Do You Really Want to be Saved?

We who are persuaded and convinced
beyond a shadow of a doubt that salvation is of the Lord, that it is the gift of His grace,
that it is a miracle performed by the Holy Spirit in the heart
of the sinner, we also believe that we preach for decisions Paul said, I persuade men, I
beseech you by the mercies of God that you so forth. And when
he was standing before King Agrippa, he said, King Agrippa, do you
believe the prophets? I want an answer. Do you believe? We're confronting men with the
message of Jehovah, the living God. And we expect an answer. We expect it to be received.
Paul said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of acceptation
by all men. And what I'm asking this morning
is this. Now let's quit playing. Let's get down to business. Do
you really want to be saved? Do you really want to be saved
from sin's penalty? from sin's power, from sin's
practice, from sin's presence, do you really, do you really
honestly want to be saved from sin? Do you really want to know
God, the living God? Do you really want to know God?
Do you want to love Him? Do you want to live for the glory
of His Son? Do you really want to or are
you playing games? You're just putting on a front.
You're just keeping your hand in, in case they shut the door
suddenly, huh? Are you just in this thing of
a relationship with God, you're just not too interested right
now in a total commitment, but you kind of want to keep your
foot in the door in case somebody shuts it, you know? You don't
want it shut all the way. So you'll stand without a knock
and say, open unto us. And he says, I've shut the door.
I've shut the door. You know, that's what I'm afraid
of in this day, Walter, that a great amount of what we call
church members and professing Christians aren't totally committed
to anything. To anything. They got their foot
in the door. They want to be saved, but not
all the way. They want to be acquainted with
God, but not walk with God. Do you want to walk with God
as Enoch walked with God? Do you want to know, like Paul
said, to know Christ and the power of his resurrected life,
the power of it, the peace of it, the joy of it, the rest of
it, the victory of it? Do you want really, like John,
to fellowship with God? He talked about our fellowship. He is not with the world. its
peoples and its possessions. Our fellowship is with the Father
and with the Son. We've got an intimate, personal
relationship. Is that what you want? Do you
really want, like David, to praise the Lord? The sweet psalmist,
there wasn't nothing sweet about David personally by nature. But it was the sweetness of the
presence of his God. That's what made him the sweet
psalmist. It was the presence of another.
Do you really want, like Moses, to see his glory? Moses wasn't
satisfied with the splitting of a sea. He wasn't satisfied
with viewing the plagues. He wasn't satisfied with the
overthrow of Pharaoh's army. He wasn't satisfied with the
quail and the fallen manna. He wasn't satisfied with the
broken rock and the rippling water. He wanted to see God's
glory. God's glory. Well, No use going
any further unless somebody says yes. No use going any further
because God's not going to do business with a wavering heart.
He said, If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth
wisdom to all men, and upbraideth not, and giveth liberty liberally.
But let him ask in faith, not wavering. He that wavereth is
like the sea that's tossed about, and let not that man, Think that
he shall receive anything from God. So this better be established,
this thing what we're talking about this morning. Do you really
want to be saved? Do you really want to know the
Living God, walk with God like Him? Totally committed. Do you want to fellowship, John,
was satisfied with leaning his head on his Lord's chest. But don't, if you're not decided,
just leave it alone. Don't fool with it. See if you
can't cut my voice off, because you're going to be held responsible
for what you hear. You might be wise if you just
left. Because he that increases knowledge
increases sorrow. If you're wavering, here's another
thing, God will not do business with a divided heart either.
No man, Christ said, can serve two masters. And no way that
you can serve God and mammon. You can't have God and riches.
That's what he said. Know about it. If you're not
for me, Christ said, you're against me. If you're not sold out to
my glory, then you're sold out. You don't land on the shores
of glory without burning your bridges, with no intention of
going back. If they had been mindful, he
said, talking about Abraham, if he had been mindful of the
country he came out of, he could have gone back. That is, if he
had considered it, and remembered it, and wanted to go back, and
if he'd been home safe, he could have gone back. He'd been home
safe. But when you come to Christ,
you are home. You are home. And God will not do business,
what's this, with a wavering heart, nor with a divided heart,
nor with an insincere heart. And this troubles me. I long
for sincerity. I look for sincerity. Because
our Lord said, You shall seek me and find me when you search
for me with all your heart. God's not going
to do business with an insincere heart. I like the word of that
man I read about years ago. He said, I am a sinner. I'm a
guilty, lost sinner. I want to know the living God.
Desperately, sincerely, I want to know the living God. I know
that there is salvation to be found because God's merciful.
God is just, but God is love. God is righteous, but God is
merciful. And there's mercy to be found.
There's salvation. And it's revealed in this book,
he said. It's somewhere in this book. And I'm going to take this
book, and I'm going to search this book till I find it. Now
God said, you'll seek me, and you'll find me when you search
for me with that attitude, with all your heart. It's here. And
I'm going to find it. I'm going to find it. And he's
right. I am a sinner. You are a sinner. No question
about that. We needn't debate that at all.
Guilty. One's just guilty as the other.
There's no great sinners and small sinners. They're just sinners.
And no bad sinners and good sinners. They're just sinners. Guilty. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. We're not considered by degrees
of sinfulness. We're just flat sons of Adam. And God is merciful. God is love. God delights to show mercy. He
takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. The man who portrays
the living God as one who takes delight in sending men to hell
doesn't know the living God. Our Lord said, He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father. Well, look at Him. Oh, Jerusalem,
how oft would I gathered you unto myself, as a hen doth gather
her brood." My Father forgave them. They know not what they
do. He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. God delights to show mercy. Well, why shouldn't He
show mercy to me? Why shouldn't I be an object
of His mercy? Why should I be an object of
God's wrath? God delights to show mercy. And
that mercy and salvation is here somewhere. It's here in this
book. Because he says, faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. He hath begotten
us again unto a living hope by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. We're born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible seed, the Word of God. It's here. Here's
where it is. You're not going to sit down
and close your eyes and meditate and find God. You're going to
find him in the book. He's revealed in his work. No
use you getting on a boat or a plane going to the Holy Land.
Nothing holy about that land. More holy down in the Yucatan
than it is over yonder. You'd find God a whole lot quicker
if you went down to the Yucatan because Walter's preaching Christ
down there. There ain't nobody over in the
Holy Land preaching Christ. They're going around looking
at statues and idols and caves and mountains and places where
God did walk. I want to meet the living God,
not a dead God. I don't want to see where He
used to walk. I want to be where He's walking
now, don't you? That's the biggest waste of time.
These preachers are profiteering. by these poor simple-minded folks
that are following them over to the Holy Land at a hundred
dollars a head. That's what they get. Do you want to know the living
God? Well, let's look at this. It says here in Romans 10. It
says, plain as day, whosoever, verse 13, Romans 10, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved shall be
saved I see five or six things let me give it to you briefly
make it easy to understand I see first of all a wide wide word
whosoever whosoever that's a wide word I'm told I don't know anything
about wills but I'm told that if a man makes out a will And
he wants to leave everything, everything to his wife. He better just say so. For if he goes into detail, I leave my wife this, I leave
her that, I leave her the other. First of all, he's going to leave
something out, and secondly, he's going to write in a loophole
some shrewd lawyer will twist around and she won't get everything.
The thing for him to do is just say it. Everything is hurt. Now in this will of God, in this
last will and testament of the living God, it's very distinct. God doesn't identify individuals. He doesn't identify personalities. He doesn't say, if the awakened
sinner shall call on the name of the Lord. If the convicted
sinner shall call on the name of the Lord. If the Jew and the
Gentile shall call on the name of the Lord. If the troubled
heart shall call on the name of the Lord. God doesn't identify
nationalities, personalities, individuals. He just uses this
word. Whosoever. Whosoever. That's better. That's better
than if he had written my own name. Suppose he'd have said,
suppose you read it this way this morning, if Walter Gruber
shall call on the name of the Lord, he shall be saved. You
say, boy, that'd make Walter feel good. I don't know, might
be another Walter Gruber. Now, there's a lot of folks lived
on this earth in the past 6,000 years. And there's a whole lot
more who are going to live here in the next however long God
is pleased to let it last. That wouldn't give him any...
But this right here now, Walter is a who? He's a who? So he can look right there and
say, whosoever. If that said Henry Mahan, my
granddaddy's name Henry Mahan. I meant my granddaddy. That might
mean, I wouldn't get any comfort at all if it just said, Henry
Mahan shall call on the name. The Lord said whosoever, Jew
or Gentile, Baptist or whatever, rich or poor, black or white,
learned or ignorant, whoever, whosoever, your call on the name of the
Lord. Find me a man of position and power and influence, and
I'll tell him, this includes you right here. Go down there
in the Yucatan water and find me the poorest, most backward,
illiterate, uneducated, idol-worshipping Catholic who bows down before
the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe or anybody else, and I'll say
that includes him too. Whosoever. Whosoever. Whosoever. That's the word. It's
a wide word. Wide, somebody said, as the ocean. Deep, as the deepest sea. High,
as the highest mountain. Whosoever. You can't go anywhere
without finding a whosoever. All right, here's another word. It's an easy word. Look at the
next word. Whosoever shall call. Call. Now listen to me. You want to
be saved? You? Well, God included you there.
You're a whosoever. And he says, call, call. Now
that's an easy word. Anybody can call. You've heard
such a call. Help! Help! Anybody can call. Gets in trouble. Old Peter stepped out of the
boat, you know, and started walking on the water. And he became conscious
of the wind and the waves and so forth, and he began to sink.
And he called, Lord, save me. or our parish. Anybody can call. It doesn't
say work, serve, do, follow ceremonies. It says call. Call. Now, you know that you can call
without speaking? You say, well, Preacher, what
if a man is deaf and dumb? He can call. He can call. You ever see somebody just mutely
reach out? A little baby, one year old,
who's walking. I saw two little girls. Here's
the illustration. I saw three little girls. I was
coming out of my driveway and up the hill and down Blackburn
yesterday. It was hot. That street, that pavement was
hot. Those sidewalks were hot. You
could have fried an egg. And these three little girls,
barefooted, were walking down Blackwood Avenue towards the
Ashton Oil Station, and the little one was just dancing. Her little
feet were burning up. And I saw when she hit that blacktop
at the Ashton Oil Station, I was coasting there waiting on the
light. It got too hot, and her older sister was next to her.
She didn't say a word. She just reached up her hands. And her
sister reached down and Cecil picked her up. She wanted help.
She needed some relief, and she didn't say anything. She just
reached up her hand like this, had that sad look on her face
and held her hands up, and somebody came to her rescue. That's calling. And I'll tell you this, you can
call without reaching up your hand. I bested a man one time
that was paralyzed, arms and legs, lying in the bed. And when he needed something,
he turned his eyes and looked. His wife or someone who's taking
care of him, he'd lie there in the bed, he'd just move his eyes.
He'd move his eyes. And they could tell by the expression
on his face and the distressed look in his eyes that he needed
some help. And that's what Isaiah wrote,
look unto me and be ye saved. I am the Lord. Those people who
were bitten by the fiery serpents and lying around perishing, the
Israelites, Moses didn't say they had to run to the brazen
serpent or reach out to the brazen serpent or call to the brazen
serpent. That would have been idolatry. Look, he said. Whosoever shall call," that's
an easy word, isn't it? You can call without speaking,
just by reaching. You can call without reaching,
just by looking. And you can call without looking
if you're stone blind. How, preacher? By your thoughts.
That's the glory of the Lord, that our living God looketh on
the heart. He looketh on the heart. Bodily
exercise profit is little but if a man can think true convictions
heartwork True repentance is heartwork True consciousness
of sin is heartwork true faith in Christ is heartwork I'll tell you a man can kneel
down here Dressed in a white robe with folded hands and and
a sad religious expression on his face and a white collar around
his neck with an open Bible before him and a candle on each side
and a palm branch across it and he can say the most beautiful
words and be as dead and as rotten and as devilish as anything out
of hell and this old boy over here shoveling in the ditch digging
a footer with a sweat streaming down his back, and a hard hat
on his head, and brogand shoes on his feet, and the love of
Christ in his heart, and a brokenness because of sin in his soul. He'd
lift his spirit to the living God and be heard, because God
looks not on the outward countenance, but on the heart. You see what
I'm saying? Whosoever shall call, that's
call out of distress, that's call out of a broken heart, that's
call out of sincerity, that's call out of need, that's call
out of a true faith. Call! Not go through the motions
of some silly religious exercise. That's what we're getting into
in this day that's so nauseating and so pathetic and makes me
so unhappy. Watch people play church. Like a bunch of children, you
know, playing doctor, playing some other game, cops and robbers.
You don't impress God with your burning candles, and your uniforms,
and your robes, and your stained glass windows, and your majestic
temples, and all of your chanting, and ritualism, and all of your
creeds. God Almighty looketh on the broken
heart, and saveth such, and saveth such. Find me a Magdalena, I'd
like to tell her about the Lord. Find me a Zacchaeus, I'd like
to tell him the good news, Christ died for him. Here's a majestic word, watch
it now. Whosoever shall call on the name,
on the name, on the name of the Lord. You need a camp here for
a spell. A man can miss salvation if he
calls on the wrong Lord, the wrong name. There's another Jesus
being preached. Turn to 2 Corinthians 11. Let
me show you that in God's Word. There's another Jesus being preached.
He's the Antichrist. He can't save. He goes by the
same name. He claims the same power. Talks
about the same kind of death, but he can't save. There's another
Jesus. Paul said, it's the devil that's
doing it, 2 Corinthians 11.3, I fear, lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. For if he that
cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, and
you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another
gospel, which you've not accepted, you might well bear with me,
is the translation that's accurate. Another Jesus. Another Jesus. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Whosoever shall
call on the name, on the name, on the name of the Lord. Turn to Matthew 1. I want to
show you something here. His name is Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew
1.1. Now remember this. You're going
to hear something right here that'll be important. You'll
never forget it. Turn to Matthew 1.1. You got it? Now hold your Bible there and
turn to Revelation 22.21. Just hold that page just like
this. Matthew 1.1. Revelation 22.21. That's the whole New Testament.
That's the whole New Covenant. Right there. Who's the first
person mentioned? Matthew 1.1, the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ. Alpha, the beginning. Revelation
22.21, who's the last name? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. He's the Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end
and all in between. That's the one you call on. That's
the one you call on. I am the author and the finisher
of your faith. His name is Jesus Christ. His
name is God. Listen. Isaiah said, unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given. His name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God. His name is God. Emmanuel, El is God. Emmanuel, God with us. God with us. His name is sovereign. Wherefore God hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name. You say,
is all this important to my salvation? You want to call on the right
name, don't you? You want to call on just any
Jesus? That's where these preachers are missing. Now remember, how
shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? Huh?
Well, let's just believe in Jesus. Jesus who? Now, we're going to
believe in this one they're portraying as the superstar who didn't know
who he was and where he came from and where he was going and
what he came to do. Is that? You'll miss it because
that's not the Lord. That's another Jesus. We're going
to believe in this poor little defeated, frustrated, sad-eyed,
Feminine type fella that's sitting up there in heaven crying his
eyes out because he came down here to save people They won't
let him save them. That's not the Lord. That's another
Jesus. He can't save you. He can't save
a flea He can't rid a dog of his fleas let alone us man of
his sins is that too crude, but that's so You're gonna have to know who
he is that how you gonna call He says who service your call
on the name of the Lord, not just any name, any Lord, the
name of the Lord. His name is Jesus Christ. He's
the Alpha and Omega. His name is the mighty God. His name is sovereign. God has
exalted Him and given Him a name above every name. Not like Ruth
Stapleton Carter. Ruth Carter Stapleton says God
was in Jesus like he was in Buddha. She's a fool. Jesus Christ is God. Buddha is
a counterfeit idol. It's time that we quit accepting
everything that goes under the name of religion and patting
people on the head and say, see you in heaven. His name is sovereign. His name
is sovereign. That at the name of Jesus, everything
will bow. not shake hands with Jesus, not
a mansion next door to Jesus, not tell Jesus I'm coming home,
not my friend Jesus, it's my Lord Jesus Christ. This fleshly familiarity with
a man named Jesus is not the Lord. That's so. The name of
Jesus Christ. He's sovereign. His name is Savior. Thou shalt call his name Jesus.
He shall save his people. He didn't come down here to try
anything. He came down here to do something. That's the Jesus
that Joseph named. That's the one he named Jesus.
The one who came down here on a mission. to give eternal life
to as many as the Father had given him, to pay for their sins,
to redeem them, to reconcile them to God. That's his name,
Savior. Not helper, Savior. Not assistant,
Savior. Not attempter, Savior. But is
his name immutable? He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. Whoever he was yesterday, he
is today. And whoever he is today, he always
will be. What is His name? His name is
our message. I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ. What is His name? His name is
our authority. In His name, repentance and remission
of sins is to be preached. What is His name? His name is
our power. If you ask anything in my name,
it shall be done. What is His name? His name is
our song of praise unto Him who loved us and washed us from our
sins. be everlasting glory. His name
is the name known in hell. The sons of Seba were accosted
by this demon, and the demon said, Jesus, I know, but you
I don't know, and jumped on him and beat him up. His is the name
known on earth. Peter stood by the gate called
Beautiful and said to the man lame from birth, In the name
of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk, and he walked. His is the
name written in heaven, known in heaven, for it says His name
shall be in their forehead. Now that's the one. Make no mistake
about it. Whosoever, black or white, I
got a group of black people over in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
eight black people, who've come to knowledge of sovereign grace,
and they're listening to the tapes, and I'm just thrilled
to death. Whosoever, black or white, rich
or poor, old or young, shall call, that's
pretty easy, but whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord,
on the name of the Lord. My friend, it's not just saying
a little prayer, having a little talk with Jesus. It's calling
on the name, I'd best find out who he is. And here's a sure
word, he shall be saved. No question about it. I love
the shalls of God's word. No if about it, no maybe, no
perhaps. He shall, he shall, God said. I can't lie, God said, he shall
be saved. You really want to be saved?
You really want to know God? Then you find out what that verse
means right there. Because that's God's Word. He
says that and He can't lie. He says whosoever. I don't care
who you are. I don't care what you've done.
It's not your sins that keep you from the Lord. He came to
save sinners. It's your righteousness. It's
your ignorance. It's your going about to establish
your own righteousness. You've not submitted yourself
to the righteousness of God. If you can find out what this
means, God said you shall be saved. I'll camp there. Here I'll raise mine Ebenezer.
Right here. Hither by thy help I am come,
here I rest my soul's salvation, here I cast my sins and sorrows,
here I stand," Martin Luther said. I can do no other. Whosoever shall call, and don't
you call with a wavering heart, with a divided heart, with an
insincere heart, God will send you to hell, but if you can come
to this place, Here's something here. That's so important a fourfold
caution. Look at the next verse verse
14. Now what is a fourfold caution? How shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed? I Believe he was God before the
foundation of this world. I Believe he created all things
by the word of his power I believe that he entered into an everlasting
covenant and determined to save some people. I believe that he
revealed himself by types and shadows and examples and ceremonies
and through the prophets. I believe that in the fullness
of time God sent his Son right down here into this world in
human flesh, born of a virgin. And I believe he was numbered
with the transgressors and walked this earth in human flesh and
he was tried and tested and tempted in all points as we are yet without
sin. He didn't only do no sin, he
knew no sin. I believe he went to the cross
of Calvary and there bearing my sins and my transgressions,
he endured the wrath of the Father and the wrath of earth and the
wrath of hell and he died alone. He went to hell in my place.
He was buried and rose again, and he ascended to the right
hand of God, and he sat down, not like the priest of old who
never sat down because they never finished their work, but having
finished his work, he sat down and he waited. God calls all
his sheep and finds all these whosoever's here that need help
and need mercy and need God and can't help themselves and want
to be saved and want to know God and want to sell out and
who want to be committed and who want Christ more than they
want anything. And when the Holy Spirit finds
them all and calls them, he's going to get up. And he's coming
back, Charlie, and he's coming back to receive them unto himself,
and to raise their bodies from the earth, and raise their bodies
from the sea, and bring together the atoms and the particles of
their bodies that have been cast to the wind, and they're going
to stand up, just like Ezekiel's mighty army, and then they're
going back to glory with their Lord. They're going to recognize him
because he was the one they called on. They said to Fannie Crosby,
they said, Fannie, you're blind, you've always been blind. You
say you're going to heaven. How are you going to know the
Lord when you see him? I shall know him. I shall know
him by the print of the nails in his hand. I shall know him. I shall know him. They're not
going to call on him in whom they've not believed. They're
not going to believe unless they hear. That's the reason Walter has
to go down there and preach. God's got some sheep down there
and they've got to hear. They ain't got to hear some silly
little old devotion given by some silly little religious person.
They're going to have to hear about who Christ is. They're
going to have to hear somebody come down there and tell them,
just like I tell you, who is Jesus Christ. What did he do? Why did he do it? In order that
God might be just and justify the ungodly. That's why he came.
They're going to have to hear who he is. And they're not going
to hear without a preacher. Now look at verse 15. And how
shall they preach except they be sinned? You don't volunteer
for this job you're sent. God has to give you the grace,
and God has to give you the message, and God has to give you the power,
or we labor in vain. My friend, if you really want
to be saved, ask God to send you a message
from a faithful servant, who Christ is. and to give you eyes
to see and ears to hear. What a blessing! Our Father,
for this promise that we believe, for this purpose of mercy and
grace in Christ Jesus, and for this blessed gospel of free grace,
and for our Lord who loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood, From our hearts sincerely, in adoration, reverence
and fear and praise, we give thee thanks. Lord, we're committed,
you know our hearts. To whom shall we go? Thou hast
the words of life. Sink or swim, we look to him.
Christ is our all. We are thine. Reveal Thyself to us more each
day, that we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ.
Use this message for whatever it pleases you. For Christ's
sake we pray, Amen.

Do You Really Want to be Saved?

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Do You Really Want to be Saved?

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