Baptists Believe in Individual Soul Liberty

Joshua twenty four fifteen. Joshua has led Israel into the promised land as God pointed him. He has been successful by God's help in vanquishing the foes and taking the land and dividing it between the tribes. However, as Joshua makes his closing comments before he goes to be with the Lord in Joshua 24, He is concerned that despite their successes and despite the conquest of the land and God's miraculous help in doing so. That there are still many among his people that are divided in their heart, in their loyalties.

That they have not clearly chosen. Who they will serve? Who they will trust? In Joshua 2,415, he says this, and if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve. Whether the gods which your father served were on the other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell.

That is for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for the opportunity to know you and Lord for what you did for us on the cross the punishment that was ours that you carried and took upon yourself for our sin there that we through faith in you might receive forgiveness and the gift of everlasting. Eternal life. Lord, thank you that we serve a risen savior.

Who is our advocate in heaven. For all those who come to you by faith Lord, we thank you that one day you will come again and receive us unto yourself that where you are there, we may be also. We thank you for Jesus Christ, our Lord. We pray Lord if there be one here today that's yet to trust you. As Lord and savior of their life to today would be their day of salvation.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. So, we've been going through a series on on Sunday mornings the last few weeks on what to do Baptist believe and as I pointed out a week or two ago, unfortunately, not all bapt Bible. I'm to And so we spent the last three weeks in our series on what is a baptist on Jesus Christ because it's all about Jesus Christ Christianity is not just about a list of rules or laws It's not a formula prayer that you pray or a right ritual that you do It's about whether you have a personal relationship with God through faith in his son, about that in our our message this morning as it regards this this verse in 2,415 of Joshua concerning choices. Choices.

Choices we make all the time. Make choices as to what we eat. We make choices as to what we wear. We make choices as to who we marry, what job to take, what career to pursue, what what church to attend, what ministry to participate in, what what services to go to? Be good if you just came to all of em what to do with my time Which which phone to buy?

We have a lot of choices in phones today. Cars or TVs or whatever it is. Where to go to school? Most importantly, who to put your faith in? We make a lot of choices in life.

Some of them rather insignificant. Some of them vitally important. And one in particular eternal. We make choices. We have been created as beings who love to have the freedom to make choices for ourselves.

I think that's one of the ways we are created in the image of who? Image of God. God created us with the capacity and the desire to make choices for ourselves. Thus, our disdain for slavery, for servitude, and and dictatorships. We want to have the opportunity to choose for ourselves.

And God has given us the privilege of making many choices within the course of his will and plan for ourselves. But like Adam and Eve, we also bear the consequences of those actions. And of those choices whether they be temporal or whether they be eternal. Temporal consequences like if as a child, you disobey your parents, you might find yourself sitting in the corner or in my case, you might find yourself with a sore rear end. If you get caught speeding down the road, you might end up having to pay a what?

A ticket or a fine. If you steal your neighbor's car, rob a bank, guess what? You might just end up where? In jail. Temporal consequences.

However, if you reject the son of God, Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation from sin, you will end up in a place called the Lake Of Fire and eternal consequence For the wages of sin is what? Is death. Is appointed on the man wants to die but after this the judgment and those whose names are not found written in book of life will be cast into the Lake Of Fire. A very real and eternal place. Where those who have rejected God's son will spend eternity separated from him.

Choices. Choices. You see, you have choices but are accountable to God and others for them. So, you better be careful what choices you make. Praise the Lord.

He has given us choices. We're not computers. We're not robots. We're not puppets on a string. But we are accountable for the choices that we make.

And since it is your decision to make and no one can make it for you particularly as it regards to Jesus Christ. You must choose. You can be forced to make some decisions. What you do with Jesus only you can decide. You cannot remain neutral.

You must choose one or the other. That's what this verse is about right here in Joshua twenty four fifteen. Joshua says, you can't remain neutral. You can't ride the fence. You must choose.

Will you choose God, Jehovah, the true and living God, the God of Israel, the eternal God, as your God, who delivered you out of Egypt, who fed you in the wilderness, who conquered the land, Or will you choose the gods of Egypt that you left? Or the gods of the Canaanites and Amorites in whose land you dwell. But you cannot have both. You must walk. You must choose.

It's what we call individuals to liberty. That means you get to choose. You get to choose. You have to choose. Nobody can choose for you.

Only you can choose and you must. Here we see in Joshua twenty four fifteen Israel at a crossroads. And the read read to in Jesus or everything else. Only the true and living God or false ones. Choose you this day.

Joshua says whom you will serve. Told by some missionaries who over in parts of the Orient that in some part of some of their religions they have something called a god shelf or or like a shrine and they have all their little images of their gods or of their ancestors that they worship on their on their display there. And sometimes when they're introduced to Jesus Christ their initial response is okay, well where is he so I can add him to my why? So, I can add him to my God shelf. So, I can, you know, okay.

Well, I have this God and that God. Worship this ancestor and that ancestor. Pray to them. So, where's what can I put on my God shelf so I can add Jesus? Doesn't work that way.

Doesn't doesn't work that way. Jesus is the only way to heaven. I am the way, the truth, and life. No man comes to the father but by me. I'll come back to that verse again in just a few minutes.

You can't simply add Jesus. You must, there's this word in the Bible called repent. You must turn from the gods of this world. You must turn from your striving after sin to strive and to trust and put your faith in who? In Jesus Christ.

God's way, not our way. Jesus He is the way, the truth, the life And the only way is to reject the other gods and other ways that man has made to try to get to heaven or to try to bring fulfillment into his life and trust instead the one who came and died on the cross for our sins, Jesus Christ. And so we see choices that people made all throughout scripture. Again, Adam and Eve in the garden, they were given a what? Choice.

You can trust in who? God and you can obey and not eat the fruit off the tree or you can choose not to trust in God and allow yourself to be tempted and drawn away and sin but sin has what? Consequences. They and all of those who follow after them became sinners by birth. They were cast out of the wild.

They were cast out of the Garden of Eden. They were separated from God because consequences. But it is our choice to make. Abraham and Noah were given choices. God came to them, Abraham and said, follow me.

I will take you to a land that you don't know. Abraham was likely raised in a pagan society. He had a choice to make. Would he put his trust in the true and living God or in the idols of the society in the day in which he lived? He made the right one.

Noah, God came to Noah. The Bible says that the thoughts of man were only evil continually. The whole world had turned their back on God. There's one man, Noah that found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Not because he was a perfect man because he was certainly not.

When God spoke, he did what? He listened but his faith in God and he chose to trust the Lord and he chose to build that ark to the saving of himself and his household and consequently, all of us. We've been studying in Sunday school about Ruth. Ruth, we have we read Ruth one hundred sixteen and seventeen every Sunday school morning. We'll just look at verse 16 today.

Ruth was a Moabite. She grew up in another pagan culture. She had a choice to make to go with Naomi and to trust in the God of Israel or to stay in the land of Moab and she said unto Naomi, her mother-in-law, entreat me not to leave thee or return from following after thee. For whether thou goest, I will go where their lodges, I will lodge thy people shall be my people and what? God, my God.

She chose the true and living God, the God of Israel and she left with Naomi. Rahab, when the spies came to the city of Jericho, Rahab had to make a what? A choice whether to hide the spies and trust in the God of Israel. To protect her. Or to reveal their location.

She instead chose to trust in the God of Israel. You know, God told Joshua and the Israelites when they went into Canaan, they were to kill or run out how many of them? Every last one of them. But God made an exception for who? For Rahab.

Why? Because of her what? Because her faith. Faith. It's all about faith.

From Genesis to Revelation. It's all about the grace of God and faith. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And so, Rahab was rescued and Ruth is in the line of Jesus Christ. Nicodemus, in John three, Jesus said, you must be born again.

You must believe in Jesus to have everlasting life. It would seem that eventually, Nicodemus made the right decision for he was one of two to take Jesus body down off the cross and bury him. Judas was given a choice and he made the what? He made the wrong choice but you say the Bible says, Satan entered into him. Yes, he did but after Judas had already made the what?

The wrong choice. You cannot say the devil made me do it. The Bible says, we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed. We can't lay all that on the devil. We bear the responsibility of our own choices.

As Judas did his. Peter, James, and John were given choices. They chose to follow Christ. Praise God for his grace and mercy because not all of these made the right choice to begin with. But God is the God of a second chance but there will come an end to that chance one day and that opportunity Praise the Lord.

Paul lived to see the day when on the road to Damascus, God revealed himself to Paul and then Paul decided to make the what? The right choice. Lord, what will thou have me to do? Paul had been doing what Paul wanted to do. Paul had been doing what he had convinced himself was the right thing to do but it was the wrong thing.

That maybe you today. There are many people walking around particularly sitting in churches that believe that they've convinced themselves that they're going to get to heaven because they put money in the offering plate or they're going to get to heaven because somebody dunked them in a baptismal or sprinkled them as a kid. Or that they're going to get to heaven becomes they come to church once a week. No. There's only one way through faith in Jesus Christ.

You must what? You you must be born again. You must choose. Paul chose Jesus Herod Agrippa chose differently Herod Agrippa the second stood before Paul in Caesarea and heard his testimony and he said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian Oh, how sad that one word, all most almost is not what? It's not enough.

Almost is not enough. You must choose whether to trust in religion, to trust in self righteousness, to trust in false gods, to trust in good works, or to trust in who? Or to trust in Jesus Christ. No one is born a Christian Psalm fifty one five, behold, David says, I was shapen in iniquity in sin did my mother conceive me. We are not born righteous.

We are not born Christians. We are born what? Sinners. Romans five twelve, wherefore is by one man sin entered the world and death by sin so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned. Guess what?

That's me. Guess what? That's you. That's our neighbors. That's our friends.

That's our relatives. We are all born sinners. None of us are born Christians. When somebody says to me, well, I've always been a Christian. Red flag.

Always been a Christian. No. You haven't. We're born sinners. We're on the born on the Broadway that leads where?

To destruction and death. We must choose to get off the Broadway to put our faith in Jesus Christ who is the only way of salvation. We are born sinners not Christians. Doesn't matter how many of your parents are Christians or how many generations it goes back. Every person is born a sinner who needs a savior.

And no one can save you but Jesus. No one can confirm you a Christian. No one can absolve you of all your sins but who? Jesus. No church no priest no pastor only Jesus John fourteen six, I quoted earlier, Jesus say unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man comes to the father but by me. He says, furthermore, I think it's Mark ten forty five that there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There's only one way, only one mediator. I am not your mediator. The church is not your mediator.

Waters of baptism are not your mediator. Only Jesus Christ. If you will accept him and receive him by faith. If you will choose Jesus, if you will embrace him as the Lord and savior of life to forgive you of your sins, to rescue you from sin and hell. Then he will.

He said, he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. But only Jesus can do that for you No priest can do that. Sometimes when I'm talking to kids, I have to make sure. Now, you understand I can't save you Only Jesus can save you. You're not talking to me You're talking to who?

You're talking to Christ Because every now and then, you'll hear a kid say, well, you know, so and so save me. No. No. Only only God can save us. No one can be coerced into believing only forced into acting or behaving in such a particular manner but believing is a matter of the heart.

It's a choice. You lived in a certain countries under certain governments. You can be forced into attending certain services into going certain places, into following certain rituals, but they cannot force you to truly what? Believe. Whether it's the right thing or the wrong thing.

That is a choice of the heart. We must choose from our own heart It's not enough just to fall in line. It's not enough just to follow the rules, to go through the motions. You must choose yourself. Acts eight thirty seven.

Philip said, if thou believest, with all thine heart, thou mayest and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. This is the Ethiopian eunuch that God sent Philip down to talk to in the middle of nowhere in the desert. Philip, Philip didn't even know who he was going to talk to in the middle of nowhere but God knew who he was going to talk to. God sent him there. He found the eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah in chapter 53 about the suffering servant Jesus Christ who was who was bruised for our iniquities.

Who's suffered on the cross for our sins? And he asked Philip, he said, who is this, who is Isaiah talking about? Is he talking about himself or is he talking about someone else? Philip said, oh, I know who he was talking about. Let me introduce you to Jesus Christ and as they came to some water in the desert, the eunuch looked at him and say, what what does keep me from being saved?

From from being baptized? And this is when Philip said to him, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. You see, it's not enough just to get wet. It's not enough just to get baptist. It's not enough to go through the motions.

Philip said, well, wait a second, do you what? Do you believe? And he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and then, having professed his faith, having been saved by the grace of God then Philip said, okay let's baptize you. Romans ten nine says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. Purely says here, God says, thou shalt be saved.

You can be saved today. If you will believe if you will put your faith in Christ, if you will receive him as your Lord then he will save you but you must believe in your heart. It's not enough just that I had a teenager when I was a youth pastor and he came to church for a couple years and he said he was a Christian and he sat through many services where the gospel was being preached and he got to camp and he realized in a camp service, he realized finally that he was not saved. Well, why did he think he was saved in the first place? Well, this is why he thought he was saved in the first place.

Somebody brought him a track and somebody opened the track and says, do you want to go to heaven or hell? Well, what would you answer? I want to go to heaven. I don't want to go to hell. So, he flipped to the back and he said, pray this prayer.

And you'll be saved. So, he prayed the prayer. But he didn't know who. He didn't know Jesus. He just said the words.

He was trusting in the words of a prayer written on a track. And he didn't know the savior. And praise the Lord. God opened his heart and opened his mind to see that just reading a prayer was not enough. He had to choose for himself.

He had to choose Jesus to be his Lord and savior. And then calling upon the name of the Lord, he would be saved but you must choose Must be your decision. It must be your conviction Not the conviction of your parents or your friends, your school, or your church. I was a youth pastor for twelve years and been a pastor here for over fourteen now. Particularly as a youth pastor, I I I had a fairly large youth group, had a lot of teens that graduated.

They went off to college or or or didn't went right in the workforce. Whatever the case may be But for those particular that went off to college, some of them stayed true to the faith. Some of them were strengthened in a good Christian college. Some of them their faith was sustained in a school I would not have encouraged them to go to. But some of them went astray.

Some of them abandoned the church. Some of them abandoned the faith. Why? Because I think in many cases, it wasn't their faith. It was the faith of their parents.

It was the faith of their school. It was the faith of their church but they had never made it whose faith? Their own faith. And when they got away from home, when they got out into the world, it became revealed It has to be your faith. You can't ride on the coattails of the faith of others.

This is why we as Baptist oppose state church England for years, Had a state church, the church of England. You had to become a member of the Church of England if you wanted to participate and involve yourself in any kind of authority position in England. You had to join the state church but joining the state church, did that make you a Christian? No. We oppose religious persecutions such as the Catholic church did during the the Spanish inquisition.

You can't torture people into becoming Christians. I'm sad to say, the doctrine of the Catholic Church wasn't teaching anybody to become a Christian. That time far from it. In most cases, still the same today. You cannot force people to become Christians.

Muslims of the world. They take over nations. They force people to to declare their faith in Muhammad. That's not how Christianity works. You can't force people they must choose.

They must choose and in order to choose Christ, they must have the opportunity to what? Refuse Christ. Only they can decide Salvation is between you and God independent on no other Doesn't require a priest, a preacher, or a grand a service or a formal invitation prepared prayer, or a writer, ritual It's all about putting your faith in Jesus Christ. Repenting of whatever else you may be putting your faith in. Turning to him to save you from your sins.

You alone can choose what you will do with Jesus but choose you must. Jesus died for your sin. He rose again. He now offers you eternal life through faith in him. What will it be?

Will you choose Jesus? Will you accept his offer? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. Romans ten thirteen says, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

You will call the name of Jesus Christ in faith to be your Lord and savior. He will save your soul. But you must choose. If you do not choose Jesus, you choose the alternative. Place called the Lake Of Fire Which will you choose today Most of you sitting in this auditorium I know profess Christ as Lord and savior So, in closing, I just want to mention one other thing.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You're surrounded by neighbors and friends and coworkers. They too have to make that what? Choice. By giving them the gospel, we give them the what?

The choice. We give them Jesus. We tell them how they can be saved. And they need to hear What are we doing to help them make the right choice Let's pray. Dear heavenly father we thank you for this day These that have come.

Pray for those that for some reason were kept away. We pray they would be able to come back next week. Maybe the seat. Lord, we pray that as Christians, you would use us to get the gospel to those who need Jesus. To share with them the choice that they have been given.

To share with them the consequences if they should choose not to trust the Lord and the wonderful reward that is awaiting them if they do. Lord, I pray that we will not pass up opportunities this week to tell others about Jesus. In word or in track, Lord that we would share with them the good news. And Lord, I pray that we would see some more people saved. I pray that we would see some that are not saved.

In our service that we could share with them, Jesus. And we pray Lord if there be one here today that's never made that choice. It's that if they're unsure this morning if they've chosen you. If Lord, there's any doubt in their mind, whatsoever is that we give this hymn of invitation, they'll come today. So, that we'll have the opportunity to lead them to Christ that they might make that choice and be saved this day and know it.

In Jesus name, we do pray.