Alright, if you'll open your
Bibles to 1 Corinthians 15. Well, it's exactly the same group. So, I guess nothing needs to
be said by way of introduction. Everybody heard what I had to
say before. Except I do want to thank you
again for having me here. And I pray along with what he
said that the Lord shall soon lay it upon the heart of some
gifted individual to come and live among you and serve as your
pastor. And you know, the Scriptures
say that God does not withhold any good thing from His people. And having such a one is a good
thing. And I hope that soon it shall
be realized for you. Having said that, I also give
thanks to God that you exist as you are. We don't want to act as though
or look at this as only a partial church. No, this is a church.
Our Lord said where two or three are gathered in My name, there
I am. Well, if you've got Him, you've
got His church, In fact, there's a young couple in our congregation
that needs to move down to Texas. And they were trying to find
a church down there, and I've been thinking of how to make
a list of things for them to look for. But I remember telling
someone once, don't look for a church. Look for Christ. And once you found him, you found
his church. And I can tell, at least as much
as any human being can tell, Christ is among you. You have
a love for his gospel. love for him and you're willing
to do whatever is necessary to establish this work and continue
in it. I've told the folks back in our
congregation, you know, I've said it'd be a lot easier for
you all to continue in one of these larger churches where you
don't need to sacrifice so much because all the expenses are
spread out over a whole lot more people and where you'll be accepted
on Main Street. Everybody thinks well of you.
So your willingness to meet like this, you don't even have a building
to call your own. Of course, I think that's a good
thing. The Lord didn't have a building either. Abraham didn't have a permanent
dwelling place. That's all right. The Church
of God is not a building. It's the people. Someone once
said God did not call us to go to church. He called us to be
the church. So I'm excited for your sake. I'm encouraged. Always good to
see God begin new works and know that he's going to continue. It's easy for us. You know, we
only get, you know, our 70 or 80 years or whatever it is, we
just see a little glimpse in our lives and we keep thinking,
what's going to happen in the next generation? Well, I don't know. Any details, that is. But I know
this. God has his people in the next generation. And he will
raise up his preachers in the next generation. And everything
will go on just fine. And I'm sure he will work in
your behalf also. I want to preach a message now
entitled, Have You Been Saved? Now, it's going to cover similar
material than our first one. But that's because it's the gospel. And the gospel, contrary to the
way many people have treated it, it's a rather simple thing.
There's not a whole lot to it. I've told people the Bible is
a big book, but it doesn't say many things. It says the same
thing a lot of different ways. And if you read this book and
miss the gospel, it's absolutely your fault. Because it's told,
the gospel is told in virtually every way you can possibly tell
it. Here in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians,
verse 2, well, we'll just start in verse 1. Moreover, brethren,
I declare to you the gospel. He's winding up this letter.
Now, he started it, declaring the gospel, and he wants to finish
it, making a very clear declaration of the gospel. For the one that
I preach to you, which also you have received, and wherein you
stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain." Now,
let me quickly dispense with what might seem a contradiction
to us where he talks about believing in vain. Is it possible to believe
in vain? It depends on what you mean by
belief. No one can honestly believe God in vain. That can't be done. Now, you can believe in God,
and it do you no good. The devil believes that there's
a God. You can even believe the doctrines of the gospel in vain.
But often when the scriptures use the word, like here, believe,
it means make a profession of faith, profess to believe. And there are those who profess
to believe and yet it is a vain profession. There are those,
and I've seen this happen, they hear the gospel and it's exciting
to them. We've had folks come to our church
and they hear things they never heard before or they hear some
of the same doctrines but put in a positive light and they
get excited about it. And they claim they believe it.
But then a little bit later, maybe even a good while later,
they wander off somewhere else. Some go back to what they came
out of. Well, they believed after a fashion, but in vain. Now, I cannot know whether or
not you believe. I scarcely know if I do. I mean our heart, you know the
Bible says the heart's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? Who can really
know the human heart with accuracy? Our hearts are so deceitful they
deceive ourselves. Only God can know the heart.
That's why David said, search me, O God. He didn't trust his
own searching. I come to a group like this and
I'll take you at face value. You say you believe? Okay. I'm
good with that. I have no reason to believe that
you don't believe and no way to accurately discern whether
or not you do. But I put the question to you,
to each of you, individually, on this matter of have you been
saved? Or have you just been caught
up in a movement? It may seem like a strange question
to set before a group who has gathered for worship. Should
we not assume that those who gather like this are saved? Well, yes, sort of. Like I said, I take you at face
value. If you say you did, I'm not going to contradict you,
because I don't have that authority. But it would not be safe to make
an assumption without testing it, at least each one for ourselves. Our text speaks of those who
are saved, but then follows this, said, you are saved if you keep
in memory, that is in mind, what I preached unto you. Unfortunately,
there are those who hear the gospel, and as I say, it's exciting
to them, But later on, what you find out is it was just something
new to them. And they went on to something else they found
new. And the scriptures teach us that
even among those whom everybody considers to be the people of
God, only a remnant shall be saved. Now, that was originally
applied to the Jews. But you know, the Jews just had,
they assumed they were God's people. Very much like the reformed
religions do with their families. They have dragged that Jewish
belief into their system. And well, mom and dad are Christians,
and I was born in the church, and I was raised in the church.
I asked a fellow about this one time, one of the reformed pastors
in our town, And after he got done explaining to me what they
believed, I said, whatever happened to the new birth? He said, well,
that's kind of a problem among our people. And I said, well,
if it's a problem, you ought to preach about that until it's
not a problem anymore. A man is not saved in his experience
until something happens. Someone once made this statement.
I thought it was really good. It was Ann, a lady in our church.
She said, God has lots of children, but no grandchildren. And you
know, your children cannot assume that they belong to God because
you claim to belong to God. And we cannot assume that we
belong to God simply because we hang around other people that
belong to God and go to church with them and sing songs with
them and believe the same doctrines they believe. We see examples in the New Testament
of those who profess to believe, but were in fact lost. I mean
in the New Testament there. I may have said Old Testament.
Paul put a question mark on the entire church in Galatia. Now
that's a church that Paul went to. He preached. Humanly speaking,
he started it. And then later on he said, I'm
afraid I may be wasting my work on you all. We had a religious
revival and that's all there was to it. It's a good question to ask ourselves. The issues of supreme importance,
have I been saved? It's the issue of our souls and
the issue of eternity. In other words, it's of supreme
importance about ourselves. If we're going to buy a house,
that's a pretty important decision to make, isn't it? Therefore,
we do a lot of research on it. We see the house, we may hire
a professional to inspect it to make sure it's in good condition.
And we go over our finances, make sure we're going to be able
to pay for the thing. And I don't know about you, but I'm always
afraid, scared to sign on the dotted line, you know, because
it's a big commitment. We put a lot of effort into discerning
the matters that involve important things. Well, how much more important
can you get than the matters of your soul? Our Lord said it
this way, what does it profit a man if he gains the world and
loses his soul? Well, now if there are a way
for you to gain the world, I mean the whole thing, well, you probably
put your mind to it. Well, not even the whole world
is worthy of the attention of your everlasting soul. It's good
for us to ask this question now because there's coming a time
when it'll be too late to ask it. Or if we ask it at that time,
it'll be too late to do anything about it. You know, there are
a lot of people that they start having symptoms of a disease
and they're afraid of it. So they don't go to the doctor.
because they're afraid of the diagnosis. Which is a little
bit silly, because whether or not you go to the doctor, the
diagnosis is the same. Not going to the doctor doesn't
mean that you don't have the disease. But they wait and wait,
and the symptoms increase and increase, and finally they're
forced to go. But they get there and it's too late. It's a diagnosis
for which there is no cure. And there is coming a day when
many will find out that they had not been saved. and that
the door of salvation has been shut. I don't want to be among those
who are surprised on the day of judgment, who say, Lord, Lord,
did we not? Now those people are surprised.
They are surprised to find themselves on the left side of the Lord
rather than the right side. They're surprised to find themselves
among the condemned rather than the justified. And they say,
Lord, didn't we do this? And didn't we do that? And even
this? And the Lord never denies that
they did those things. He just says, depart from me,
you workers of iniquity. I can't imagine. I mean, going
to hell is a plain old drunk or profligate of any kind. That's
bad enough. To go to hell thinking you were
on your way to heaven. I can't think of any worse way.
I mean, I don't want to go to hell under any circumstances.
But I would hate to walk a path that I thought was right and
find out it was wrong when it was too late. Asking the question,
though, does not mean that we must be forever in doubt of the
answer. The answer can be known. Now I've asked this question,
have I been saved? And actually what we're going
to do is break it down into three other questions which you can
know. It's not something that is vague
and mysterious and it can't be discerned. You'll be able to
know these things. The Apostle said, John said,
we know that we've been born of God. It can be known. The
life of doubt. The idea that there is some virtue
to be found in forever questioning one's salvation is not virtuous. It's far from virtuous. It's
a horrible insult to God. It's an insult to God for those
that claim to believe His Word to go around acting like, well,
I don't know if God has saved me or not. I'm just going to
have to wait until everything's done to find out. because it puts a big question
mark on the clarity of His promise. Now I've noticed this about people
who love to promote doubt among sovereign grace people anyway. They're constantly pointing to
the sovereignty of God in salvation and saying you don't know whether
God's chosen you. You can't be sure God's called you unless
there's some kind of confirming experience to go with it or something
like this. But they're always going back
to God's sovereign work in salvation and saying, you can't know God's
sovereign work, so there's really no way for you to know. But you
know something? God tells us about His sovereignty in salvation,
but there is no reaction to be given to that. In other words,
when He says that I have chosen a people in Christ, okay, what
are we supposed to do in response to that? There isn't a response
to that except to believe that it's so. It's the promises we
respond to. The Lord Jesus Christ says, all
that the Father gives to me shall come to me. Now, that's just
a fact, and there's no response to be made to it. But what the Lord says next is
this, and he that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's
what we respond to. I can't know whether God has
given me to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no way for me to respond
to that truth. What I can know is this, the Lord Jesus Christ
said if I come to Him, He'll not turn me away. He'll not reject
me. And I can respond to that. That's
a promise. So we don't have to live a life
of doubt. God's made His promises clear.
To live a life of doubt and act like that's some kind of virtuous
thing puts a question mark on the sincerity of God's promise. Hebrews 6, if you want to turn
over there. You know, God is so gracious
to us in the way He talks to us. He talks to us in the language
of liars. Now, God is truth, and Him saying
something should settle the issue. I don't know if you all remember
the bumper sticker, God said it, I believe it, that settles
it. Well, that bumper sticker is too long. God said it, that
settles it. Now, we may want to put the I
believe it at the end, but me believing it doesn't make the
issue settled. God saying it makes the issue
settled. But, you know, we don't treat one another like that on
important things. For example, I mentioned, you know, buying
a house. The bank is not going to let you come in there and
say, okay, God, I'll make the payments. They're going to say,
you sign, bud. You put your name on this. Why?
Because they don't trust us. And I don't blame them. Paul
said, let God be true and every man a liar. Why? Well, because
God's true and every man's a liar. And when you're giving testimony
in court, why do they make you swear on a Bible or something
important? Because they know everybody's
a liar. And you've got to make it that lying is going to cost
them something to get them to tell the truth. Well, look what
God does here in Hebrews 6, verse 17. I guess we have to go back to
verse 16. For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for
confirmation is the end to all strife. So, you know, you swear
an oath. Swear in my mother's grave that
this is true. You know, that kind of thing. Wherein God, willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the unchangeableness
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. that by two immutable
things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us." Now, what's he mean there? Well, God
made a promise. Now that should have settled
it. And he's referring back to Abraham. God made a promise to
Abraham. That should have done it. But God knows that we're liars
and we therefore don't trust people just on their word. So
God condescended to swear an oath. Now God shouldn't have to swear
an oath. He's trustworthy in His work. But He did. He swore
by Himself Which was to say, God said, if I don't make good
on my promise, I will get off my throne and cease to be God. And that should penetrate the
lack of trust we liars have. Because I know one thing, God's
not going to quit being God. God's not going to get off His
throne. He's going to make good on His word. But the doubt is
to put a question mark on the sincerity of His promise. And
it presents God as a cruel person and uncaring of the heartfelt
concerns of sincere people. Folks, the reason that their
religions are so perverse is because they have created a God
in their own image and He is a perverse God. God created man
in His image, then man fell, and ever since then man's been
creating God in his own image. And because men are short on
mercy, they think God's short on mercy. They invented God's
short on mercy. Because we are ready to avenge every wrong done
against us. They invented God that's like
that. Because we like to make things
difficult on people. natural man invents a God that
makes things difficult on people. Doubt is imposed on us not by
God, nor is it natural to the scheme of salvation. It's simply
a product of our flesh. Man is a unique creature. God
made him of flesh like the other animals, but he said let us make
man in our own image. What is that? Well, the Lord
Jesus says God is spirit. And so God, when He created man,
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. It says, and
man became a living soul. And in both the Hebrew and Greek,
the word translated breath is also translated wind or spirit.
Same word is for all of them. And what it is, is God put within
humanity a nature like His own, spirit. So far as I know, we
are the only creature like that. There are animals that are all
flesh. We have angels which are all spirit. So far as I know,
man is the only creature that has both flesh and spirit. When man sinned, his entire being
fell. When God works the new birth,
the only thing he works on is the spirit. The spirit enables
us to know God, to believe God, and to love God. But so far,
God has left the flesh alone. He'll fix that in time. But He's
left it alone. And the flesh never has and never
will believe God until the day He changes it. And that's where
our doubts come from. Because the flesh says, when
I see it, I'll believe it. And the gospel says, believe
it and you'll see it. So it's not natural to the gospel
for us to doubt, but it's kind of natural to our present state. The scriptures are sufficient
to answer the question of whether we have been saved. Now let's
clarify this point. There's a very real sense in
which God's people have been saved from eternity. We saw that
in the last message. All God's works have an eternal
aspect to him. There was a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. That means there was a people
for whom he was slain and therefore they have been redeemed by his
blood from eternity. And there is a sense in which
God's people are presently being saved. The scriptures say that.
And there is a sense in which in the future we shall be saved.
So what do we mean by this? Are we presently saved? We'll
look over at the book Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 being confident of this very
thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ now the gospel is designed to
cure two problems because we have two problems Both of them
are related to sin, but it's in two areas. First of all, there's
a legal problem. We are criminals. What's a criminal? Somebody that's committed a crime.
We are criminals in the kingdom of God, and the judge will by
no means clear the guilty, he says. And so there we are, guilty
in the presence of the judge. Something has to be done about
that guilt. And the sacrifice of Christ handled
that problem. Because Christ bore our sins
in His body on the tree. It's done. And therefore, for
the elect of God, for the called of God, for the believer, there
is no legal obstacle to His salvation. But here's a problem. The elect
come into this world just like everybody else does. They have
a crooked nature. They're a crook. That's one of
the words, crook, when you talk about somebody being a crook.
When you talk about a criminal, you're talking about what they
do, crimes. When you talk about them being
a crook, you're talking about them acting upon their crooked
nature. So not only is there a legal
problem that needs solved, we have a personal problem that
needs solved. And it's all wrapped up in this,
we hate God. Now that's something most people
don't want to admit to. Well, I don't hate God. If you
don't hate God, it's simply because you never met Him. The natural
mind, the carnal mind is enmity with God. Now it may be that
God never allowed your hatred of Him to be so focused and so
expressed you ever recognized it as that. But every act of
sin is an act of hatred against God. Every attempt at self-righteousness
is an act of hatred against God. So we hate God, and that's got
to be changed. Now, there are works that God
has done for us, totally outside of us. He chose us in Christ. We had nothing to do with that.
We weren't there. Christ redeemed us. I wasn't there. The Spirit calls. I didn't make
Him do it. But there are also works that
God does in us when He begins to change us. And it says here
in Philippians chapter 1 verse 6. I turned away from that scripture
before I ever bothered to read it. Being confident of this very
thing that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Christ. So when I'm asking have you been
saved, I'm asking has God begun that good work in you? Now, we shall ask three questions,
and it won't take us long. Three questions, and by your
answer of these three questions, you can know whether or not God
has saved you, has begun that good work in you. And of course,
if the good work has been begun in you, then you can assume that
all those works for you were done, And he also says in Philippians
chapter 2 verse, I mean right there in chapter 1 verse 6, he
says, if he begun, he'll complete it. That word means perfect,
finish it. So has he begun this good work
in us? Well, first of all, answer this
question in your heart. Have I seen myself as a sinner
worthy of divine judgment and in need of a Savior? Now there
are those who will put you on a course of looking within yourself
to wallow in your sins. I'm not talking about that. I
think in the catechism there's one of those lines about to know
how great our sins and miseries are. Well, to know how great
your sins and miseries are has no value in and of itself. Understand
that. And God does not look upon you,
if you go around with a hang dog look and being miserable
or at least pretending to be miserable. And I think most of
it that I've seen is pretense because people can't live like
that. But the old woe is me and I'm
a horrible person and all of that. I think it's a big show.
However, that is not what I'm talking about. Actually, people
who live like that are trying to establish their own righteousness
by this public display of their sinfulness. That's all it is.
Oh, how deceptive Satan is. No, all I need to know of my
sin is that it's enough to damn me and put me in need of a Savior. I thank God for the mother I've
had. There were some problems in her theology, but that's because
she just wasn't particularly interested in abstract theology.
But she taught me two things, and basically this is the essence
of what we need to know. That I am a sinner in need of
a Savior, and that Jesus Christ is the Savior I need. That's
pretty simple stuff, isn't it? Well, do I know that I'm a sinner
in need of a Savior? Do you know? that you're a sinner
in need of a Savior. I'm not asking you do you feel
sorry for your sins. That's not the issue. How you
feel about it is not the issue. But do you agree with God that
you are a sinner worthy of everlasting condemnation and that your only
way out of that problem is to have some kind of Savior? That's
the first question. The second question is this,
do you see Christ and His work as the sufficient answer to your
case? Is He enough of a Savior for
a sinner like you? Of course, sometimes with people
the problem is, are they enough of a sinner that they need a
Savior like Christ? But if you ever find out anything
about the nature of sin and the nature of the God who hates sin,
then the question will come to you, is there a Savior equal
to the task of saving me? Is Jesus Christ such a Savior? Do you see Christ, His person,
the glorious Son of God, and His work in life and in death
Do you see that as sufficient? Now this would involve believing
the history of the events of the Gospel. And for this, we
go back to 1 Corinthians 15. Paul says, I'm going to tell
you the Gospel. And he says in verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 15,
For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Now that phrase, how that? That's an old English idiom that
simply means, to wit. In the Greek, actually the word
how doesn't appear. It's just, I deliver to you that
which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures. And that He was buried, and that
He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now this is
the historical Gospel. That is, this is a telling of
the historical events which make up the foundational work of the
Gospel, Christ's redemptive work. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Now, His dying for our sins must
mean that He lived. You can't die if you didn't live.
It presupposes the incarnation of God, that God took on flesh. The Word was made flesh. Great
is the mystery of godliness. God was revealed in a body. And He lived that life under
the law, and He did so perfectly. He did for us what we could not
do for ourselves and wouldn't do for ourselves. He performed
everything God required. He was born under the law and
He performed perfectly under the law. He lived a life of perfection. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, and the Scriptures say Christ knew no sin. He had no sin. The law could
not convict Him. You see, the law reveals not
only that we are sinners, it reveals that Christ was not a
sinner. He did no sin. He knew no sin. In Him is no sin. Now seeing
that He had no sin of His own doing, therefore He was qualified
to stand in the place of people like you and me who have a whole
lot of sin of our own doing. You see, one sinner cannot substitute
for another one. It takes an innocent person to
bear the sin of a sinful person. So he bore our sins in his body
on the tree. That's what Peter says. Now he bore them as a burden. We are so accustomed to sin,
we scarcely notice it. when more sin is added to the
tale of our lives. We're like kids who went out
playing in the mud, and they're mud from head to toe, and you
throw another bunch of mud on them, doesn't make any difference. But our Lord had no sin, and
the sin of a countless multitude was laid on Him. That was something. You talk about a burden to bear.
Now I cannot, and I don't think anybody can, enter the mind of
the Lord Jesus Christ as He suffered for our sins and understand His
emotional reaction to those things. But I know this, that He truly
bore our sins in His body on the tree. And for someone who
did no sin, knew no sin, and in whom there is no sin, that
must have been a horrible thing. The closest we can get is to
imagine some horribly perverse criminal act that we would never
think of doing. And then suddenly, before the
whole world, we're set forward as one who did it. That's as close as I can get
to describe what it was for him to bear our sins as a burden. But the worst of it is this.
He bore our sins before the Lord. Now you think of that. You know
most of religion is an attempt to hide from the Lord. Of course
it won't work. You can't hide from Him. But
that's what they're trying to do. Because we have this innate
knowledge that the real destructive power of sin is sin in the presence
of the Lord because He's the one who's going to do something
about it. He's going to take action against sin. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ did
not bear our sin and then try to hide from God. He bore our
sin there in the full blaze of the throne of a holy God of judgment
and justice. In fact, you and I have not borne
our sin like that and if we're in Christ we never will. The high priest He took the blood
once a year into the most holy place and poured it out there
on what's traditionally called the mercy seat. The word actually
is atonement cover. It was a place where the atonement
was made. But that priest, as he went in there with the blood,
he also went in there bearing the sins of Israel. Of course,
all of this in a symbolic way. But where did he take them? Right
in the presence of God. There between the cherubim, there
on the throne. Of course, he went in there with
an offering. And the Bible says that Jesus
Christ offered himself to God. He came before the Father, bearing
our sin and his blood. and poured himself out as it
were in the presence of God and paid the penalty of all the sins
that he bore. Nobody on the day of crucifixion
understood that other than the Lord Jesus Christ and one thief. Jesus' mother Mary didn't understand
what was happening on the cross Peter didn't. John didn't. None
of the disciples did. The soldiers that carried out
the crucifixion didn't understand what was happening. The Jewish
leaders that called for it, Pilate, who authorized it, nobody knew
what was happening there on Mount Calvary the day that Jesus Christ
bore our sins in His body in the very presence of the Lord. We talked about predestination
in the last message and made note of the fact it's not predestination
to a place. One of the reasons for that is
heaven and hell is not so much a place as it is a condition.
And Jesus Christ on the cross bore whatever hell is. Whatever God does to sinners
in hell, God did to Jesus Christ right there on Mount Calvary.
because he bore sin in the presence of God. God says, I'll by no
means clear the guilty, and Jesus Christ came before him as a guilty
man. If there's any proof that God is just, it is this, Calvary. For there, his Son, whom he loved,
bore sin that he himself did not do, yet God punished him
as though he were the most wicked man that ever lived. Do I see in Christ and that work
a sufficient work of salvation for my soul? Is that enough to
save a sinner like me? And then the third question,
have you ever asked God to save you? Now see, here's one of the
problems that mere doctrinal believers fall into. They hear
the doctrine, maybe true doctrine, and they assent to the truth
of it. And even the hearing of it might
make them happy. They may dedicate themselves
to it their entire lives. and remain faithful to that doctrine
and discover in the end that they were not saved. And here's
why. They never simply called upon
the name of the Lord. The promise goes on this wise,
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It does not say, whosoever shall
believe in free and sovereign grace shall be saved. It says,
whosoever shall call. Jesus Christ said, all you that
are weary and heavy laden, come to me. It's not those that know
that they are weary and heavy laden shall find rest. It's those
that come to Christ that shall find rest. The Philippian jailer
said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul did not say to him,
well, wallow a while in your sins until you feel miserable
enough that you think you're worthy to call upon the name
of the Lord. He simply said to this man right there instantly,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now
brethren, I have no authority to qualify that promise at all. I have no authority to say, yes,
it's believed, but you know, no. I've got to say it the way
God said it. Call. Come. Believe. Now that's all wonderful to hear.
Here's a question. Have you ever done that? Consciously,
from your heart. Cry it out to God. Say, God,
I'm a sinner. Save me for Jesus' sake. Do you know you're a sinner in
need of salvation? Do you know that Christ is a
Savior equal to the task of saving you? And have you ever asked
Him to save you? If you have, then you have the
authority of God's Word to say, I have been saved, and I shall
be saved, and I shall never be lost. Heavenly Father, thank
you for such a simple gospel. Forgive us that we tend to complicate
it. We thank you that Christ is all. We thank you that He
is all because we know that we are nothing. It is a great joy
to us to know that nothing is required of us because we already
know we cannot produce anything. Lord, I ask that you'll make
this word effective in the hearts of those who have gathered here
this morning. And if there be one who is simply
walking in the truth of a doctrine, having never personally called
upon you, I pray that you would begin that work which is described,
that it's God that works in you to will and to do of His good
pleasure. May they call upon your name.
and find your salvation. And I pray for this assembly
of yours, Lord, that you will, in your good time, send to them
someone to be a pastor to them. In Christ's name we pray it.
Amen.