Calvary Road Baptist Church

“SO, WHAT HAPPENS TO ME IF I AM NOT SAVED?”

Mark 16.16 

The Lord Jesus Christ is not only the Son of the living God, the Savior Who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven but while He walked among men, He showed to all that He was the master teacher. Few could have imagined it the afternoon He was born in Bethlehem, or the night the shepherds beheld Him. But no more excellent communicator of truth ever walked the earth.

Relative to teaching others so that they learn, in Isaiah 28.10 the prophet wrote, 

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” 

For sinners to be taught the Word of God, our minds must be impressed by teaching a little bit at a time, over and over again, with simplicity and repetition, building the truth to be taught on top of truth already known.[1] That was the Savior’s approach, and it ought to be every mom and dad’s approach, as well as the Gospel minister’s approach.

That is one reason why we have three separate services each week. Three times each week, we have instruction from God’s Word. When pandemic conditions permit, and people are not so terrified of personal contact, we will resume our practice of once each week coming together to go out to invite others to Church. Each of those services is important to one’s overall spiritual health and well-being, as anyone who knows anything about teaching and training will acknowledge.

There are indeed some who are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” Second Timothy 3.7. But our goal is not supposed to be limited to the acquisition of knowledge, to increase learning, to enlarge the storehouse of information. The goal for us is to move beyond knowing about God to knowing God.

So, when God’s Word is communicated in God’s way, in the way that best meets the spiritual needs of an audience that ... well, we are sometimes dull of hearing and hard of heart, so our instruction needs to be repetitive. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ taught important things over and over again, sometimes using an economy of words, and at other times expanding His statements as He saw fit, and frequently resorting to word pictures in the form of parables and allegories.

This being the case, it should come as no surprise that there are four different versions of the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ found in the New Testament.

In Matthew 28.18-20, we find the following words: 

18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. 

In Mark 16.15-16, there is a somewhat more condensed directive: 

15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 

Luke’s version of the Great Commission is found in Luke 24.46-48: 

46  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

47  And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

48  And ye are witnesses of these things. 

Luke also recorded the directive of the Savior to His disciples just prior to His ascension, in Acts 1.8: 

“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” 

Each of these Great Commissions has a central directive, the preaching of the Gospel to the entire world for the purpose of making disciples for Jesus Christ. However, the emphasis of each version of the Great Commission varies to a degree.

This morning I will bring the second of a series of straightforward messages to address the question, “So, what happens to me if I am not saved?” Let me answer that question by turning your attention to Mark’s version of our Lord’s Great Commission, Mark 16.15-16. When you find that passage, please stand, and we will read God’s Word aloud. I will read verse 15 aloud, and I would like you all to read verse 16 aloud: 

15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. 

If verse 15 is rightly seen to be the command, per se, verse 16 is rightly seen to be the consequence. Since my sermon will focus on the last half of verse 16, let me take a few moments to deal with the first half of verse 16, 

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” 

Three comments: 

First, PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PHRASE IS FREQUENTLY MISINTERPRETED 

The Bible is internally consistent. The Bible never contradicts itself when it is properly understood. Therefore, this statement should never be interpreted in isolation from the rest of the Bible. We should be especially careful to avoid the mistake of trying to use any difficult to understand passage as a tool to interpret easily understood passages. It should be the other way around. Always use clear statements in the Bible to guide you in your understanding of the more difficult passages.

That said, allow me to read to you several verses that are extremely easy to understand: 

Psalm 14.3:  

“They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” 

So, it is established that sinners cannot do anything that is good in the sight of God. 

Isaiah 64.6:

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” 

Again, this time stated by the prophet Isaiah, we are incapable of doing righteous deeds. Everything we do is, in the sight of God, foul and dirty, contaminated, and unclean. 

Ephesians 2.8-9:   

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Sinners cannot save themselves by any means. If we could save ourselves, we would end up being boastful about it. 

Titus 3.5: 

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us.” 

Thus, it is not any sinner’s good deeds, but through God’s mercy in sending Jesus Christ to save sinners that any are saved from their sins.

Sinners are not capable of doing things to earn salvation. But we observe from the Bible that sinners are saved. How is this possible? The grace of God. The mercy of God. Since the Bible is internally consistent (that is, since the Bible nowhere disagrees with the Bible), whatever else this statement does teach, we can be sure that what the Lord Jesus Christ did not mean is that you have to be baptized in order to be saved.

Were you aware there are a number of denominations that teach that salvation is acquired by works of righteousness of some kind? The Church of Christ denomination, the Disciples of Christ denomination, and several others, not to mention all of the cults, believe that baptism somehow washes away sins and that a sinner is saved by being baptized.

However, First John 1.7 shows that only the blood of Jesus Christ washes away sins: 

“the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 

Does this happen due to doing good works, or doing works of righteousness, whatever they might be? We have seen that the answer is, obviously, “No.” 

WHAT THEN DOES THIS PHRASE MEAN? 

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” 

Two observations about this sentence, and then a conclusion:

First, the word “is baptized” is the passive participle form of a single Greek verb, “to baptize.”[2] “The passive voice is that use of the verb which denotes the subject as receiving the action.”[3] Meaning? Meaning that baptism cannot be a work of righteousness if something is done to the person, rather than something the person does. How can baptism save someone if I baptize someone, understanding that I am not the Savior? I do not save anyone by baptizing them. That is a crucial observation to remember.

As well, the subject of this sentence is “He that believeth and is baptized.” That is, the Lord Jesus Christ is here referring to a person who is identified by two experiences. The first experience is faith. The second experience is baptism. What happens to this subject who believes and is baptized? He “shall be saved.” That is a future passive form of the word. In other words, when a person believes and is baptized he does not save himself presently. The Savior indicated that he will be saved in the future.

Our text in no way teaches that a sinner saves himself or herself by being baptized. All this shows is that the sinner who has come to faith in Christ, and who will someday be delivered to glory, is also a person who is baptized. But since the New Testament shows that only believers are qualified candidates for baptism, the Lord Jesus Christ cannot mean in this statement that baptism is required for salvation.[4] No, He is required for salvation. 

Finally, WHAT CAN BE INFERRED FROM THIS STATEMENT? 

“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” 

This statement shows us the very close connection between faith in Christ and a believer’s baptism. The connection is so close that salvation from sins through faith and the public declaration of one’s new life in Christ using baptism is combined into a seamless message. It was precisely that point in John the Baptist’s preaching, Matthew 3.1-6, as well as in the case of Philip dealing with the Ethiopian eunuch, in Acts 8.26-40.

In the Bible, you never see any evidence of a person who comes to faith in Christ who is not then baptized, though you have several examples of people who were thought be genuine believers in Christ who were baptized but who later gave evidence of a lost condition.[5]

This close connection between genuine salvation, which comes through faith alone, and the public profession of salvation, which comes through the ordinance of immersion in water, called baptism, has sometimes resulted in confusion over the centuries.

Spiritual understanding is required to discern between the picture and the reality. In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, various eastern churches, and the denominations that sprang up from the activities of a fellow named Alexander Campbell during the early 1800s (what we know today as Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Christian Church denominations) that critical distinction has not been maintained.

Being in error on what they imagined the Bible to teach about how someone is saved, they then erred on the meaning and place of the picture of salvation, which is baptism. Not realizing that baptism is but a symbol that shows, that pictures, a person justified by faith (saved from his sins if you will), those in error proceeded to make the mistake of thinking that one could be saved by being baptized. Such an error was fatal. 

The Lord Jesus Christ commanded that the good news that He saves sinners from their sins be declared to every person on earth. In the usually mild Mediterranean climate that preaching activity was typically done outdoors in the highways and byways, in the streets, and at gathering places.

In wetter and colder regions, buildings were later erected to provide places where people could be brought inside to hear the good news. Once a person hears the good news, which is what the word Gospel means, there can be two reactions:

One person will respond to the Gospel and believe in Jesus Christ to the saving of his eternal and undying soul. That person will also publicly declare his newfound life in Christ by submitting to believer baptism.

Such a person will someday be saved from the very presence of sins and delivered to glory. That is the promise the Lord Jesus Christ makes in the first half of Mark 16.16.

Let me now focus your attention on the second half of the verse, as I answer the question, “So, what happens to me if I am not saved?”

Next Sunday morning, my message will be titled “So, What Is That Thing You Call Salvation?” I intend to use two illustrations that I enjoy using to establish the meaning of the words “saved” and “salvation.”

One illustration is of a lifeguard rescuing a person in the water from drowning. The other illustration is of a fireman rescuing someone from the tenth floor of a burning building. Those are two pretty vivid illustrations of the concept of saving someone so that they are rescued from disaster.

But for now, allow me to further refine the picture for you, to bring your understanding of the concept of “saved” and “salvation” a bit closer to spiritual reality. Picture a lifeguard pulling a body from the water, but the victim is already lifeless and dead. Now picture the fireman carrying someone down the stairs of the burning building using a fireman’s carry, getting the person to the safety of an ambulance, only to find out that the individual the fireman carried out of the building was already dead.

According to Ephesians 2.1, the picture of rescuing someone from the water is most accurate when you understand that the lifeguard rescues someone who has already drowned and brings him back to life. And the fireman analogy is most comparable to spiritual salvation when the fireman uses the fireman’s carry to bring a corpse out of a burning building and then brings that dead man or woman back to life. This is because you are, right this moment, already dead in trespasses and sins if you are not saved.

Therefore, when you ask the question, “So, what happens to me if I am not saved?” you need to understand that you are already the victim of a drowning. You are already an arson fatality. This is because you are already dead in your sins. You are a dead man walking, a dead woman walking.

Your question should properly be, “So, what happens to me, a person who is already spiritually dead because of my sins, if I am not saved?” In Mark 16.16, the Lord Jesus Christ said, “but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

Two things for you to keep in mind as I answer the question: 

First, YOUR CONDITION REMAINS THE SAME 

That is, you believe not. This means,

First, that you do not understand. 

Hebrews 11.3:         

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” 

“Oh, but I believe God created everything. I even accept that God created everything in six literal days, just as the Bible says He did.” It is not likely that you are correct about that. It is likely that you are deceiving yourself concerning what you believe when it comes to crunch time. But if you do have faith, then your faith will carry you through to saving faith in Christ. But if you are not one who believes, then not only do you not understand that God created everything, but you also do not comprehend anything else of a truly spiritual nature. This is because 

“... the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”[6] 

And, second, this means that you cannot please God. 

Hebrews 11.6:         

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” 

It is pretty easy to say that you believe in the Biblical account of creation. And you may even think you believe in the Biblical account of creation. But if you do have faith, you will diligently seek God. Do you diligently seek God? Of course, you understand that attending Church once a week is not diligently seeking God. Even those who never miss a service are not necessarily seeking God. And they wonder why they are never saved? Simple. They believe not. Real faith alters a person’s behavior, as the rest of Hebrews chapter 11 shows. And, as Hebrews 12.2 shows us, real faith ends up with Jesus Christ as Savior, because He is the Author and Finisher of our faith: 

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” 

The result, in this lifetime, is that you remain estranged from God by not believing in Jesus Christ. You see, oftentimes, so much emphasis is placed on where a person will spend eternity that what is happening right now is completely ignored. According to the Bible, you are dead in sins right now. That means God is angry with you right now. Thus, you are estranged from the God Who created you right now. You have no meaningful interaction with the God Who sustains your physical life, which gives you breath and conscious thought, right now. It may eat you up with guilt for your mother or father to be upset at you for doing them wrong so that you will go to them and apologize and make it right. But God is more important than anyone else, and it seems you could care less that He has grievances against you. Listen to what Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 59.1-2: 

1  Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 

You are not beyond God’s reach so that His hand cannot save you. And it is not that He is deaf so that He cannot hear you. The problem is sin, you see. Your sins are an insurmountable barrier to His good will toward you. So long as the sin remains, the gulf between you and God is an impassable chasm. A person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ receives the benefit of Christ’s cleansing blood, that washes the sins away, removes that terrible obstacle to reconciliation with God, and bridges that great gulf that separates between the sinner and His God. But you believe not. 

The Result Being, YOU SHALL BE DAMNED 

Of course, in one sense, you are condemned already. John 3.18 reads, 

“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.” 

That is, in your current state of unbelief, God thoroughly disapproves of your resistance to the Gospel, to your stubborn opposition to His Spirit, and to your refusal to bow before His Son and trust Him as your Savior.

But Mark 16.16 speaks of condemnation in another sense, in a future sense. When the Lord Jesus Christ said, “but he that believeth not shall be damned,” He was specifically referring to a future time when God will formally condemn and sentence to everlasting punishment those who die without faith in Christ.

Please turn to Revelation chapter 20. I do not have the time to explain everything that awaits you when you die without being saved, but suffice it to say that you will go straight to Hell the moment you die. Luke 16.22-23 provides clarity on that point. Hell, however, is not the worst of it. Not by a long shot. After Hell, everyone who died without believing in Jesus Christ will face a formal trial, called the Great White Throne judgment. That trial will not be conducted to determine guilt or innocence, since that issue is settled once and for all when someone dies without trusting Christ. The Great White Throne judgment will not determine guilt or innocence since only the guilty will then be judged. The sole determination at the Great White Throne judgment of the damned will be the severity of eternal torment in the abode of the damned.[7]

We read about it in Revelation 20.11-15: 

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. 

The question is, “So, what happens to me if I am not saved?” I modified the question to, “So, what happens to me, a person who is already spiritually dead because of my sins, if I am not saved?” Let me repeat the answers found in the Bible: First, there is already something happening to you because you are spiritually dead and are not saved. You are presently disconnected from the life of God.

Had I the time I could show you that God’s judgment on your life has already begun; but that might make matters too complicated for you right now. Just keep in mind that you are, right now, cut off from the life of God. And when you die ... you will go to Hell. But Hell is not the condemnation the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about in our text. The condemnation He was referring to comes after Hell, when you will be made to stand before the Great White Throne for formal and final judgment before being cast into the lake of fire.

So you see, a terrible fate awaits you who are not saved. Why else would Christians down through the ages willingly die to get the Gospel to people they don’t even know, to make sure people heard the good news that Jesus saves sinners from their sins?

Picture the scene. You have died and experienced the agony and torment of Hell for more than a thousand years. Suddenly you, and everyone else in Hell, are placed before the Great White Throne. It is an embarrassing, humiliating, and degrading scene. Not because you are naked before the heavenly host and the saints of all ages, but because of your horrible guilt. There all of you stand until it is your turn to be scrutinized by the One whose eyes are as flames of fire. You are directed to give an account of why you repeatedly chose stupid sins rather than the glorious Savior. However, the accounting you are called on to give is demanded by the very Savior you scorned and rejected. What can you say? You can say nothing. Doomed, you bow your head and shudder with fright as your sins are rehearsed aloud for all to hear until you are suddenly cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone to begin the eternal punishment labeled the second death. You will howl in agony forever.

The only way to avoid that terrible fate is to turn from your sins now, while there is time, and trust Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your eternal and undying soul.

__________

[1] John Milton Gregory, The 7 Laws Of Teaching, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, Revised 1954), page 19.

[2] Gerhard Albert Raske, A Complete Grammatical Blueprint Of The Book Of Revelation, (Simcoe, Ontario: Fundamental Baptist Publishing House Canada, 1996), page 135.

[3] H. E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, (Toronto, Canada: The Macmillan Company, 1955), page 161.

[4] See Matthew 3.11 and Acts 8.36-37 for illustrations of proper candidates for baptism and Acts 8.13 to illustrate that sometimes unqualified candidates are erroneously baptized.

[5] Simon the sorcerer, Acts 8.9-24, and the young Corinthian fornicator, 1 Corinthians 5.1-5.

[6] 1 Corinthians 2.14

[7] This can be seen by the “more tolerable” language of the Savior in Matthew 10.15; 11.22, 24; Mark 6.11; Luke 10.12, 14

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church