Church of Christ

Tonight, we're continuing our series, Denominations, Doctrines, and the Deceived, and we're looking at the Church of Christ. And with this group, we're really taking a turn from denominations toward the deceived.

So I mentioned early on that as we go through these groups, they'll theologically get worse and worse as we go. And so we've covered some major denominations to start, and here we're starting to take a turn from denominations to the deceived.

And so they have some major errors theologically, the Church of Christ does, and so we'll look at those. The primary one would be that they have a works-based salvation.

And now when we talk about them being kind of more in the deceived category, that doesn't mean that everyone in the Church of Christ is going to hell. I think people in the Church of Christ could be saved.

But if they're saved, it would be in spite of their church's teachings and not because of them. Because they have a messed up view of what the gospel is. And so we'll look at that tonight, but they hold to a works-based salvation.

So meaning, if you accomplish X, Y, and Z, then you'll receive salvation. If you do these things, these things lead up to you being saved.

And so you do those things, and in return from God, you get salvation. And so we'll unpack that in more detail as we go tonight. But probably the most famous Church of Christ people would be the Duck Dynasty guys.

Anyone know Duck Dynasty? Watch that? Yeah, great show. Don't get your theology from it, but that's true of all TV. Great show, though. And again, for me, this is a personal topic tonight.

My roommate in college was and still is a part of the Church of Christ. And so in thinking about these things and in talking about them, I'm thinking of my friend and having him in mind.

As you'll see, there are some major differences and some major disagreements on very important topics, on very important things in terms of the life of the church and what it means to be a Christian.

So I went to college at Langston University. It's up by Guthrie, if you know where that is, east of Guthrie by a few miles. My roommate was a Church of Christ person. And I got there, and I was like, I'm so excited.

I didn't know if I'd know any other Christians here. So I'm so excited this guy's a Christian. And as we got to talking, I was like, whoa, there are some major differences between us. One of those differences is my roommate, according to the Church of Christ teaching, said that baptism is necessary in order to be saved.

You have to be baptized in order to be saved. And I was really shaken by it because I knew that was wrong. I also knew what our church, this is the church I grew up in, I knew what our church taught about baptism.

But I was very convicted in those moments of debate and talk because I knew what I believed, but I wasn't knowledgeable enough in God's Word to go back and forth with Him in conversation.

So I knew what I believed, but I couldn't necessarily back it up with why I believed it. And so this was really shaking to me. This was convicting to me and drove me to the Scriptures. And I wanted to read, I wanted to make sure that what our church was teaching was right and that I could show from the Bible that what he was teaching and what he believed was wrong.

So I'm thankful for that process. It helped me think more clearly about God's Word. And I hope to share some of those insights that I gained even from my freshman year of college with you tonight.

So let's look at the background of the Church of Christ. Some background of the Church of Christ. It comes from something that's called the Restorationist Movement.

And there were several types of churches that were involved in this Restorationist Movement. Pentecostalism, which we looked at last week, was part of this. There were several other groups that rose up in the early 1900s.

And the goal of the Restorationist Movement was to restore the church to its original purity. To restore the church to its New Testament roots, to the unity and the simplicity that was found there described in the book of Acts.

And so it was trying to restore the original simplicity and unity of the church. Wanted to go back to the New Testament roots of the church and recover the pure faith of the early church.

So in other words, they were looking at the church in the late 1800s, early 1900s, and saying it's become corrupt. And we need to restore the original purity that it had.

And when we think about the Church of Christ, there are two guys that kind of led this part of the Restorationist Movement. They're a father and son, Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Thomas and Alexander Campbell.

And so their followers are sometimes called the Campbellites, because they follow the teaching of primarily Alexander Campbell, the son. And these two gentlemen thought that denominations in general were a sin.

And so anyone that belonged to any denomination, whether it was Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian, if you belonged to a denomination, you were in sin, because you were dividing the church.

Now, in one sense, I want to acknowledge that they're correct. Why do denominations exist? Different denominations exist because we don't have perfect theology. If everyone had perfect theology, we would all be Baptists.

And there would be no... So there would be no need for separate churches. But because of sin, that clouds our ability to read the Scriptures as we should. And so in that sense, they're correct, that denominations and kind of some fractures are a result of sin.

But they're wrong in saying that anyone that belonged to a denomination was themselves being divisive. And they wanted to restore the church to the unity you see in the pages of the New Testament.

And when they say the New Testament, they're primarily talking about the Book of Acts. Any of these churches that belong to the Restorationist movement, when they say New Testament, they're usually referring to the Book of Acts.

So we saw that with Pentecostalism last week. They want to get that Holy Spirit vibe going from the Book of Acts, right? And the Church of Christ is similar. They want to talk about baptism from the Book of Acts.

They want to talk about the unity of the church from the Book of Acts. And so this new group, led by Thomas and Alexander Campbell, called themselves the Disciples of Christ.

Disciples of Christ. And as this group was kind of maturing and growing in number, there started to be some issues. So the Disciples of Christ predominantly started to get liberal.

And when I say liberal, don't think politically, but theologically. So they started to embrace evolution, started to accept women in ministry, started to think the Bible wasn't completely true in what it taught.

And so a group broke off from the Disciples of Christ and called themselves the Church of Christ. Called themselves the Church of Christ. And so they were opposing these things.

They were opposing this liberal drift that was happening in their current group. And in 1906, the Church of Christ began. And they began to uphold the Bible's authority in all of life.

And so their motto is, Where Scripture speaks, we speak. Where Scripture is silent, we are silent. That's kind of their motto.

The Church of Christ completely rejects all creeds or confessions. They think they lead to division in the Church. And they think they're not necessary because we have God's Word.

And in a sense, they're right. We do just need to be under the authority of God's Word. But like we looked at the Nicene Creed at camp this summer, it's an incredibly helpful, incredibly faithful creed for distilling and summarizing what the Bible teaches about Christ.

But they reject all creeds, thinking they lead to divisiveness in the body of Christ. They think those things just breed division. And so they say, We have no creed but Christ.

Which is kind of a creed, am I right? So they reject creeds, but just kind of make their own and call them something besides creeds. But they don't consider themselves a newer group. They don't consider themselves to be a denomination.

They don't consider themselves to be a new group of Christians. They consider themselves to be the recovery of the original church. They consider themselves the OG church.

And so when you look at these different denominations that we've looked at, just in this series, if you look at Methodism, they have a founder. And so Methodism would say our founder is John Wesley in the 1700s.

Pentecostalism, they would say our founder is Charles Parham in 1901. If you ask a Church of Christ, who is your founder? Or they would say Jesus of Nazareth, 33 AD.

Like they think they are the original church with a succession of apostles. Like they're in line with what the apostles taught in the church they set up. And so the Church of Christ would not call themselves a denomination.

And I would actually agree with them. I don't think they're a denomination. They give off some major cult vibes. So I would agree. They're not a denomination. They seem to be a false church.

They seem to be pretty cultic in some of their practices and beliefs, which we'll dive into. Some Church of Christ churches in Mustang. And you may not live in Mustang, but there's Lake Homa Church of Christ, which is out by Lake Homa Elementary on 152.

There's Mustang Church of Christ, which is further north by Riverwood Elementary and Central Middle School. There's Mustang Christian Church, which is kind of across the street from the Bridge Church, also on 152.

But whatever town you're from or whatever town you're in, if you see any Christian church, Disciples of Christ Church, or Church of Christ, it all kind of comes from this stream of the Church of Christ or the Disciples of Christ.

But of this group, we're considering the Church of Christ tonight. And they're the most rigid and most unmoving on a lot of things in some good and some bad ways.

And so they take some very strong stands on some things that we would actually agree with. And so we've looked at the background of Church of Christ. Now I want to look at the positives of the Church of Christ. Secondly, the positives of the Church of Christ.

Number one, the first positive thing is they love the Bible. They love the Bible. They treasure God's Word above all other things.

They think God's Word is completely without error. They think it can be trusted in every single thing that it says. So my roommate from college knew the Bible really well.

When I got to college, he knew the Bible a lot better than I did. And he memorizes the Bible, he reads the Bible, and the church wants to uphold the authority of the Bible. Number two, second positive thing.

They value the voice of the congregation in singing. They value the voice of the congregation in singing. And we'll look at why they do this more in just a moment, but they sing a cappella all the time.

They're actually convictionally opposed to instruments, which we'll get into, but they value the voice of the congregation in worship. And if you've ever been to a Church of Christ, or if you look up a Church of Christ service on YouTube, the singing is beautiful.

They sing loud. They sing together. They sing with one voice. They'll harmonize even. And it's a beautiful sound because they prioritize the voice of the congregation in worship.

Thirdly, third positive thing. They take baptism very seriously. They take baptism very seriously. And we'll look at why in just a moment, but I think they should be commended for taking baptism seriously.

I think in some Baptist churches, I don't think this is the case with ours, but in some Baptist churches, baptism is kind of like, oh yeah, you kind of just got to get in the water. It's just what we do. It's kind of weird, I know, but you just got to do this.

I don't think that's a biblical view of baptism. And so I think they take baptism seriously. I think they're wrong in their motivation for that, which we'll look at, but they do take it seriously. Okay, let's get into thirdly, some specific beliefs now that the Church of Christ has.

Some specific beliefs they have. As I mentioned, there are some major differences between us and them in terms of how our church practices, like what church looks like when we show up, and also in theology and what we believe about certain things and what we think about certain things.

So we'll look at three differences tonight, three specific beliefs they have. So we'll look at their worship, their view of baptism, and then their view of salvation. So the first specific belief would be worship.

Worship. And now worship is drastically different between our churches, but it's not as significant of an issue as the other two will be.

So there are some big differences. If you walk into a Church of Christ versus our church on a Sunday or a Wednesday, you're going to notice some differences immediately. But I don't think these differences are as serious as the other two that we'll cover momentarily.

But as I mentioned, they sing acapella, and they're convictionally opposed to any instruments in the worship of the church. So if you've got your Bible, you can open with me to Ephesians chapter five.

Ephesians chapter five. We'll go there in just a moment. Ephesians chapter five will be in verses 18 and 19. Now the Church of Christ would argue that the only things that are acceptable in a church worship service are the things that the Scriptures clearly command.

The only thing we should do in worship as a church are things that the Scriptures clearly command. And to that in general, I want to say amen. Our church would actually agree with them on that point.

We should only do things in worship when the church is gathered that the Scriptures clearly command. What would those things be? Preaching of the Word, reading of the Word, praying, fellowshipping, singing to one another, using our spiritual gifts.

These things that are commanded to the church as the church gathers. There are some churches that would think as long as Scripture doesn't say we can't do it, it's okay to go on in the worship service.

And the Church of Christ would say no to that. Our church would say no to that. So some churches would say like, well, the Bible doesn't say we can't do skits. And skits might be helpful to someone there on a Sunday morning.

It might clearly illustrate the truth. And we would say, no, the Scriptures do not command us to do that. We're not free to do that as the church gathers together. And for us, that happens primarily on Sunday morning and Sunday evening.

So they think that the only things that can happen on a Sunday morning as the church gathers are things that the Scriptures clearly command. And we would agree with them on that. Here's their problem with that.

When they say Scriptures, what they mean is the New Testament. They do not think the Old Testament is relevant to our Christian life today. They say we're New Testament believers, we're New Covenant believers.

Old Testament's great. It's Scripture, not relevant for our life as a church. So that's pretty dangerous ground to stand on for a number of reasons. But when they say that Scriptures must command it, they're only thinking about the New Testament.

And so when we get to Ephesians 5, 18 and 19, this is a passage they would use to support their lack of instruments. So if you're there in Ephesians 5, look with me at verse 18.

Paul says to the church in Ephesus, And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

And so the Church of Christ would read this passage and say, we're commanded to sing, we are not commanded to use instruments. Therefore, instruments are not allowed in our worship services.

And they would even go so far as to say that instruments are sinful. Instruments are blasphemous in the worship service. But let me show you why they're wrong. And it actually is within the text itself, if you just read it carefully.

Paul says in verse 19, addressing one another in, what's that word? Psalms. Where are the Psalms found? Old Testament. And so Paul himself is saying the Old Testament has bearing on our worship.

It's a whole book of songs. We should sing these to each other. We should address one another with these songs. And when you go to the Psalms and you read some of those instructions before the music actually starts, what do so many of them command?

The use of instruments. There's commonly an introduction to the choir master with stringed instruments or something to that effect. And so the Old Testament is very clearly commanding us to use instruments as we worship the Lord.

Paul himself in the New Testament is saying, sing these hymns. Sing these Psalms that the Lord has provided for you in his word. And so I think that Paul is giving affirmation to the use of instruments in worship.

But Church of Christ would argue that we cannot use these instruments in worship. And honestly, if John Brewer, our worship pastor, said, you know what? I don't think we're gonna use instruments again.

I don't necessarily think that's wrong. I think acapella can sound beautiful. There have been guys in the past that we have agreed with on a lot of things, like John Calvin.

He did not use instruments in his church. He didn't think they were sinful. He just thought they were kind of distracting and unnecessary. And if I was choosing between two churches, assuming the theology is the same, and one church just blared their music, like you can't even hear yourself sing, and one church was acapella, I'd probably go to the acapella side.

I wanna hear people sing. That's a biblical command. So I don't think it's necessarily wrong not to use instruments, but they go super far and say things like this. This is a Church of Christ theologian.

Speaking about churches like us that use instruments in worship. They blaspheme God. Instrumental music is their idol, their golden calf.

Okay, that's pretty far, right? That's pretty severe. I think they're wrong in that, but this is not a small issue to them. They think we are blasphemous in worship just by using instruments.

And so that's a big difference between our churches. That's one you'll feel immediately if you walk into the doors of worship service at a Church of Christ church. But by far, that's not the most significant difference.

So secondly, let's look at baptism. Baptism. And you can turn with me in your Bibles back to the left of the book of Acts. Acts chapter two.

And here on this topic, we find a much more significant difference between us, between ourselves.

Because the Church of Christ teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation. And when they say it's necessary for salvation, they're not just saying this is a command given to disciples.

They're not just saying this is mandatory. They're saying that you go into the water as an unbeliever, and you come out of the water as a born-again Christian. And maybe they've got magic water in some places, I don't know, but that's not how salvation works.

And so this means that if you are not baptized, according to the Church of Christ, then you are not saved. If you are not baptized, you are not saved.

And I would ask questions of my roommate. Granted, these are hypothetical questions, but they will baptize someone immediately because of this doctrine. So if someone gets saved at their preaching the gospel, they're going straight to the church to put them under the water.

Like literally, they'll do it at midnight, they'll do it early in the morning, they'll do it at any time because they think if you're not baptized, you will not go to heaven. And so I would ask my friend, okay, if someone professes faith in Christ, repents of their sins, believes in the gospel, and is on their way to get baptized, and dies, will they go to heaven?

And he said, I can't say one way or the other. They'd be in God's hands, I don't know. And so they think baptism is absolutely essential to go to heaven.

And so my questions now aren't just hypothetical, it's actual situations. What about the thief on the cross? He believed in Christ and immediately died and went to heaven.

What about literally everyone in the Old Testament? Think of Noah. Noah was not baptized. Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, not baptized.

You just go down the list of Old Testament saints. Moses, Joseph, Isaiah, David, Solomon, anyone in the Old Testament who believes in God but was not baptized, they will be in heaven.

And so here's what they say in response. Jesus added baptism to salvation. Jesus added baptism to salvation.

And so the way of salvation now is different from the way of salvation in the Old Testament. And so I want to give you guys just pro tip, street knowledge, life advice.

If someone ever tells you that the way of salvation now is different from what it used to be, just punch them in the face. No, I'm just kidding. Don't do that. But that's wrong.

Salvation has always been by grace through faith. That was true of Abraham. Abraham. That's true of you today. That's how God saves people.

But let's look at Acts 2.38. This is one of the primary texts they'll refer to in trying to establish the fact that baptism is necessary for salvation.

And so here, we looked at last week, the Holy Spirit falls on the apostles. Peter stands up to start preaching this first Christian sermon. He's quoting the Old Testament. He's applying it to the lives of these people, saying, you guys killed the Savior.

You guys killed the one that God sent to save us. And they're convicted by it. Verse 37 of Acts 2 says, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart.

They were convicted. They felt the guilt of their sin. And said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? We killed the guy that was sent to save us.

What hope is there? And here's what Peter says. Verse 38. Repent and be baptized, every one of you.

Just lost my spot, sorry. In the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Verse 39. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

And so they would look at this verse and say, Peter tells them to repent and be baptized. Those are the two commands in this verse. Repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Christ, why does he say to be baptized?

Why does he say to repent? He says, for the forgiveness of your sins. Now, what is Peter teaching here?

Is he teaching that baptism causes you to be saved? No. But what Peter is saying is that if you will not repent and if you will not be baptized, your sins are not forgiven.

Not because repentance and baptism cause salvation to take place, but because this is what Christ has commanded us to do. And if you're unwilling to submit to him, we cannot say your sins are forgiven.

Does that make sense? So these things don't cause us to be born again, but these are things that Christ has commanded us to do. And if we're unwilling to follow these basic first commands of being a disciple, there is no forgiveness of sins.

And so that's what Peter is preaching here. He's saying, turn from your sins and show us you mean it. Turn from your sins and be baptized.

Now, what the church of Christ will say that Peter is teaching is that repentance and baptism are things you do in order to receive forgiveness.

Repentance and baptism are things you do that cause you to be born again. And so this is called, what this is called is baptismal regeneration. They think that simply going into the waters of baptism saves you.

You go into the waters of an unbeliever, you come out as a born again Christian. They think that baptism is the power that saves.

They think that baptism is the cause of salvation, that it causes your sins to be forgiven. Now, we don't want to downplay baptism either.

The wrong response here would be to say, well, baptism isn't really necessary. Because if you're unwilling to be baptized, we cannot affirm you as a Christian.

Not because baptism makes you a Christian, but because you're unwilling to be obedient and submissive to Christ, which is the sign of being a Christian. So when we think about conversion, what salvation is, it entails things like faith and repentance and confession and baptism, but none of these things are the ultimate cause of salvation.

These are things that God uses. Salvation is by grace through faith. Faith does play a role. Repentance does play a role. But they are not the ultimate cause of our salvation.

But if any of these things are refused, so if someone says they want to follow Christ, but they refuse to repent of their sins, or they refuse to be baptized, or they refuse to have faith, we can't say that person is saved because they're not being obedient to Christ.

They're not saved, not because those things cause you to be saved, but because they're what God has commanded his disciples to do. And if someone consistently refuses to do what God has commanded them to do, they're not showing evidence of conversion.

And so when we think about salvation, what saves us ultimately? What's the primary cause of our salvation? Is it faith? Is it repentance?

Is it confession? Is it baptism? What saves us? Jesus saves us. God saves us in his grace.

But there's an identifiable pattern that accompanies salvation. No one is saved apart from the preaching of the gospel, the hearing of it. We have to exercise faith in Christ and in the gospel.

And one Church of Christ person says this about baptism. baptism. They say faith is the reason why a person is a child of God.

Baptism is the time at which one is incorporated into Christ and so becomes a child of God. So the Church of Christ would teach that you become a child of God once you're baptized.

baptized. What does the Bible teach about us being God's children? Turn back with me to the left one book to John chapter 1. John chapter 1.

Glorious introduction to who Christ is. John is talking about how some people rejected Him while some people received Him and believed in Him.

and so we look at John chapter 1 verse 12. But to all who did receive Him. What does it mean to receive Him?

Who believed in His name. So those people who received Him by faith believed in Him. He gave the right to become children of God.

We are made children of God through faith in Christ. and how does this faith come about? How does this birth take place? How does this childhood get initiated?

Verse 13. These children were not born they were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.

It is not anything we do in our flesh. It is not anything that we will in ourselves that makes us God's children. children. It is Him. It is His will that initiates this.

It is He that makes us His children. We'll go to another place. Go to 1 Peter chapter 3. This is another place that they go to to talk about baptism saving you.

1 Peter chapter 3. Verse 21.

Verse 21. Peter says baptism which corresponds to this now saves you.

Open shut. Baptism saves you. Close the Bible. It's over. We were wrong. Church of Christ was right. Baptism saves you. They think this text is a home run for baptism leading to salvation.

The problem with that is this verse comes with a context. There are things before it. There are things after it that are critically important to our understanding of what we just read.

Look at what comes after it. Not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What is Peter saying? Baptism saves you not as the act itself. Not as going underwater but by what it represents. an appeal to God for a good conscience.

Peter is saying here baptism is a symbol of you appealing to God for cleansing. Baptism is a public demonstration of you appealing to God for forgiveness.

And what does he say beforehand? He's talking about the days of Noah in verse 20 how they were saved on the ark. So on the ark there were a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water.

And baptism which corresponds to this to the days of Noah to his family being saved through water. Now when you think about Noah and his family they were saved from God's wrath correct?

Was it the water that saved them? No, the water killed millions of people. What saved them was the ark. And that ark was a symbol of Noah's trust in God.

If Noah didn't trust God he would not have built the ark. And so it was the ark that saved them through the water. And so I think Peter's drawing on this analogy saying just like Noah and his family were saved from God's wrath you too Christian are being saved from God's wrath through baptism.

Not the removal of dirt from your body but by the appeal to God for a clean conscience. And so they would point to this text and say that baptism is the cause of your salvation.

salvation. And I don't think that's what Peter is saying very clearly and I don't think that's what the rest of the Bible is saying either. And one more example you don't have to turn there but if you write down 1 Corinthians 1 1 Corinthians 1 Paul says that he was sent to preach the gospel but not to baptize.

If baptism was essential to cause salvation why would God send an apostle to preach but not to baptize people? And so Paul is saying I came to preach the gospel to you and through repentance and faith you were saved you were brought to God and someone else would baptize you God didn't send me to baptize.

So those are some of their thoughts on baptism. Thirdly let's move to salvation. Salvation. And you can go back to the left with me to Ephesians 2 we'll get there momentarily I'll just give you a minute to find it.

Their view of salvation is perhaps the most concerning the most erroneous thing they hold to and believe they hold to what is called Pelagianism which is a big word I don't expect you to remember it but that doctrine was condemned as a heresy by the church in the early centuries of the church and what that teaching is really is it's a complete rejection of original sin.

Now original sin is the sin that we inherit by being human beings from Adam. Adam and Eve sinned in the garden they were kicked out of the garden and the children they had were sinners by nature from the moment of conception and that's true of all of us as descendants of Adam and Eve we have been sinners by nature from our very beginning.

The church of Christ would reject that. They would say babies are born perfect. Babies are born without sin and they only become sinners once they commit sin.

And so the church of Christ kind of zooming back out would say the reason you're a sinner is because you commit sins. The reason you're a sinner is because you commit sins.

If we look at what the Bible teaches about our sin nature we would say the opposite is actually true. We're not sinners because we commit sins.

We commit sins because we are sinners. The sins we commit don't change our nature they just express what's truly inside of us. The sins we commit are a reflection of what's already in our heart.

And so we are sinners by nature as children of Adam and by choice by what we choose to do. The church of Christ would say we're only sinners by choice.

And so because they believe this their view of salvation is really skewed. They think that okay you're a sinner because you choose to sin so if you start choosing good things you can become a non-sinner.

And so they view salvation as kind of like a stairway to heaven. You just step up one step at a time and at the top of the staircase you're saved. So they would say things like you have to believe and repent and confess and be baptized step, step, step, step, step, and then that results in salvation.

These are things you need to do in order to receive salvation. And so I want to give you two equations because I'm a math boy. Two equations to kind of I want you to write these right on top of each other to kind of summarize the differences between what we teach.

So this is what the Church of Christ would teach. They would say salvation equals both of these will start with salvation equals they would say salvation equals faith plus repentance plus confession plus baptism.

Salvation equals faith plus repentance plus confession plus baptism. And so they would say you add all these things together you do all these things and then boom you become a Christian.

You achieve salvation you're saved. Here's what we would say salvation equals God's gift.

Salvation equals God's gift. And you're in Ephesians 2 look with me at verse 8 by grace you have been saved.

So what causes us to be saved to be saved? Is it anything we do? It's God's grace. By grace you have been saved. But look here through faith. So it's not apart from faith. It's not contrary to faith.

It's through faith. And look at what he says this is not your own doing. So it's not anything we do. It is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast.

Now when he says this is the gift of God what is he referring to? Is he referring to grace? Is he referring to salvation? Is he referring to faith? I think he's referring to all of it.

The grace of God is a gift. Your salvation is a gift of his grace. And your faith is a gift of God itself. Your faith is an expression of your trust in him and it's through faith that you are saved.

But even faith itself is God's gift. We are so dead in our sins that there's nothing we can do. This is not of our own doing. We can't do stuff to get saved.

God has to intervene in our lives. And so they would say that salvation is just a ladder you climb and once you get to the top you're saved. We would say there are things that accompany salvation and all of them are gifts from God not a result of our own doing.

And so how do we know if someone's received this gift? How would we as Baptists say that someone has received this gift of salvation? We'd be able to look at some identifiable things.

We'd see faith. We'd see repentance. We'd see confession. We'd see baptism. Those are evidences of someone's salvation but they do not cause that person's salvation.

And so because the Church of Christ thinks that you can walk up this staircase to get to salvation they think you can also walk back down and lose your salvation. You can do these things to get saved and you can do bad things to get unsaved.

And so they will re-baptize someone over and over and over again because evidently the first one didn't work or the second one didn't work. They lost their salvation now they need to get saved again so they get baptized again.

And one last place I want you to turn for tonight Romans chapter 8. So they think that you as a creature can kind of get yourself into salvation and you as a creature can get yourself out of salvation and I would encourage you to listen to Michael's sermon from Sunday dealing with eternal security.

He went to John 10 very great text John 10 27 through 30 and I don't know we've looked at Romans 8 in the last couple of weeks but I want to just draw your attention here once again because the church of Christ and anyone who thinks you can lose your salvation cannot deal with the end of Romans chapter 8.

So the apostle Paul says in Romans 8 verse 38 for I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so I'd be talking with my roommate he'd be talking about being able to lose your salvation I would take him to this text and I would say nothing can remove you from this salvation nothing can remove you from this eternal life and he would say well I can nothing else can nothing else can cause me to lose my salvation but I can choose to walk away from it I can walk away from eternal life I can walk away from the grace I've received and my question to that is what are you?

Like what are you? You're a human being are you a creature? Yes so you're a part of creation and look at what he says in verse 39 again nor anything else in all creation including yourself will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eternal life is eternal. we did nothing in terms of works to earn it or to receive it and so we can't do anything in terms of works to waste it away or lose it and so to conclude for tonight some in the church of Christ will go so far as to say that if you don't belong to the church of Christ there's no chance you're a Christian you're a Baptist we're Christians you're not you're a Presbyterian we're Christians as the church of Christ you are not because you don't belong to the true church which is clearly the church of Christ and so someone like this would look around tonight and say none of you are Christians because none of you belong to the church of Christ none of you are true believers because you don't belong to the true church again major cult vibes gives me the ick and they would this kind of makes them a cult and if you were in this if you're raised in the church of Christ and you try to leave the church of Christ you will lose everything your family will disown you and that's what cults do they will cut you off completely for leaving they believe that no true believers exist outside the church of Christ because they're the only true church and so as you can see the church of Christ has some major doctrinal differences from us so is it possible for someone in the church of Christ to believe everything the church of Christ teaches and be saved

I would say no if they truly believe what their church teaches they have a different gospel now I think someone in their church could not fully understand everything their church teaches and be a true Christian but again it would be in spite of what their church teaches and not because of it so is someone who belongs to the church of Christ saved is someone who belongs to a Baptist church saved salvation isn't caused by what church you belong to either and so it's possible for you to be in our church regularly here and to have not repented of your sins and believed in Christ and you could think you're good I belong to a good church I belong here I go I do all these things I go every week salvation is not caused by what church you associate with salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and repentance of sins that's the evidence of a converted heart and I want to highlight someone here just at the very end

Carrick where are you Carrick right there at the back so I met with this brother yesterday the Lord saved him last week and so I was meeting with him about baptism and I cannot wait for you guys to hear his testimony I was talking to him I was like hey I want to hear why you're a Christian I want to hear how you became a Christian and he said well my brother Kellen Kellen's in here right oh right there he's like my brother Kellen was sharing the gospel with me and talking to me about the gospel and he said the Lord opened my heart and I believed that's a beautiful description of salvation that's a biblical description of salvation the Lord opens our hearts to see the beauty of Christ and to believe in his work and I pray that you would experience that I pray that you would turn from your sins and believe in Christ even tonight let me pray for us our father we thank you for your word we thank you for the gift of salvation that comes not because we've done anything not because we've been righteous but because of your mercy and your grace father pray you continue to be gracious to us continue to have mercy on us continue to help us believe in Christ and see the beauty of Christ compared to the ugliness of our sin

I pray for students here who may be trusting in their own works or trusting in their own righteous deeds that they would see that we are not adequate to do anything to cause our salvation they would repent of those things even their good works and look to Christ whose blood washes away all our sins who died in our place that through faith in him we can become your children I pray that would take place in the hearts of students tonight and it's in Christ's name we pray amen that are not good that are not good that are not going to be going to be if you they will see you as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good as good