is a question. I wanted this
message to answer just one question. It's a question that I was asked
several times this week and I have begun preparing the message for
this morning earlier in the week. It's a question that I hope you
will hear and hear carefully the answers given in scripture.
Here it is. When is a person saved? That's a reasonable question.
When is a person saved? Now let's turn together to Acts
chapter 11. We'll begin here. Acts chapter
11 and verse 14. You'll recall that in Acts chapter
10, there was a devout man who worshiped God by the name of
Cornelius, who worshiped God according to the instruction
and dictates and understanding he had in Old Testament scripture.
with all his house. And an angel appeared to him
and told him to send three men to Joppa to fetch a man named
Peter. And Peter would come and preach
the way of life and grace and salvation to them. Now, this
is how the angel told Cornelius what to expect from Peter. This
man who is God's messenger, this man who is the preacher of the
gospel to his soul, when the time of mercy and grace comes
one way or the other, God will get the chosen sinner and the
preacher together and cause them to hear the word. He said, now
this is what Peter will do. Verse 14, who shall tell thee
words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. Now that's my job this morning,
is to tell you the words from this book whereby you shall be
saved. Now we know that salvation is
of the Lord. That's just basic fundamental
ABCs of Holy Scripture. Salvation in its entirety is
the work of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is
no part, no time, no aspect of salvation which is in any way
determined by or accomplished by man. Salvation is of the Lord. We know also that Jesus Christ
alone is our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ and He
alone is the sacrifice for sin. Christ and He alone is our righteousness. Christ and He alone is the propitiation
for our sins. All the grace of God flows to
believing sinners through the merits of Christ's blood and
righteousness. In this matter of salvation,
Jesus Christ is all. Now, if you haven't learned that,
you haven't learned anything about the gospel. Christ is all
or he's nothing at all. We also recognize, plainly taught
in the scripture, is this fact that God's saving grace and salvation,
the redemption that was purchased and obtained for God's elect
at Calvary by the blood of Jesus Christ, is effectually applied
to and wrought in chosen centers by the almighty, irresistible
power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. If ever you have life,
God the Holy Spirit is going to have to move on your heart
and give you life. If ever you have faith, God the
Holy Spirit must give you faith. If ever you come to Christ, God,
the Holy Spirit must bring you to Christ. We are taught in the
word of God as well, that this salvation is wrought in the hearts
of chosen sinners through the instrumentality of gospel preachers,
the preaching of the gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. I hear folks all the time say,
well, I believe men just read the Bible and be saved. No, that's
just not so. That's just not so, Merle. God
chose by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Evangelism,
not flying over the nations and just throwing leaflets of Scripture
out on the nations. That's not evangelism, that's
not missionary work. The preaching of the gospel is means by which
God has ordained the saving of His elect. So that when these
men at Cornelius' house would hear the word, the angel of the
Lord says, you go, send three men to Joppa and fetch Peter
down here. He'll tell you the words whereby
thou shalt be saved. When God chose to save that Ethiopian
eunuch, he sent Philip and crossed his path, and Philip explained
to him the things he was reading. As a matter of fact, the eunuch
was reading Isaiah 53. And Philip said to him, do you
understand what you're reading? He said, well, I can't understand
it, lest some man shows me. Philip said, slide over, buddy,
I'll show you. This is what it is. The preaching of the gospel
is the means by which God has chosen to save sinners, so that
the preaching of the gospel becomes paramount in the lives of God's
people. I don't know how to state this
so that folks understand it, so that you can get hold of it.
Preachers are not priests. We have no priestly function,
no priestly abilities, no priestly powers. I cannot give you life. I cannot bring you to Christ.
But preachers, God's preachers, gospel preachers are not useless
things that his people get along with just as well without them
or with them. They're just not. No, no, no, no. You will never
hear from God. If you don't hear it from and
through the lips of a preacher, it won't happen. God will not
speak to you except through the preaching of the gospel. You
cannot understand this book except as it is preached and explained
to you by those men who are sent of God to preach it and explain
it to you. He's given to his church pastors,
teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the edifying
of the body of Christ, that you be no more tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine. All right? We know this as well.
This salvation is something a person experiences in his heart and
soul. We don't build our hopes upon
feelings and experiences. We don't have assurance because
we have feelings of assurance. But I wouldn't give you a plugged
nickel for a salvation that's not felt and experienced in the
depths of a man's soul. Life, freedom, pardon, forgiveness,
These are things that we feel. Can you imagine a man being in
bondage and set free and not feel it? A man carrying an oppressive
load of guilt and having that guilt taken away and not feel
it? Oh no, these are things we feel
and experience in our souls. Now we don't all experience the
grace of God the same way. Doug and I were talking about
this Friday evening. He didn't know it, but I was talking to
him about what I was going to preach today. We were talking about this thing
on Friday evening about experiencing the grace of God. Now, believers
experience grace in different ways, but they all experience
the same grace. Believers have different experiences
of how God brings them to life and faith in Christ, but they're
all brought to life in faith in Christ. Let me see if I can
illustrate it. When the apostle Paul, Saul of Tarsus, was converted,
The Lord God struck him down with a bright shining light from
heaven and threw him down flat on his back, blinded him and
spoke to him out of heaven. Now, I've heard folks say, have
you had a Damascus Road experience? No, not me. No, I haven't. I haven't. The Philippian jailer,
that crusty old rascal. I mean, he was a rogue of a man.
He was a hardened, old, retired soldier who had shed a lot of
blood and didn't think twice about it. A rogue of a man. And when he's in jail at Philippi,
when Paul's in jail at Philippi and Paul and Silas are communicating
the things of the gospel, I don't have any idea how long they were
there, but that jailer heard something from them. So that
when the jailer awoke in the middle of the night thinking
the prisoners were escaped, Paul cried out to him, don't destroy
yourself. Hang on, son. We're all here.
We're all here. And that jailer believed the
gospel. God saved him. I can kind of relate to that
old boy. He had a climactic experience
coming from darkness to light, from corruption to righteousness,
from bondage to liberty all at once. I can relate to that. Lydia
there in Acts chapter 16 as well that woman who She worshiped
God best. She knew how she didn't know
much but she walked in what life she had and she met with folks
down by the Stream and she they read the scriptures just a bunch
of Jewish women They read the scriptures every Saturday morning
every Sabbath day and Paul came to town He said you know anybody
here who worships God? where there's We got lots of
gods around here. Who are you talking about? Jehovah,
the one true and living God. Oh, yeah, there's some silly
women who meet in a little clearing outside down here, said you can
catch him down there on Saturday morning. And so Paul went down
there. And as they were reading the
scriptures, he opened to them the scriptures. And as he did,
the Lord opened her heart. Altogether, different ways of
experiencing God's grace, but all experience the same grace.
Salvation, then, is something that we experience in this life. But when is a person saved? Now,
there's so much confusion here, and I'm going to state some things
simply to clear away some of the confusion, because I know
the confusion exists. There are some, we call them
hard shells, primitive badness, old school badness. They say,
well, a person saved in eternity. That's just not so. There is
a sense in which God's elect are saved in the mind and purpose
of God from eternity. But the scriptures do not teach
that election is salvation. The scriptures teach that election
is unto salvation. God's elect shall all be saved,
but election is not our savior. Christ is our savior. And God
chose to save us in Christ and save us he shall. Some foolishly
imagine that if you bring a child when he's a little baby, and
you bring him to a preacher, or to a priest, or to a preacher
who's pretending to be a priest, and you sprinkle a little water
on his face, slosh a little water on it, call it baptism, and promise
to raise him in the church, that child's saved then. That child's
saved. I recall years ago, I heard the story that happened with
Ralph Barnard happened to me one day. A lady moved in behind
us, and I lived over in Lookout, West Virginia, and I was pastor
of the church there. She moved in over the hill from us. I went
down and knocked on the door, visiting with her and her husband.
She answered the door, and I told her, And I wanted to visit with
her. I was pastor of the church. I
talked to her a little bit and began talking about the gospel.
She said, I've always been saved. No, no, you haven't. Nobody's
always been saved, always been deceived, but not saved. Salvation
does not come by some man throwing a little water on your face and
calling it salvation. Salvation does not come by mama
and daddy dedicating you to Christ before you're born or when you're
born. Salvation comes by God's free grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. There are others who say, well, the child is really
saved when he'd been raised in the church. You know, you put
a little water on his face, call it baptism, and you catechize
him. You teach him, teach him. What ladies did downstairs this
morning, take those children and teach them, teach them the
truth, teach them the doctrine. They call it catechizing them.
And you teach them the catechism. And then when they get to be
about 12, 13 years old, they're given a choice. Now, it's time
for you to be confirmed and come into the church. Do you agree
with the catechism and the confession? Yeah, well, that's salvation.
Oh, no. No, no. You don't educate folks
in the Kingdom of God. It can't be done. It can't be
done. Salvation comes by the gift of
God's grace. You understand the difference?
Salvation is not something that we persuade men to, something
God persuades them to. Faith in Christ is not something
we give men, it's something God gives men. In many churches,
and most conservative, fundamentalist churches, not even fundamentalist
anymore, most, in fact, any of them, People are taught that
a person is saved when he makes a decision for Jesus and professes
faith in him. Now if I were to ask for a show
of hands, I'll almost guarantee you there's not 10% of folks
sitting in this auditorium this morning who didn't do that when
they were little boy or little girl. Made a profession of faith. When I was seven years old, preacher
was preaching and had a real emotional service. I don't remember
what he's talking about, but he has, you know, invitation
to hymn and they sung and sung and sung and everybody would
cry and I got to cry and I walked forward and helped down at what
they called an altar, and a fellow came along and asked me if I
wanted to go to hell, and I said no, and asked him if I knew I was
a sinner, and I said, what do you mean? He said, did you ever tell a story? I
said, yeah, I've told it to you. But you know that's wrong, don't
you? Yeah, that's wrong. Well, that's sin. Well, Jesus
will save you if you'll let him. Well, what do you mean? Well,
just repeat after me. And he told me to say the sinner's
prayer, and I said it. And when I got done, that deceiving, man
who was himself deceived. Had this seven-year-old boy on
the head and hugged him and he said, now son, you're saved.
Don't let anybody ever tell you any different. And there's nothing akin to salvation
in it. Nothing akin to it. So I saved
that way. No, you weren't. No, you weren't.
Salvation does not come by merely professing faith. That doesn't
give you the possession of it. Salvation does not come by you
deciding for Jesus. Salvation does not come by you
repeating a prayer after some man who himself doesn't even
know who to pray to. Multitudes imagine that a person
saves when he reforms his life and starts living life, starts
living for the Lord. How many times have you heard,
folks, you need to start living for the Lord? How are you going
to start living for the Lord when you're dead? Salvation doesn't
come by you reforming your life. I was talking to a fellow this
week, and he said, but if a fellow quits drinking, if a fellow quits
carousing, if a fellow quits giving up some bad habits, he
said, surely the devil wouldn't make him do that, would he? I
said, read 2 Corinthians chapter 11. The ministers of Satan, Rex,
transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness. Man, they'll
teach you to do good. They'll teach you to do good
stuff. Donnie Bell made this statement, I thought it was just
outstanding. He said, Satan's master plan is to get man religious
without Christ. He would rather you be whitewashed
than washed white in the blood of the Lamb. But whitewashing
won't save you. I must be washed white in the
blood of Christ. There's all the difference in
the world. Many folks believe a man saved when he baptized
and joins the church. The Campbellites teach that.
They don't hesitate to say it, so I'll say it for them. I'll
say it again. The fellow in town here wrote an article in the
paper one time. He said, baptism does the same
thing the blood of Christ does. It washes away sin. Utter blasphemy. It's utter blasphemy. Oh no,
baptism won't wash away anything except in symbol and picture.
Salvation doesn't come by something we do. And then some folks say,
well, you just can't know whether you're saved or not until Judgment
Day when the books are read and God tells who's chosen and who's
not. That's not so either. This book declares that there
is a salvation which God's people experience in this world by God's
free grace. Well, when? When? Listen to what
the Word of God says, will you? Listen to the language of our
Master. Would to God that in all these matters of Crucial
importance, Lindsay, we would learn to let God be true in every
man alive. I wonder if we could do that. I wonder if we could do that.
That means, James, if what your mom and daddy taught you when
they bounced you on your knee doesn't jive with this book,
they lied, not God. That's fair enough, isn't it? That means if what you were taught
all your life by the most religious people you knew, most highly
respected people you knew, who didn't speak according to this
book, they were wrong, God's right. Now, if you care for your
soul, if you care for your soul, you better find out what God
says about it. Because this is the book you're going to be judged
by. This is what our master said. Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. That means you're
going to have to be made righteous somehow. Our Lord said, except
you be converted and become as little children, you shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven. He said, except you repent, you'll
all likewise perish. He said, except man be born of
water into the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
You must be born again. In other words, something has
got to take place in you that you can't perform. You've got
to have something that only God Almighty can give you, or you're
going to hell. When is a person saved? Let's
look at Galatians 1. Galatians chapter 1. I've searched
the scriptures, and I found some plain answers given in the word
of God, and I'm going to give them to you very, very briefly,
but I want you to see them for yourself. When is a person saved? Galatians chapter 1, verse 15.
You'll be saved when this happens, and not until this happens. Are
you listening? A person is saved when God's
pleased to save them. Is that what it says here? When
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me. Gary, if we had
our way, we'd see to it our kids were saved as soon as they drew
their first breath. We wouldn't have them go through any difficulty,
and mamas and daddies Put pressure on kids and put pressure on preachers
and put pressure on Sunday school teachers. Got to get them saved.
Got to get them saved. Got to get them saved. You pray
for them. You commit them to God's hands.
You understand that if God gives them mercy, it's mercy. If God
gives them what they deserve, they're going to hell. You understand
that? You understand that? And you
wait for God. When's God going to save his
people? When it pleases him. Saved you when you were a full
grown man about to retire. Some others he saves earlier,
some others older. I've just baptized two folks
last January, 83 years old, spent their whole lives in the darkness
and delusion of papacy. Devout papist without the knowledge
of God. How does God save folks? When
it pleases Him to reveal His Son in you. People tell me all
the time, when I was saved, I didn't know anything about the Lord
Jesus. You weren't saved then, I've got news for you. Man gets
saved when God reveals His Son in him. When God makes you to
understand who Christ is, what He did, why He did it, and where
He is now. All right, look in John chapter
16. When does a person say? This is what the book says. A
person is saved when he is convinced, convicted and convinced by God
the Holy Spirit of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Folks argue and fuss and tell
me all the time, you know, you can't say a man has to know things
in order to be saved. You've got to know something.
You've got to know something. You've got to know something
by divine teaching. You've got to know something that nobody
can teach you except God himself. I can't convict you of sin. I
can't do it. I can show you that you did this
and you did that and you'll justify yourself till you go to hell.
That's just fact. Read the book. Folks will stand
in the last day and say, but Lord, didn't we? We weren't perfect. But now you can't say I'm a sinner.
That's all you are. That's all you are. That's all
you are. And until God shows you that,
you'll bite nails and spit them at me telling you. You will not
bow to him. Oh, but if God, the Holy Spirit
ever comes to you in convicting power, The convicting work of
the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit sort of making you feel
bad. That's not it. Now, you're going
to feel bad, but that's not all there is to it. The convicting
work of the Holy Spirit is not somebody who says, well, the
Holy Spirit convicted me of dancing, convicted me of wearing shorts.
It's religious nonsense. It's religious nonsense, just
religious tradition. God, the Holy Spirit convicts
folks of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Read what it
says here. When he is come, John 16, 8, he will reprove, the word
is convince, the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.
But what does that mean? Of sin? Because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness? Because I go
to my father and you see me no more. Of judgment? Because the
prince of this world is God. Now, this is what it does. When
the Holy Spirit comes in saving power, he will convince you of
your sin. And you'll see that you deserve
to go to hell not only because of your lust, but because of
your love. Not just because of your revelry,
but because of your righteousness. Not just because of your prostitution,
but because of your prayers. Because all you are saying, you
don't believe they do. I assure you, I know you don't.
I know you don't. But I'm telling you, if ever
God's pleased to open the windows of heaven and stretch out his
arm of mercy and put his hand in your soul, you will be convinced
of your sin and of righteousness. Convinced that you don't have
any, and you can't produce any, and you can't perform any. But
righteousness has been established by the obedience of a substitute,
the God-man, our Savior. Righteousness with which he puts
a robe of righteousness on chosen I was thinking this morning while
I was shining my shoes about that command of our Lord said,
if a man has two coats and his brother has none, give your brother
whatever. Well, our Lord Jesus has two coats. Coats of perfect
righteousness. Righteousness as God and righteousness
as a man. And we stand before him naked
and he gives us his coat of righteousness as a man. And now it's ours,
Larry. We're made the righteousness of God in him and of judgment. What on earth does that mean?
When God the Holy Spirit comes upon a sinner, gives him life
and faith in Christ. When God the Holy Spirit convicts
you, convinces you, reproves you of judgment, this is what
he makes you know. Judgment's over. Judgment's over. Oh, blessed, glorious, good news. Judgment's over. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, has borne my judgment and my wrath because
of my sin, so that God in justice has no more word to speak against
me. Judgment's over. When the Holy
Spirit comes, He convinces you. When does a person say? I'll
tell you when. Look in Romans chapter 10. Romans
10th chapter. You will be saved. Are you listening
to me? You'll be saved when you bow
willingly to the dominion of Jesus Christ, your Lord. This book doesn't know anything
about a fire escape from hell called Jesus. This book doesn't
know anything about a doormat to heaven called Jesus. This
book speaks of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And if he's not your Lord, he's
not your Savior. Look at Romans 10 verse 9. If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
to salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Salvation is nothing
less than the bowing of my heart to the dominion of Jesus Christ
the Lord. If you go to hell, my soul, if
you go to hell, here's the reason you'll go. Because you're a rebel
hating God Almighty and you will not bow to Jesus Christ. That's
the issue. The issue between you and God
is His Son. The crown rights of his son.
God made him Lord. And you're going to confess it
from the depths of your heart, either seeking his mercy or crying
against his judgment. One of the two. Confess him as
Lord you will. Our Lord made this statement.
Turn over to Matthew 10 for a moment, if you will. Matthew chapter
10. I'll wrap this up. Verse 37. He that loveth father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall
lose it. These days, everybody talks about finding themselves.
There's a bunch of nonsense in this world, but that's the way
the world is, it's nutty. I heard two girls who looked
like they were about 25 years old, 24, 25 years old, said,
you know, folks don't expect us to even find ourselves by
now. If you find your life, you're
going to lose it. I'll have my way, do my thing.
I've got things under control. You're going to lose it. Look
at the next line. He that loses his life for my
sake. God help you now for life. What does that mean? Give up
your life to the rule and will and dominion and glory of Jesus
Christ the Lord and you'll live forever. If you don't, you'll
be damned forever. When's the person saved? One
more text. Look in Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. I'll tell you when God will save
you. He'll save you just as soon as you need it. Just as soon
as you need it. The reason you're not saved yet
is because you don't need it. You're getting a long time without
Christ. You don't need mercy. You don't need grace. You don't
want it. If you ever get hungry, you leave. It's that simple. You don't have to force feed
somebody who's hungry. Somebody's thirsty, you don't
have to beg them to take a drink of water. Just get them in the
sniff of it, they'll take it. And I'm telling you, if ever
you need Christ, you'll quit playing games with your soul
and with God, and God will save you. Look here at Luke 9, verse
11. The people, when they knew it,
followed Him, and He received them and spoke to them of the
kingdom of God. Now look at this. Look at this.
Are you listening? and healed them that had need
of healing. Anybody need healing? Anybody
here need forgiveness? Anybody need mercy? Anybody need
for God to do what you cannot do? Then for you, this is the
day of salvation.