West Salem Baptist Church

(Mark 2:27-28) "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath." It has been a problem ever since the fall of man that man has desired to add religion to God's Words. In the above verse Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day for placing the Sabbath above the everyday needs of man. The Sabbath was important to keep, but not at the expense of neglecting charity toward each other.  RELIGION MUST NEVER BE : 1) A substitute for God's Truth .  God warned man not to add to or take from his Word, and God's Word tells us that God is a God of compassion and mercy, but the Jew created a religion that would rather see a man starve than eat on the Sabbath or remain crippled than see him healed. Be careful not to leave God's truth for the way of religion . 2) A substitute for Christ . Jesus is "Lord of the Sabbath," meaning that as God himself his Sabbath represent

(Mark 1:17-18) “And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him.” Only Jesus can turn average men into soulwinners, but without one’s surrender to God’s calling there will be  no men caught for Christ. Jesus asked them to 1) Forsake their past . All these disciples new was fishing. These men were asked to leave their old way of  life for a new way of life, and immediately they did so! You and I cannot win men to Christ without this first step. God does not call everybody to be full time pastors and missionaries, but he does call every believer to forsake their old way of life for a new life patterned after Christ. 2) Follow Him Jesus said, “c ome after me,” which means change your direction and plans for mine. Following is a commitment to surrender one’s will to the will of Christ. God does not force anyone to follow, but He does expect it if we desire to “catch men” for the kingdo

(Mark 1:12-13) “And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.” In the above verse the Word of God mentions twice that Jesus after his baptism was directed or driven immediately by the Holy Ghost into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil. The wilderness is a picture of the place of testing just as it was for Israel in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt. For as the Jew immediately was driven into the wilderness for a purpose, so are we after salvation driven by the Spirit to the place of testing to teach us about faith and God’s Word. God directed Jesus to fast for 40 days not to prove that he could but rather to bring him to his weakest point as an example to us that even when weak and discouraged we can have faith in times of testing. For the power of Jesus over Satan was not found in his human flesh but rather in His Father’s Wor

(Mark 1:4) “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” The Bible teaches us that all the land of Israel came out to be baptized of John in the Jordon. Why ? 1) John baptized the Jew in preparation for the coming Jesus . According to scripture John was sent by God to make Israel ready to hear and receive the words of Christ. Although John used the same method of baptism ( by immersion ) his baptism was not the same as our baptism is today. 2) Our baptism today is both one of consecration and identification with Christ . When Jesus was baptized it wasn’t a baptism of repentance for sin but rather it was a baptism of consecration, just as the OT priest was cleansed in water prior to serving at age 30, so was Christ.  Jesus’ baptism was a prerequisite of the type of baptism that we practice. Not only are we consecrated as “priests and kings”(Rev. 1: 6) into a new life once we’re saved, we also identify with him and his ministry