Are you sound in faith? (Titus 1:13) "This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the fall;
Are you sound in doctrine? (Titus 2: I) "But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:"
Are you sound in speech? (Titus 2:8) "Sound speech, that cannot be condemned,' that he that is of the contrary may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of him. "
Are you sound in mind? (2 Timothy 1:7) "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. "
Are you sound in heart? (Proverbs 14:30) "A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones."
Remember when the Bible speaks of this type of sound it means that which is "whole and healthy." There is a lot of sound out there that just makes a noise, but the Christians are to speak that which makes themselves and others whole and healthy. In other words, we are to sound out the gospel of Jesus Christ which can make us whole and healthy!
Many people in our world believe that belief alone saves people from their sins. A case in point, this week I received an e-mail from a lady who had visited our web site and she was very upset that we claimed a person had to do anything more than believe in order to be saved. She, like many others who have this belief, claims that if we do anything else then we are adding to what Jesus did for us. They claim that Jesus finished the work of salvation totally, which we agree with. Where we do not agree is in how a person receives this salvation.
If I were to promise you a gift of $100.00 if you walked over to the preacher's home, would your walking over to the preacher's home earn you that $100.007 Of course we can all see how it would not have earned you the gift of $100.00, it would still be a gift. All you did was fulfill a requirement to receive that gift and that was walking from the building over to the preacher's home. Yet, many people who claim that all a person has to do in order to receive salvation is believe that Jesus totally finished the work of salvation and there is nothing that you do to receive it, except believe.
It is true that a person must believe, in fact no one will be saved who does not believe in Jesus Christ. Yet, it takes more than just believing in Jesus to be saved. Mark 16:15-16 says, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" Jesus coupled believing with being baptized in order to be saved in this verse. The word "and" is a conjunction word meaning that it connects the word before it and the word after it. So it makes sense that if a person does not believe, he will not be baptized, as Jesus stated in verse 16.
When a person searches all of God's word for what a person must
do to be saved, one finds that believing is the starting point. But, believing
that Jesus Christ finished the work of salvation alone will not save anyone!
With believing, a person must repent of sins (Luke 13:3), confess that
Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 8:37) and also be
baptized (Acts 2:38). When a person does these things they have not
added one things to the finished work of Christ in our salvation. All a
person has done is fulfill the requirements that God has placed on a person
receiving the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:23).
(Heb 5:8-9)