Now, before I try to present
the answer to the question that I've asked in my topic, how much
must a man know in order to be saved, I must make clear three
things. Now, this is very important to
the message. There are three things that I
must make clear before I try to answer that question, the
first of which is this. All true believers, all saved
people, children of God, do not have the same degree of knowledge
and spiritual growth. Now turn with me to 1 John, chapter
2. What I'm saying is this, that
every true child of God, every true believer, all true believers,
do not have the same degree of spiritual growth and knowledge. In 1 John 2, verse 13, John writes
to three groups of people. He says, I write unto you fathers,
and that's not talking about men who have children, that's
talking to mature believers. elders, ministers, deacons, people
who have grown in grace, people who have been saved for many
years and who have manifested a spiritual growth. They're fathers
in the gospel. Because you have known him that
is from the beginning. I write unto you young men. That's
young women too. That's those who are in the middle
years of Christian experience and Christian growth. And because
you have overcome the wicked one, I write unto you, little
children, because you have known the Father." Now there are babes
in Christ, there are infants in Christ, there are young men
and young women in Christ, and there are mature believers. There
are those who have grown in grace, and they are spiritual leaders. We're born into God's family
as babes. The Apostle Peter wrote to the
church and said this, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk
of the word that you may grow thereby. We're born into the
family of God as babes and we grow in faith, we grow in knowledge,
we grow in wisdom, just like a child grows naturally. And
an infant does not have to know all that you know about life
to have life, and even so, a child of God does not have to be a
theologian to be saved. I had a pastor write to me a
few weeks ago. The pastor is a small group of
people, and he said most of his people had been together a long
time, most of them were mature believers, most of them knew
a great deal about the Bible. And when a visitor would come
to the church, they'd gather around him and they'd talk to
him and ask him questions about what he believed. And many times
the visitor wouldn't come back because he was discouraged. He
didn't know as much as these men and these women, and therefore
he felt perhaps he wouldn't be welcome in their group because
he wasn't as wise as they thought that they were. But all true
believers do not have the same degree of knowledge. Right here
in this congregation, they're babes in Christ. They're new
believers. They're those who are young men
and young women in Christ, and they're those here who have been
in the Savior a long time. They know something about the
doctrines. They are, you might say, theologians. They have grown
in grace and grown in the knowledge of Christ. The second thing that
I must make clear before I answer the question that I've asked
in the topic. And that is that the Bible presents
salvation in three tenses. The Bible presents salvation
in this manner. We have been saved. We are being
saved. And our salvation is nearer now
than when we believe. In other words, we're not finally
and completely saved yet. Now in 2 Corinthians chapter
1, the Apostle Paul illustrates that in this way. 2 Corinthians
chapter 1, verse 10. Paul, speaking of his deliverance,
his deliverance from danger and from death, he says in 2 Corinthians
1.10, God delivered us from so great a death, and he doth deliver,
daily he delivereth. in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us." In other words, if you ask me, Brother Mann,
when were you saved? When were you saved? Well, I
would say this, in the Bible sense of the word salvation,
redemption, I was saved back before the foundations of this
world. In other words, when Christ at
the judgment said this, he said to those on the right hand, Enter
ye, blessed, into the kingdom prepared for you before the foundations
of the world. That kingdom was prepared for
you before the world's foundations were ever laid. Christ Jesus,
now listen to me, Christ Jesus is the Lamb slain before the
foundations of the world. Now if he is the Lamb slain in
the purpose of God, in the plan of God, in the mind of God before
the world began, then those for whom he was slain were in him
in the mind and purpose and plan of God. I was chosen in Christ
before the foundations of the world. That's what the scripture
says. I was in Christ. I was in the covenant of grace.
And the book of Revelation talks about the book of life being
written before the world began. And then, you ask me when was
I saved? I'll go back to Calvary, and
I'll say when Jesus Christ came into the world, when He walked
on this earth, I was in Him. He obeyed the law for me. He
went to the cross and took my sins, and He died for my sins
on Calvary's cross. And when He died, my sins were
paid for, and I was saved then in the purpose of God, in The
law was honored in my behalf, and the justice of God was satisfied
in my behalf when Christ died on the cross. It's Christ that
saves. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. So if you ask me when was I saved,
I was saved when Christ died for my sins. The justice of God
was satisfied. The law of God was honored when
Christ fulfilled it. You ask me when was I saved?
Well, it was a day years ago. when God awakened me by His Holy
Spirit and brought me to see myself a sinner and to look to
Christ as my Savior and to trust in Him and to believe on Him.
I was saved then by faith. I was saved by faith. I was justified
that day when I trusted Christ, when I believed on Him. But I
am being saved. God is delivering me day by day
because I'm in constant danger. Sin is around me, sin is about
me, sin is in me. And Christ right now is interceding
for me at the right hand of God. So I'm being saved, but yet I'm
not saved yet. I'm not yet like Christ. And
the Word of God says that God hath predestinated all of his
people to be like Christ. And when he comes again, we're
going to see him and be like him. I don't want to spend eternity
in a body that is frail and sinful and weak and liable to death,
do you? So one of these days when the
grave opens and God resurrects my body and I stand completely
in the image of Christ, you say, Brother Mann, when will you save?
I say, right now. I'm finally saved. I'm just like
Christ. That object, that goal which
God set in the covenant of grace for me to be like Christ and
for you to be like Christ has finally been realized, and now
I can say it's all over. I'm saved. Now I'll show you
that if you'll turn with me to three verses of Scripture. First
of all, in the book of Ephesians. Now, I realize that everybody
here has King James Bibles, almost everybody here. Some of you may
have a amplified or Berkeley or some other translation, and
you have to be careful of Bible translations. They're not all
good. The King James is, I think, all in all the best, but others
can be used for study Bibles. But here in Ephesians 2, verse
8, the King James Bible reads this way, for by grace are you
saved through faith. Now everybody here who has made
a study of God's word and who has another translation knows
that that's translated this way. This is what that verse is saying.
For by grace have you been saved through faith. That's the way
it should read. You have been saved. For by grace have you
been saved. And then over in 1 Corinthians
1.18, Paul writes these words. He says he writes to those or
preaching the cross is to those who are perishing. 1 Corinthians
1.18, the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing,
foolishness, but unto us who are being saved. It's the power
of God. We're being saved day by day. And then in Romans 13.11, the
scripture says, Now is our salvation nearer. than when we believe. That's Romans 13, 11. Paul says
it, knowing, and that knowing the time, that now it is high
time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than
when we believe. So the Bible presents salvation
in three tenses. It is perfectly true that we
have been saved. Nothing needs to be added to
the work of Christ Nothing needs to be added to the redemption
which he wrought for us in his blood. We have been saved, but
we are being saved. Something needs to take place
in here. The enmity has been put away
by the death of Christ, but in me the enmity must be put away
by the Holy Spirit. And something yet needs to be
done for me. I've got to get a new body. I've
got to lay aside the old nature, the wretched man, the body of
sin, the body of death. that I might be just like Christ.
I have been, I am being saved, I shall be saved. But now listen,
this does not mean that the work of salvation can be interrupted.
Now let me quote some verses, we don't have time to turn to
all of them, but in Philippians 1.6 Paul writes, he that hath
begun a good work in you shall perform it, he shall perfect
it, he shall complete it in the day of Christ Jesus. If God started
out to save you, you will be saved, finally and completely. There's not going to be, if God
started out to save you and Christ died for you and the Holy Spirit
called you, there's not going to be a time out here in the
future when that work will be given up, forgotten, deserted. He's going to perform that work.
Christ said, All that my Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I'll never cast him out. I'll in no wise
cast him out. Romans 8, 38 says, Nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
Neither height, nor depth, nor length, nor breadth, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other
creature can separate me from God's love. And God says, I am
the same, I change not. The gifts and calling of God
are without change. What God starts, God finishes.
Now here's the third statement. All believers do not have the
same experience. The Bible does not tell us to
seek an experience. It tells us to seek the Lord.
And if you'll go sometime in your private study to the book
of Acts, chapter 16, you'll see three people converted there,
all of them converted in a different way. There was Lydia. She was
evidently a polished, a woman who was a businesswoman, a seller
of purple. She was a quiet type woman. She
was a woman who gave herself to the study of the Scriptures
as she knew it. She'd gone down to the riverside
to worship with a handful of people. In those days you had
to have so many to have a synagogue, and they didn't have that many,
and so they worshiped by the riverside. And she went down
there to worship one Sabbath day, and Paul was down there
preaching. And she heard Paul preach this
gospel that I try to preach, and the scripture says God opened
her heart, and she listened to Paul, and she received Christ.
And she was converted, and she was baptized, she confessed Christ.
But in that same chapter, there was a young woman who was filled
with demons. She was sort of a fortune teller.
She put on a show for these people, and there were fellows that made
a living just off of her and her showmanship and her her ability
to so-called foretell the future. She was demon-possessed, and
she followed Paul and Silas, and she made all kind of demonstrations,
and Paul one day was upset by her interruptions, and he turned
and cast the demons out of her. And she waddled around on the
ground and just made an awful scene, and yet Lydia wasn't brought
to Christ that way. And then Paul was put in jail.
These fellows that owned this young woman, they had Paul thrown
in jail because they'd lost their livelihood. And while he was
in jail, God sent an earthquake and shook the prison, tore the
hinges off the door. And the Philippian jailer, who
was sitting outside the cell door sound asleep, was awakened
by the earthquake. And he came in and fell on his
face in front of Paul and said, What must I do to be saved? And
Paul sat down. and taught him the word of God.
He told him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he
taught him the scriptures, and that man was converted. So there
you have a woman whose heart was opened quietly and effortless
as far as men are concerned by the Holy Spirit. You have a demon-possessed
girl, and you have God turning a jail upside down to bring one
of his people to faith. Look at Peter and Paul. Now Paul,
the apostle Saul of Tarsus was converted, and it was a miraculous
conversion. It was an unusual conversion.
He was on his way to kill some Christians and to put them in
jail because he hated the name of Christ. He hated the gospel
of substitution. And God caused a great light
to shine from heaven and smote Saul of Tarsus and cast him down
in the dust on his face, and he came up blind. And Christ
revealed Himself to him, and from that time Saul went down
to Arabia and stayed over three years studying the gospel. God
taught him the gospel. And he came back and started
preaching the gospel, and God used him to write fourteen books
of the New Testament. He was an unwavering, uncompromising,
bold and gallant servant of Christ from that time till his death. But not so Peter. The Lord Jesus
called Peter to faith in Him. And Peter, for years and years
and years, he'd owned a mountain one day, and he was down in a
cave the next day. He was in the mountain of joy,
and he was an impulsive man. And the next time you met him,
he was all down and out, you know. And you can just go through
his experience. After three and a half years
with Christ, hearing the Master teach about if a man smoked on
one cheek, turned the other, Hearing the Lord teach the second
mile, hearing the Lord tell how His kingdom was not of this world,
when they were standing in that garden, and the soldiers came
to arrest the Master, what did Peter do? He didn't pray. He didn't call on the help of
the Heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit. He drew his sword. He
was going to fight. And I'll guarantee you, he wasn't
aiming at that fellow's ear when he cut his ear off. He was aiming
at his throat. And that fellow just moved his
head the right way, and Peter cut his hair off, but he was
ready to fight to establish the kingdom of Christ, even after
three and a half years. And after being with the Master
all that time, the Lord told how that all the disciples would
be offended, and Peter said, I won't. Why, he said, these
other fellows may desert you, but I won't, I'll die with you.
He was the only one who publicly denied that he knew the Savior.
And then, after the Master had been crucified and buried, and
the disciples were meeting up in the upper room, Peter came
up there where they were. Well, they had made their living
fishing all these years, and that's all they knew. And when
Christ called them, they entered the ministry, and they quit fishing.
Peter came up there where they were, and he said, I'm quitting
the ministry. I'm going back to fishing. And they said, wait
and we'll go with you. So they all quit the ministry,
Father and Peter, and went out and went back to fishing. And
while they were out there fishing, the Lord appeared to them and
called them in. And they sat down around the
fire, and he went to the one who started the whole thing,
and he said, Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? And Peter said, Lord, you know
all things. You know I love you. He said,
then you feed my sheep. But first he said, Peter, do
you love me more than these, more than these nets, more than
these boats, more than these lakes, more than these luxuries,
these things of the world? Do you love me more than these
things? Peter said, you know I love you. He said, well, you
get back to preaching. You feed my sheep. Well, it was
after that that the Lord had to come to Peter and show him
that he was to go to the Gentiles. Why, he wasn't going to preach
to the Gentiles. They were Gentile dogs. He was
a Jew, and he was not going to minister to them. And the Lord
Jesus sent a miracle down from heaven and showed him how that
what the Lord called clean, Peter was not to call unclean. And
so he went down and preached to the Gentiles. Even after that,
The Apostle Paul had to back Peter against the wall one day
and withstand him to the face in front of a whole church because
Peter had dissimulated with a bunch of Jews that had come down from
Jerusalem. They'd come down from Jerusalem, and they said, Peter,
what are you doing eating with these Gentiles? He said, well,
I said, I shouldn't be doing that. And so he left these Gentile
Christians and went over with these Jews. And Paul came over
there to him and said, you're wrong, Peter, you're dead wrong.
Get back over there with those Gentile Christians where you
belong. Why, they're just as much believers as these of the
circumcision, and you're wrong. Now tell me when Peter was saved.
I just do not know, but I can find no scripture that requires
a man to be able to give a day and an hour when he was saved.
But I can find plenty of scripture that requires a man to believe
Christ now and to trust Christ now. Now, I don't want to follow
the Apostle Peter, and I don't want to have these experiences
that he had. I'd rather be like Paul. But
I cannot say, well, Paul knew the Lord and Peter didn't. Peter
did know the Lord. Now let me tell you this. There's
one thing we must always, in talking about experiences of
other people, we can emulate and imitate Peter in his denials. And we can imitate Peter in his
impulsiveness. And we can imitate Peter in his
dissimulations. And we can imitate Peter and
these other things, but can we imitate him in this? When he
was sitting down there face to face with the Master, that man
with all of the candidness of a child said, Lord, You know
I love You. You know all things. You know
I love You. Now brethren, there's where the
difference is. Just like David, we can imitate
David in his fall, but can we imitate David in his praising
of the Lord? When he said, Lord, with all
my heart I love thee, I love thy law, I love thy word, I love
thy truth. Can we imitate that? The Apostle Peter knew the Lord.
Now, when he came to know him, I don't know, but he knew him.
And he could sit face to face with the Lord of Glory, and he
could say, Lord, you know all things, and one thing you know,
I love you. I love you. All right, now the
Scripture plainly tells us these three things, and I've gone too
long on them, but they're important. All believers do not have the
same degree of knowledge or growth, and all believers do not have
the same experience. And all believers have to admit
and confess this, we are being saved. I am being saved. And he that endures to the end,
the same shall be saved. And a man, John, said, they went
out from us, and it just proved they never were of us. Now here
are four things, though, that are true of every person whom
God saved. Over here in that That portion
of scripture I read a little while ago about the man who was
born blind, whom Christ healed. I want to point out four things
I believe every sinner must know in order to be saved. This is
true of every sinner who is saved. First of all, this man said this
in John 9, verse 25. He said, One thing I know, one
thing I know. I was blind, and now I see. That's one thing I know, I was
blind. One thing I know, one thing I know, and we've got to
start at the right place. We've got to have a good beginning.
I'm a sinner. Scripture says Christ came into
the world to save sinners. The Scripture says the Son of
Man has come to seek and to save the lost. The scripture says
God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
9, Matthew the ninth chapter. In verse 11 of Matthew 9, verse
11, Matthew 9, verse 11, And when the Pharisees saw it, they
said to his disciples, Why eateth your master with publicans and
sinners? When Jesus heard that, he said
to them, they that be whole, they that be well, do not need
a doctor. But they that are sick, you go
and learn what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous,
I'm come to call sinners to repentance. The Lord Jesus came into this
world to save sinners. And a work of judgment always
accompanies a work of grace. A man never is a partaker of
grace who has not been an object of judgment. Now listen to these
scriptures. Come, let us reason together,
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.
Where did we start? We didn't start with the cleansing,
we started with the guilt. We didn't start with the remedy,
we started with the disease. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Listen to this. Whoso covereth
his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh
his sins shall find mercy. Listen to this. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Every person in the Bible who
came to Christ came to Him as a sinner. And every person in
the Bible who refused Christ refused Him as one who was not
a sinner and needed no salvation, but who was righteous. Let me
show you that. Down in the temple that day were
two men. One of them was a Pharisee, and
he prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you I'm not like
other men. I tithe, I fast, I give alms,
I'm not like this publican. But the publican would not so
much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breast and
said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And Christ said the
sinner went home justified rather than the other. This man received
Christ as a sinner. This man tried to approach Him
as a righteous man. Two themes on the cross. One
of them, on one side of the Master, kept cursing Him and saying,
if you're the Son of God, save yourself and us. The other one
said, do you not fear God, seeing we're in the same condemnation
and we're getting what we deserve? And he turned to Christ and he
said, Lord, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
All who refused Christ refused him as righteous. We be not sinners,
said the Pharisees. And Christ said, well, I didn't
come to call the righteous, I came to call sinners. Sinners. So this I know, the first thing
that a man must know if he's saved, he must know he's a sinner. He must know that. Look at verse
32. In verse 32, this young man who
was blind and who was healed had this much wisdom. He says,
Since the world began, was it not heard, or was it ever heard,
that a man opened the eyes of one that was born blind? The
blind man knew there was no power on earth who could give sight
to a blind man. This young man knew that no earthly
power could make him whole, that the power that delivered him
was from above. Even so, there is no earthly
power that can give spiritual light to blind sinners. There's
no earthly power that can give spiritual life to dead sinners.
There's no earthly power that can give pardon to guilty sinners. There's no earthly power that
can give freedom to captive sinners. The ceremonial law couldn't do
it. Paul, writing in Hebrews, said, it's not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats can put away sins. The moral
law can't do it. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy hath he saved us.
By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. Church
ordinances couldn't do it. Judas was numbered with the twelve.
Simon Magus was baptized. Paul said, God sent me not to
baptize, but to preach the gospel. The man whom God saves knows
he's a sinner, and he knows the second thing, that he, nor the
preacher, nor the church, nor the law, nor the tradition, nor
the ordinances, nor the sacraments, nor any earthly power can make
him whole. He knows that. Now, David Brainerd
was perhaps one of the greatest preachers that America has ever
known, one of the greatest Christians. He died before he was thirty
years old, but in that short time he left a powerful impact
upon the Church and upon this nation. He was a missionary to
the Indians up in New York State and in the state of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Edwards said, any system of theology that produces a David
Brainerd would bear looking into. David Brainerd died in the home
of Jonathan Edwards, witnessing a great confession. But David
Brainerd said this, four things he faced. which made him angry. Four things before he was converted,
before he came to know Christ, four things he faced that made
him angry. One of them was this, God demanded
perfect obedience to his holy law. Second, and he couldn't,
David Brainerd said, I couldn't produce it. Secondly, God demanded
faith, perfect faith, and he couldn't produce it. Thirdly,
he saw that God could give faith or withhold it, that faith was
the gift of God. And fourthly, David Brainerd
said, I saw this, Almighty God could save me or leave me, pass
me by and leave me in my sins. And he said, those four things
angered me. But the more I faced them, the
more I realized they were true, and I cast myself as an empty
sinner, as a hopeless sinner, as a helpless sinner at the feet
of Christ, and I cried, God, I can't meet your law. I can't
produce that faith. That faith is your gift. I beg
of thee, I cry unto thee, I ask of thee, give me that faith.
And he said, God gave it to me. Now the third thing that all
men know, They know they're sinners. Secondly, they know as sinners
they cannot meet God's law. They know as sinners they cannot
have that faith that God requires. They know as sinners they cannot
put away their transgression. The third thing that all men
know, they know that Christ is sufficient. Look at verse 33.
This blind man said, if this man This man who made me whole,
this man who gave me sight. If this man were not of God,
if he were not of God, he couldn't do it. He couldn't do it. If he were not of God, he couldn't
do it. Now brethren, over in 1 Samuel
2, verse 25, there's a scripture that reads like this. If a man
sin against a man, the judge shall mediate between them, shall
make amends. But, here's the question, if
a man sin against God, who shall stand for him? Now that's the
question. If a man sin against God, who
will stand for him? Now, Brother Fitz and I have
a difference. We go to the judge. We go to
a mediator, if that difference can't be resolved between us,
and that judge will decide. But now my sins are against God.
Who's going to stand in front of me? Well, we've got to have,
first of all, one who is appointed of God. One who is appointed. Just anybody can't do that. It
has to be one who is appointed. The great priests in the Old
Testament, they took not upon themselves to be priests, God
appointed them. God chose Ava and God chose the
sons of Levi, and God chose Christ to be our mediator. Secondly,
the one who stands for us must be the incarnate one, the one
who was made flesh, the God-man. He took on himself not the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He was numbered with the transgressors.
He was made like his brethren. Thirdly, the one who stands for
us must be perfect. In him was no sin. Tested in
all points as we are, yet without sin. Fourthly, the one who stands
for us must have something to present. That is, the crucified
one. He satisfied the law. He has
a perfect righteousness to present in our behalf. He has a perfect
atonement. The justice of God was satisfied.
who shall stand for us, the risen interceding one." Paul said,
who is he that condemns? Christ died, is risen, is seated
at the right hand of God, whoever liveth to make intercession for
us. Jesus Christ is made to me, all
I need. He alone is all my plea. He's
all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, power,
holiness forevermore, my redemption full and sure, He's all I need. He's all I need. He is of God. That's what it says here. If
this man were not of God, the appointed one, the perfect one,
the incarnate one, the crucified one, the risen one, the interceding
one, the coming one, He is sufficient. He is sufficient, and every believer
knows that. Now, last of all, verse 38. Every
man who is saved, he knows he's a sinner. He knows his inability. He cannot atone for his great
sins. Thirdly, he knows Christ is sufficient
in all that he is and all that he does. Fourthly, He has committed
himself to Christ. Look at verse 38, and he said,
Lord, I believe, and he worshiped him. Now the Lord's command is
this, for us to confess our faith. He says, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. The Scripture says in Romans, If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe in thine heart God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And all
who were redeemed in the New Testament confess Christ in baptism. You go from the disciples of
John the Baptist to the disciples of Christ to the believers at
Pentecost The Ethiopian eunuch, Lydia, the Philippian jailer,
every one of them publicly owned Christ and confessed Christ. So there are four things that
I believe are true of every person who is saved. First of all, he
knows he's a sinner. Secondly, he knows that he cannot,
nor can the law, nor can religion, nor can the church, nor can the
preacher, nor can any earthly power justify him before God. And he knows that Christ is sufficient. All that Christ is, all that
he has done, all that he's doing is sufficient to satisfy a holy
God. And fourthly, he has committed
himself to Christ. He has believed on Christ. He
has, to as many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe. on His name. Our Father, bless the word which
has been preached this morning. We pray, O God, that Thou would
anoint our hearts and our minds, not only to receive these truths
in our heads as theology, but to receive them in our hearts
as life, as the living word of God. We pray that Thou would
anoint the message Without the aid of the Holy Spirit it is
nothing but words, but with the aid of Thy Holy Spirit it is
life to answer the questions and the needs of the people,
and to bring every one of us to a saving living experience,
a living relationship with Christ, a saving interest in the Son
of God. In His precious name we ask these
things. Amen.