights you have none membership or agreement with a group their doctrine etc is not salvation you should not rest in your church membership you might not know this you might not have had to do this but when you preach funerals it is always funny the first thing they want to tell you is what church they remember of they come and say now mom and i know she didn't go to church i know she didn't go to church i know she lived a wild and reprobate life they don't say those things they don't say that but you know it and everybody else knows it and then they come and they say now she doesn't remember this church if you were to call the pastor you'd say i never met her i remember i was out knocking on doors in cartersville one day and i walked up to lady and uh at her house me and my partner's knocking on doors i walked up to her and i said hey just wanted to come by and talk to you know if you died today you go to heaven we were

[20:08] talking she said i'm saved i'm saying i remember church remember the church i said really now i was pastor of liberty baptist church i started that church from scratch i knew everybody who went to that church it never got large and i knew everybody went to that church and so she said i'm a member of liberty baptist church i said really i said which one she said the one on grassdale road and i said really well who's the pastor and she can't think of his name right now and i said well i am the pastor there and she said well i went before you got there isn't that what we do rest on church membership you can't count on your bible knowledge and you can't count on your church membership he is taking away our false security he is saying don't trust what you know don't trust what you're a member of third thing salvation is not about outward conformity outward conformity look at verse 25 for circumcision verily profiteth but if thou keep the law but but if thou keep the law but if thou be a breaker of the law thy circumcision is made uncircumcision now watch this they thought that they were circumcised circumcision was a mark of the covenant in the old testament and so since their mom and daddy had operated on them when they were little boys at the age of eight days old their mom and dad had worked on them they would walk around say hey i'm circumcised i'm a part of the circumcision i am a part of the chosen group i know things and i have the mark on me that i belong to god and paul said well let me explain to you look at verse 25 i'm gonna read this in tennessee hillbilly with you here comes tennessee hillbilly version of verse 25 it says uh your circumcision ain't worth a stink if you don't keep the law but if you be a breaker of the law your circumcision is the same as being not circumcised verse 26 if they're therefore if you're if you're you're uncircumcised guy and you keep the law won't his uncircumcision be like circumcision won't circumcision which is by nature of it fulfill the law judge you the guy that wasn't circumcised is going to judge you he's not a jew which is one outwardly it doesn't make you a jew because you've been cut on it's not about you're getting cut in the flesh it's one who is verse 29 inwardly and circumcision that of the heart the circumcision should have been simply an external that showed what was a true internal but it had degenerated into simply an external what happened to him on the outside should have been revealing what was on the inside but it had only become something on the outside now watch this if anybody's groups like this it's us we tend to think we don't go where they go we don't do what they do we're better than they are and we got this whole list of things on the outside and so since we don't do what they do and we're not like they are then we must be saved and he's saying this he's saying just because you've been circumcised doesn't mean anything just because you do what's external being circumcised meant nothing if you didn't keep the law god was not looking for outward conformity but inward reality i spent many years of my life telling everybody to straighten up the outside and i tell everybody fix this on the outside and we preach that and that was so important but the truth of the matter is it wasn't important because you can fix the outside all you want but you could be like a pharisee with all the outside fixed and be full of dead men's bones on the inside in first samuel chapter 16 in verse 70 if you recall samuel goes and he's looking for the king and he's going to anoint david as king that day and as everybody comes in uh he's looking he said man that's a good looking guy and he's tall and he looks like the kind of guy that ought to be the king of israel and the god of heaven says to him the lord sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance but man looks on the heart circumcision circumcision minus obedience equals uncircumcision having the mark without carrying through in your

[24:12] life means the same as not being there uncircumcision plus obedience equals circumcision uh if you were if you go out and start talking to people you know this you've done it first thing they're going to say is i'm a member of the church you said well you i'm glad you are do you know if you died you go to heaven well i was baptized on such and such day the first thing is my membership the second thing is my baptism that's a good southern thing isn't it the truth is that right or not amen that's the way they're going to talk to you and here's what paul was saying you can't rely on your baptism by the way you can't rely on your separation your convictions or your morality you must rely on jesus so far he has knocked down three things that the jews were relying on the jews bragged about we're a people of the book the jews bragged about we're jews we're the people of god we're the chosen ones and the jews bragged about we're the circumcised and he said you might have the book but you don't obey the book and you might be jews but just because you're a jew on the outside and you got the right skin color and you speak the right language don't mean you're on the inside and then they said well we're circumcised he said you might have them outside marks but you don't have the inside marks so that leaves the fourth thing i wish you'd write down salvation is about realizing your sinful lost condition salvation is about realizing your sinful lost condition in galatians 3 22 the bible says scripture has concluded all under sin that by that the promise by faith of jesus christ might be given to them that believe the scripture has concluded all under sin the goal of the passage is to strip away any confidence in anything or anyone other than jesus christ it's to strip away any confidence in anybody or anything else other than jesus christ you know the bible but you don't obey it you've been physically circumcised but not in your heart you're a jew and a member but just being a jew doesn't save you until you get to the point of helplessness you will not be ready to trust christ and what he did on the cross at calvary romans 2 is saying to this it's body slamming them the jew is saying i don't really need jesus you gotta understand i know the law and so he takes him and he slams on the ground says you may know the law and you may teach everybody the law but i'll just be honest you don't obey the law you tell everybody not to commit adultery but you do and he just nails them and so they said all right all right all right second chance give me a second chance i've been circumcised and he slams them down and says you might be circumcised but it's exterior it's not interior there's no change in your life you got all the externals but none of the internals they said well i'm a jew i'm a member of the chosen race and he said no no no no no where you're born and where you're raised and what group you're a member of doesn't save you this morning for all of us i know that 99 of you are born again but you know what even you you got to understand something your salvation had nothing to do with how much you know and your salvation had nothing to do with you being a member of a group or you're being baptized or any other religious thing it has nothing to do with i have done all these sacraments it has nothing to do i've done all these ordinances it has nothing to do with i know all these verses of scripture it has nothing to do with that it has to do with the fact that you come to a point in your life one day when you realize i am utterly and totally lost and if he doesn't save me i can't be saved it is really hard on us to accept this because we don't need that much help but that's what he's telling us last thing i want to show you salvation is a work that god does in us look if you would at romans chapter 10 again where we went while ago romans chapter 10 verse 1 brethren my heart's desire and prayer to god for israel is that they might be saved i bear them record that they have a zeal of god but not according to knowledge they being ignorant of god's righteousness go about trying to establish their own righteousness but have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of god christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth god must get us to a

[28:14] point where we can see that we can't save ourselves only jesus can being religious and sincere is not the answer only jesus is the answer only jesus is the answer this will come up in a couple of weeks but would you go with me right now to romans chapter 3 just one page over look at this he's kind of ending this whole passage kind of ending this whole thing of you're a sinner and he's coming down to the close of it and in romans chapter 23 verse 23 he says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god all have sinned and come short of the glory of god and then he says being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's in christ jesus i want you to underline this justified freely by his grace would you look just wait just a second as we keep reading watch this you know what he's saying is this you get saved freely by grace it's in other words you get saved by something you don't deserve you get saved by something you don't earn you get saved by god doing something in your life not you doing something in your life it's not well i learned i learned 942 verses i can quote the whole old testament i'm a member of the jewish nation i was born right and raised right member of the church ever since i was six years old i've been a member of the church and and i've been baptized i've been baptized and i'm okay he said no it's not about what you do you get justified freely you get justified without it costing you anything and it costing jesus everything it's the redemption that's found in christ jesus verse 25 romans 3 25 whom god has set forth to be a propitiation a payment for our sin through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of god he's he jesus sent his son to pay the sin debt verse 26 to declare i say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that which believeth in christ in jesus i'm gonna read the next verse in a second but do you understand what happened he said if i brought you up to the front here and i set you down and you said to me i'm a member of the jewish nation i've been baptized and i know the law he would say you might be a jew but you don't act like one you might know the law but you don't live the law you might have the marks but you don't have the marks on the inside of you you don't really that you're not doing very good fact is if you've done right 99 of the time and you sin one time you're you're you're messed up you can't make up for it and the god of heaven says i will judge your sin and the god of heaven says i have a way to judge your sin i will take your sin and i'll place it on jesus and jesus will pay your sin debt and that way i can be just as i judge your sin and i can justify you and so we come to him humbly we come to him as nothing we come to him as nobody saying i can't believe you saved me i can't believe you love me i can't believe you're such a wonderful wonderful savior i can only say thank you because you're so good to me look at verse 27 he said so now where can you brag verse 27 where's boasting then because you see it used to be they walked around the church going hey i never smoked cuss drink dance and went them and did i never committed adultery hey i'm a good guy hey i was born on the right day circumcised on the right day remember the right group memorize more verses man i am somebody and then verse 27 the apostle paul holy spirit says okay now that you figure this out you can't save yourself only jesus saves now where are you going to do any bragging because all you're left to say is this i stink i stunk and i will continue to stink if it weren't for jesus who died for me and paid my sin to it verse 27 where is boasting then it's excluded well what law got rid of it works no it wasn't it you you couldn't brag because of the works because if you kept working you'd be able to brag i mean i'd like to say y'all want to start bragging i've been a missionary 20 years been a pastor and a missionary now like 40 years oh good stuff hey started a bunch of churches oh good stuff and god looks down and says it still stinks your righteousness is as filthy rags and if it weren't for what jesus did on the cross austin you'd go to hell no boasting because there's a law of

[32:19] faith verse 28 this is your verse verse 28 if you would the bible says therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without doing any rule keeping man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law without doing any rule keeping god's striking us down making us nothing so we can realize he's everything god is showing the jew and the gentile that only jesus saves only jesus saves he strikes at the very root of all that they have believed and he strikes at the very root of their pride you know the church is a congregation of saved people of redeemed people of saints but every one of us that got to be saved or redeemed or a saint we got here purely by god's goodness we didn't deserve it we didn't earn it there is nothing good about us except him and it's not because i happen to join a baptist church because i'm telling you hell's going to be full of baptist hell's going to be full of independent fundamental baptist and it will be because it's not about what group you're a member of hell's going to be full of a lot of people that got baptized you know betty was christened when she was born and sprinkled when she was 12 and finally got saved and baptized but there'll be a lot of people that got sprinkled and christened and baptized and they'll still go to hell because it's not about what you did externally it's not about what you did externally it's not about what you did externally it's not about how much you know you can know all the things about the bible it's not about that he strikes at our pride because see to be saved you have to humble yourself and if you're in this group and you're really saved you know this you came humbled and true salvation will keep you humble because you'll realize it's not me it's him this morning i ask you a question are you trusting in any of the wrong things are you having anything that gives you false security if you were to say to me how do i if i said to you how do you know you're saved would you say to me well i've been baptized i hope you understand now that doesn't cut it if i were to go to you and say do you know you're saved and you'd say i'm a member of the church hope you know that doesn't cut it i hope if i hope if if you if you're here and i said yeah do you know you're saved and you were to say well i know a whole lot of obverse you realize that doesn't cut it all that cuts it's this i sinned against a holy god and a holy god without any goodness on my part paid my sin debt he saved me by his grace and i thank him all i did was receive a free gift he offered a free gift and i took it the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord if you're not saved man i hope today you'll be saved and if you are saved i hope you'll walk out here with a new honor and respect for your lord jesus christ because you know that you know that you're saved because of his goodness let's bow our heads for prayer father i love you thank you for the chance to serve you thank you for the chance to have your word and i pray god that you'd help strip away anything that gives us false security today help us not to trust our church membership our baptism or our bible knowledge help us not to believe in anything that we've done but all that you've done god help christians today to be sure of their salvation because they know of you and what you did and it's not about them it's about how good you are i pray god that your name would be glorified i pray that christians could even use these verses to help other people learn that it's all about you you have been listening to austin gardner pastor of vision baptist church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com