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 that
you will hear and hear carefully the answers given in Scripture.
Here it is. 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 worshipped 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 sinners 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 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's 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 says, 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 can get
along with just as well without them or with them. They did not. No, no, no, no. You will never
hear from God if you don't hear from Him 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're talking about this thing
on Friday evening about experiencing grace, 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 illustrate
it. When the Apostle Paul, son 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,
is that in Acts chapter 16 as well? That woman who, she worshipped
God best she knew how. She didn't know much, but she
walked in what light she had. And she met with folks down by
the stream and 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? Well, 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 live in a little clearing outside down here. said you can
catch him down there on Saturday morning and Sir 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 and
she said man that's it that's it all together 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 Baptists, old school
Baptists, they say well a person is 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, sloshed
a little water on it, call it baptism, and promised to raise
him in the church. That child saved me. That child
saved me. I recall years ago, I heard the
story that happened with Ralph Barnard happened to me one day.
My 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 I wanted to visit with her. I was pastor of the church,
and I'd like to talk to her a little bit, and began talking about
the gospel, and 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's 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. You teach him.
What the 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. Do 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 a little boy or a little girl. Made a profession of faith. When I was seven years old, a
preacher was preaching and had a real emotional service. I don't
remember what he was talking about, but he had us, you know,
Invitation to him and they sung and sung and sung and everybody
would cry and I got to cry and I walked forward and up down
to what they called an altar and and 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 I said, what do you mean? He
said did you ever tell a story? I said, yeah, I told him But but well,
you know, that's wrong, don't you? Yeah, that's wrong. Well,
that's sin. 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. Say 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 right. 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 the fellow quits drinking. The fellow quits carousing. The fellow quits giving up some
bad habits. He says 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. That teaches you 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's saved when he's baptized
and joins church. The Campbellites teach that.
They don't hesitate to say it, so I'll say it for them. I'll
say it again. A fellow in town here wrote an article in 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. Wonder if we'd do that. Wonder
if we'd do that. That means, James, if what your mama 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 that 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 says, accept 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 a man be born
of water and of 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 him. 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 so they drew their first breath. We wouldn't have them go through
any difficulty. And mommas and daddies put pressure
on kids and put pressure on preachers and put pressure on Sunday school
teachers. Gotta get them safe, gotta get them safe, gotta get
them safe. 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 papists 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 the 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 got to know something. You
got to know something. You got to know something by
divine teaching. You 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 justify yourself or you go to hell. That's
just facts. Read the book. Folks were standing
in the last days, they said 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. Just sin.
And until God shows you that, you'll bite nails and spit them
at me for telling you. You will not bow to it. 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 it's done. The convicting work
of the Holy Spirit is not somebody who has the Holy Spirit convicting
me of dancing, convicting 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 16a, 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 judged. Now this is what he 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 seeing, you
don't believe that do you? Bless your heart, 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 men. I was thinking this morning
while I shot in my shoes about that command of our Lord that
if a man has two coats and his brother has none, give your brother
whatever. For 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 our turn. We 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, convicts 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 is a person saved? I'll
tell you when. Look in Romans chapter 10. Romans
10 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 in 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 says, 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, I so wish
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 rites of His Son! God made Him Lord! And you're going to confess Him
from the depth 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. Big as a bunch of nonsense in
this world, but you know, that's the way the world is, 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 loseth his life for my
sake, you'll find it. Oh, God helped you now to lose
your 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 does the person say? 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 along fine without Christ. You don't need mercy,
you don't need grace, don't want it. If you ever get hungry, you
leave. Just 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 needed healing anybody need healing? anybody here need forgiveness?
anybody need mercy? anybody needs for God to do what
you cannot do than for you. This is the day of salvation. Amen.