is the roles in salvation, the roles in salvation.
This morning, I wanna give you three distinct roles
that individuals play within the salvation of a person.
Of course, when we're talking about someone's salvation,
there's various ways that the Bible describes this,
being born again, being justified through Jesus Christ.
We're talking about eternal life, right?
Someone who is converted from being
an unregenerated, unsafe person
to being a saved person who has eternal life.
Their sins have been forgiven.
They have an eternal home in heaven
and they are a child of God, right?
The Bible says,
but as many as received him,
to them gave you power to become the sons of God.
Excuse me, even unto them that believe on his name,
essentially equating, believing on his name
with becoming a son of God, a child of God.
First, John chapter three says,
behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God.
Essentially demonstrating that at salvation,
God adopts us as his spiritual children and so forth.
But this morning, I wanna go through
some of the various roles
that individuals in the Bible play in our salvation.
Obviously, we know that it happens in an instant.
You know, at the moment that someone believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ, they call upon him in faith.
At that point, they're saved.
It's not a process.
It's not a lifelong commitment.
It's not something that you have to make sure
that you endure until the end
in order to make sure that you're saved.
Those are all works-based salvation gospels, right?
That we as a church need to reject.
And let me just say this by way of introduction
is that we need to make sure we're not lenient
when it comes to the message of salvation, okay?
What do I mean by that?
Meaning that, you know, we've gotta make sure
that we don't make exceptions to the rules of the Bible.
A lot of times Christians today,
because there's so much doubt,
the reason there's so much doubt in churches,
the reason there's so much confusion,
the reason there's so much people
that are just ignorant of the doctrine of justification
is because the pastors and the Christians
within those churches are just kind of flippant
regarding doctrine, right?
They don't wanna offend people
and so they don't wanna just pass judgment on someone
and say, oh, this person's not saved
because they believe in a false gospel.
They're like, well, you don't wanna say that
because you don't wanna offend them
and they believe in God, they believe in Jesus
and that's just good enough for us.
But it's important for us as Christians
to prove all things, hold fast that which is good, right?
To make sure that we judge
what a person claims to believe
and compare it to the clear teachings of the Bible, okay?
Not just, oh, okay, they say they're a Christian
so I'm just gonna go ahead and believe it or something.
Well, they said they're a Christian,
they said they're a Baptist,
they said they believe in the Bible,
that's not necessarily good enough
according to biblical standards.
By thy words thou shalt be justified
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
And look, folks, the Lord didn't spend just centuries
of just placing content within the word of God, right?
Just systematic doctrine, systematic doctrine
on the doctrine of salvation
for us to just write it all off and say, well,
if they say they believe in God,
that's good enough for me, not good enough
because Muslims can't claim to believe in God.
Mormons claim to believe in God.
Joel's witnesses claim to believe in God.
So all types of people out there
who claim to believe in God,
they don't really believe in the matter of salvation.
And when I say we need to be strict,
we need to be narrow in this regard,
I mean that we need to place the same standard
on others as the Bible places on us, right?
You say, what do you mean by that?
Well, you know, let me just say this,
you know, sometimes people think,
well, if a person claims to believe in Jesus,
that's automatic that they're saved.
And I do agree that if a person claims to believe
in Jesus, that puts them in a good ballpark, right?
Like it puts them in the right sport.
Like, okay, you know, you're definitely not a Hindu, right?
Or maybe you are, I don't know,
but you know, at least you're kind of narrowing it
down there, right?
So if they say they believe in Jesus Christ,
if they start, you know, talking about
or using biblical terminologies,
Christianese as we would say it,
in regards to salvation,
we could kind of say, all right,
maybe this person is saved, maybe not,
but it seems as though maybe they lean more towards,
they're not far from the kingdom of God, at least, okay?
But let me also say this, you know,
sometimes people say these words,
they're just simply repeating what others say to them
or what they've heard.
And so it's important for us to, you know,
if for lack of a better way of saying it,
it's kind of corner people, right?
To kind of see what they actually believe.
Because look, folks, you'll have people out there
that say, well, I know that Jesus died on the cross
to pay for my sins and that he resurrected
on the third day, you know?
And you know, that is good,
but we also need to ask them,
but can you lose your salvation though?
Because you know a lot of times people are like,
oh yeah, for sure.
And it's an oxymoron, right?
It's a contradictory statement
to claim to believe that Jesus died for all sins,
that he resurrected on the third day,
but then still hold to this ideology
that you can lose your salvation.
These are contrasting ideas
that are not compatible one with another.
Because if he died for all sins,
I mean he died for all of your sins,
the sins that you claim you can commit in the future
that will take away your salvation.
It doesn't make sense.
So it's important for us to help people
to understand that eternal security is the gospel,
that is salvation.
These are not separate issues.
We may in our gospel presentation
often treat it as separate
as one step after the other,
but at the end of the day,
eternal security, one saved always saved,
you know, you can't lose your salvation,
is in conjunction with the gospel.
You say, why do you say that?
Well, it's called eternal life.
Eternal life means that you're always saved.
It's eternal.
Meaning it's not temporal, okay?
So that's important.
But also let me say this,
you know, we need to make sure
that we prove all things whole fast,
that which is good,
and not be like the simple that believe with every word
because of the fact that you'll have people out there
such as Muslims, for example,
that will assert, well, you know,
we believe that Jesus is the Christ.
And it is like, oh, oh dang, you know.
I didn't know that, okay,
they must be saved and they believe
that Jesus is the Christ.
Yeah, but here's the problem though,
they don't believe that Jesus is God.
And so there is a collection of fundamental doctrines
that a person must believe in order to be saved.
And we're talking about doctrines
and beliefs about Jesus, okay?
Like if you believe Jesus is the brother of Satan,
it's not the same Jesus of the Bible.
And make no mistake about it,
the Bible talks about people preaching,
listen to this, another Jesus,
another gospel, there's another spirit.
Keep in mind that Satan is a major liar,
he counterfeits religion,
he counterfeits Christianity,
he counterfeits Jesus Christ,
he's always offering an alternative
to what the Bible actually says, okay?
So it's important that the way we can overcome that,
the way we can determine and decipher
whether someone believes in the right doctrine
is by number one, knowing what the right doctrine is.
But number two, asking the right questions, right?
And so when we talk about salvation,
we're talking about the fact
that you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
exclusively to be saved.
That's another important thing, right?
When we say exclusively,
that means at the exclusion of everyone else
and everything else.
Meaning you can't add anything to that.
A lot of times people will say,
well, I believe in Jesus,
but you also have to
and then fill in the blank or whatever, okay?
That's not salvation,
you can't get saved that way.
You can't add another God,
another work, baptism, doing good works,
another saint, Catholicism more.
You can't add anything to Jesus Christ.
If you do, salvation is no longer available to you.
And if by grace then it is no more of works,
otherwise grace is no more grace.
And so what we're talking about here
when it comes to salvation
is no adding to Jesus Christ, okay?
He's the one that provides salvation.
He's the one that paid it in full
and he does not require anybody else's payment.
He doesn't need you to give him a loan on salvation.
He doesn't need layaway plans from you saying,
you know what, I'll pay you off little by little
by my obedience,
by my ability to keep God's commands,
by my church attendance.
Lord, you know, when he actually paid for all sins,
guess what?
He paid for them completely, totally.
Past, present, future.
His obedience is what saves us, amen.
It's not our obedience to his commands,
therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
And so it's important for us to realize what salvation is,
but you know, as we grow in our faith,
let us move on into perfection, right?
Let's learn a little deeper regarding the doctrine
of salvation, who plays a vital role
in getting someone saved, okay?
So once someone is born again,
meaning they have believed on Jesus Christ,
they placed their faith in him,
you know, at that point they're saved.
They have eternal life.
But if we're to get down to the nitty
and gritty details of what has taken place at that moment,
there's a law that has happened,
and there's a lot of effort on various parts,
you know, the various people and individuals
to make that happen for that person.
So let's talk about that.
First Peter chapter one,
and verse number one says this,
Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ
through the stranger scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, Bethany,
he says, elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
grace unto you in peace be multiplied.
Here we see what we commonly refer to as the Trinity, okay?
You have God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit.
Let me just say this real quick,
is that this sermon is not gonna be
an encouraging sermon for you.
I'm not trying to exhort you.
This is a doctrinal sermon to teach you information, okay?
But it's important for you to know,
because we don't need doctrinally illiterate Christians
in this world that are just ignorant
of what the Bible actually says.
So here in verse number two,
we find the three most important factors in salvation
which is God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit.
I said that there's six people, six individuals involved.
The first part of the sermon is the first three
which is the Trinity's part in salvation.
Go to John chapter six if you would.
John chapter six.
John chapter six if you would.
Point number one, when it comes to the roles in salvation,
let's talk about God the Father's role in salvation.
What role does he play in the justification
of an individual at the moment of salvation?
Point number one is that the Father draws the sinner,
okay?
The Father drew you.
He drew me, right?
At the moment of salvation.
And in fact, prior to us getting saved,
the Lord was drawing us unto him.
Now let me explain to you first what that doesn't mean, okay?
Because a lot of times people,
namely the Calvinists,
they have this doctrinal position, this false doctrine,
that asserts that when the Father is drawing you,
it's like this supernatural pool or something.
Because you are elect,
meaning God has chosen you for salvation.
You don't choose yourself.
It's predestined for you.
And the doctrine of the Calvinists essentially asserts that
God basically chooses who gets saved
and chooses who doesn't get saved, okay?
At a whim.
Meaning that if we're to just take this crowd right here,
this is the way God did it.
Not saved for sure, okay?
Save, save, not saved, save, not saved, not saved.
Save, save, that's how you do it.
Just on a whim.
Not based upon your decision,
not based upon your belief,
just based upon his whim that he desires
for some people to go to heaven
and some people to go to hell.
And that is a false doctrine.
And look, not only is it a false doctrine,
it's just a godless doctrine, period.
Because when you get down to the nitty and gritty
of that heresy,
you realize that what they're asserting is that,
for example, if a child were to die
and they were not chosen, they would go to hell.
So according to their doctrine,
hell is filled with children who died in the womb,
died thereafter, and if they were not,
because they were not chosen.
They were not elect, they were reprobate.
They were depraved, and for that reason,
they are in hell, and that's a godless doctrine.
The Bible does not teach that at all.
Now look, folks, at the moment of salvation,
yes, we are called the chosen,
but that essentially is based upon,
the condition of being chosen
is based upon being in Christ.
And we choose.
Whosoever will may come, the Bible says, right?
There's all types of verses in the Bible,
a myriad of scriptures that calls people
to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Why would they be there if we couldn't choose, right?
And so this doctrine asserts, well,
he's drawing the elect, he's drawing the chosen.
There's just something in this that says,
I just know that I'm chosen.
I just want to be saved.
I just love God.
And let me tell you where this ends up heading to
is that when they claim to get saved,
these people who are Calvinists, hardcore Calvinists,
they believe, well, because I'm the elect,
I just naturally want to do right all the time.
I just naturally want to obey the commandments.
I just naturally love God.
I just will do right all the time,
and I will not sin, but that's also heresy.
You know, if anyone says they have no sin,
they may God a liar, the Bible says.
They're deceiving themselves.
No one naturally wants to do what the Bible says
because number one, everyone starts off ignorant
of what the Bible actually requires of them.
So until you read it, until it's preached to you,
you're not really gonna know
what is required of you, right?
We have to be able to be exposed to the doctrines
and the standard of the Bible to obey the Bible.
You know, the apostle Paul said,
I had not known less except the scripture has said,
thou shalt not covet.
So he's like, I didn't even know about less
until the Bible literally said that I shouldn't covet
and then I realized that it was a sin, okay?
And so it's important for us to realize
that when the Bible talks about God drawing people,
he's not referring to this supernatural pool
where he's just wooing you, you know?
He's like the cartoon with the pie,
and you know how the scent of the pie
just goes through the window and it gets on the,
and then he just like floats or something.
That's not the way the Lord does it, okay?
I want pie.
What does he mean by he says that the father draws
or the father's the one who draws the sinner?
Look at John chapter six, verse 44 if you would.
John chapter six and verse 44 says,
no man can come to me except the father
which had sent me draw him
and I will raise him up at the last day.
So the Bible's telling us here
that anybody who comes to Christ came
because they responded to the drawing of the Lord, right?
Of God the Father.
Now luckily, the next verse explains to us
what it means when he says he draws them.
Verse 45 says, it is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God.
Every man therefore, listen to this,
they have heard and have learned of the Father
come to them to me.
So how does God draw people through the Bible?
That's how he does it, okay?
When the Bible talks about God bringing people,
drawing people, he does it through the scriptures.
Whether it's a saturated amount of scriptures
that you hear in churches as a child,
whether it's a verse that you see on TV, on social media,
he's working through the scriptures
to draw you unto him.
But folks, let me just say this at the end of the day,
you have to choose to go, right?
If God is calling, he's drawing you through the scriptures,
he's using social media, pastors in churches
to kind of put the bait out there,
he's using the Bible, you have to take the bait.
You have to allow yourself to be drawn unto him,
you have a choice, you're not a robot, okay?
And look folks, the Bible tells us
that there's various forms the way God does this.
He does it through the scriptures,
he does it through the word of God.
This of course comes through preaching,
it can come through a soul winner,
it can come through, you know,
it can even come through to a certain degree unsaved people.
You know, unsaved people, they give scriptures all the time.
They can't get anybody saved,
but the word of God still has power
and it can be planted in the heart of a person.
This is often when we talk about a seed being planted,
you know, an unsaved person can give you a verse
or something like that, they quote a verse
and it's in there in your mind,
you're just like, oh, I never really thought about that.
And then as you respond to the truth of that verse,
it can in like manner,
position you to hear the gospel and so forth, okay?
So God draws the sinner at salvation,
of course he's working on these people,
he's working on us,
he was working on us prior to salvation,
he does it through the Bible,
but let me also say this,
he also does it through our conscience and our,
and creation, okay?
Look, go to Romans chapter one if you would.
Romans chapter one.
This is the system that God has set forth
to make salvation available to people, okay?
And let me just say this is that,
you know, dreams can't save you, okay?
Looking at a jungle can't save you,
admiring the stars and the celestial bodies
cannot save you,
and you know, just being given a verse
can't save you either, okay?
And I'll explain later on why that is.
These are all conducive, though.
These are all necessary.
These are all elements that God has placed
in the structure of this world
in order to gear a person towards the truth, okay?
So you know, we, the Bible says that,
you know, you have to equate
and who were dead in trespasses and sin,
that in time past we walked according
to the course of this world,
according to the prince of power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience.
The Bible talks about the course of this world.
So we're walking through this course
and all of a sudden we get like a measure of truth here.
You know, someone gives us a verse
or we get a measure of truth here.
We look at creation.
We get a measure of truth.
Our conscience bothers us
and as we respond to that light, as the Bible says,
we're essentially led on the path of salvation
so we can reach a point
where God ends up sending someone
who knows the gospel,
can give us the gospel and get saved, amen?
Look at Romans 1 and verse number 17.
It says, for therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith
as it is written that just shall live by faith
for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who hold the truth in unrighteousness
because that which may be known of God
is manifest in them for God has showed it unto them.
So according to the Bible,
every single person in this world,
whether they want to admit it or not,
they believe in hell.
They believe in eternal damnation
whereas the Bible puts it,
the wrath of God.
No, that's not true.
It says here that it's manifest in them.
Like they know it in here
that there's something waiting on the other side
called damnation.
They may not know all the details
but they know there's a consequence to their actions.
And why did God reveal that to people?
I'll tell you why,
to motivate people to get saved,
to motivate people to seek out the truth, right?
Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come
as John the Baptist told the Pharisees.
It says in verse number 20
for the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world
are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead
so that they are without excuse.
So the Bible is saying here
that he uses creation as a means
to point to a creator
and thereby get the gears rolling, right?
The spiritual gears rolling to say
there has to be a creator.
And look, I remember being an unsafe person
looking at the heavenly bodies,
looking at the stars,
viewing the skies,
viewing all of creation
and being in all of a creator.
I wasn't saved.
But I remember thinking like this is beautiful.
Like there's something bigger than all of this, right?
And the Bible says here
that it's for this reason
that people are without excuse.
Meaning that the pygmy
that dies and goes to hell
at the white throne judgment
and he's not gonna be like, I didn't know.
Nobody wanted to come with me.
No missionary came.
I don't wanna give me the gospel.
It was like, bro, you lived in the jungle.
You had the witness of creation.
You know, the Lord sent rain upon you, right?
Isn't that what the Bible says
that he sends rain upon the just and the unjust?
You got rain, you were fed,
you saw the trees,
you ran from tigers, you hunted.
I fed your family.
He provided for them all the days of their life.
He gave them a breath.
I mean, everything that was around him
essentially testified that there was a creator
that he was experiencing those residual blessings from.
And so that person is without excuse.
Now obviously, if that person doesn't get the gospel,
according to the Bible, he will not suffer.
Listen to this.
He's not gonna suffer a as severe punishment
in hell as others.
He's still gonna hell though.
And keep in mind, the Bible talks about
various levels of punishment in hell.
Bible talks about the greater damnation, okay?
The greater sin.
If there's a greater damnation,
that means there's certain people in this world
that suffer a hotter hell than others according to the Bible.
And if we were to conjecture why that is,
it's based upon the fact that
the people who suffer a greater damnation
are those who have more truth and rejected it.
Meaning that they were exposed to the Bible,
they know the gospel.
Let me say this.
If a person goes to a fundamental Baptist church
and never gets saved, they die,
they are going to a very low hell.
Cause they're coming to church every single Sunday
listening to the word of God.
They're reading the scriptures, hearing the hymns.
They're surrounded by Christians.
They're surrounded by the truth.
The Holy Spirit is constantly working on them
and they're rejecting it.
They get a lower hell.
Lower hell.
Whereas the pygmy,
you know, the guy in the wilderness
who's, you know, just a savage.
Yeah, he's going to go to hell as well,
but the only thing is,
is that he's going to be like a higher level.
You know what I mean?
He's on the fifth story of hell.
Whereas the other person is on the first story
closer to the core.
The point being though,
is that even though he's on the fifth story,
guess what?
According to the Bible, he's still without excuse.
Because living in the jungle is not a good enough excuse
because the jungle provides the witness of creation
that should tell them,
oh, there's a God out there.
And don't give me this.
Well, they just don't know about Jesus.
Yeah, but so how do they,
I mean, does like the devil have a book too or something?
Why are they worshiping Satan?
Why are they worshiping false gods?
Why are they worshiping idols?
Why are they worshiping devils?
I'll tell you why,
because they looked at the creation and said,
no, God's not responsible for this.
This false God is.
They gave credit to a false God
rather than the God of the Bible.
This is why the Bible says,
because that which may be known of God
has manifested in them,
for God has showed it unto them.
So it's not like,
oh, they're just ignorant of the God of the Bible.
Well, you know what?
They're just as ignorant of devils to them.
But yet somehow,
somehow they're worshiping false gods.
So I don't have sympathy for heathens and savages.
And I do believe that people need to go win them
to Christ for sure.
I want them to come to the saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ.
And look, in the colonial days of our country,
there's many missionaries that went to the Indians
and want them to the Lord.
And a lot of these Indians assimilated into
American culture,
as well as Christianity.
But many of them just stayed in their pagan beliefs.
And guess what?
They died and went to hell.
That is the reality of it.
But you know what?
They are with that excuse according to the Bible.
Because God did his part.
He created the word of God.
He created creation
so that these Indians who are hunting buffalo,
they get to enjoy all the splendors of American land,
that should have witnessed to them,
there is a creator,
instead of worshiping whatever religion that they have.
It goes on to say in verse number 20, verse 21,
because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God.
So they looked at the stars
and they're just like God of fertility.
You know, they looked at a tree like the God of the trees.
They glorified him not as God.
Neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations
and their foolish heart was darkened.
What does it mean to be vain in their imaginations?
Creating a plethora of false gods
based upon certain aspects of their society.
Oh, God of fertility, a God of this, a God of that.
You're just vain.
You're just making up stuff that's not true.
And your heart is darkened,
therefore, you know,
they're gonna suffer the consequences of their actions.
Go to chapter two, if you would.
Chapter two, we're talking about the father
who draws the sinner.
How does he draw the sinner?
What role does he play in salvation?
He draws the sinner through the clear teachings
of the word of God.
If someone does not have access to the word of God,
it's okay.
He has created the witness of creation
that will move them to worship the unknown God, right?
As Acts chapter 17 clearly demonstrates.
And in light of that,
someone came and gave them the word of God.
That's how it works.
But he also gave them their conscience as well.
Look at Romans chapter two in verse number 12.
It says,
For as many as have sinned without law,
shall also perish without law.
And as many have sinned in the law,
shall be judged by the law.
What does that mean?
It means, oh, you don't have the law of God?
You're gonna perish without the law of God.
There's no, like God's like, oh, my bad, you know?
So I didn't know you didn't have the law.
So we're just gonna be more lenient with you.
No, you're gonna perish without law.
That's what the Bible says.
It says in verse 14,
for when the Gentiles,
and when the Bible talks about Gentiles,
it's referring to nations,
but it's often used in the Bible
in conjunction with those who are unsaved.
So anytime you hear like Gentiles
in these particular contexts,
it's often referring to like the unregenerated, okay?
It says for when the Gentiles,
which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the law,
are a law unto themselves.
So isn't that interesting?
This kind of flies in the face
of the total depravity doctrine of the Calvinists.
Because the Calvinists believe,
well, you know, the totally depraved,
those who are not elect,
they can't obey God.
They can't obey the laws of God.
They can't, well, it says here that the Gentiles do.
They do by nature the things contained in the law.
And then it says why?
Because their law unto themselves, verse 15,
which show the work of the law written in their hearts,
their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts to meanwhile,
accuse or else excusing one another.
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
So he gave them a conscience
to know between right and wrong.
That means that no society throughout history
has the right to be a degenerate society.
It doesn't matter how they grew up
or what their culture was, it does not matter.
They have no right to be a degenerate society.
Because the Bible says that they have the law of God
written in their hearts telling them this is wrong,
this is right, this is wrong.
Hey, eating people is wrong.
That's just how they grew up.
Well, you know, still no excuse.
It's not like the conscience is like,
oh, this is how they grew up.
So I'll just switch the settings here real quick.
We'll just switch the settings and justify cannibalism.
And you know, many societies
have participated in cannibalism
and even Indians in America, okay?
You know, a lot of times people want to defend Indians,
Native Americans and how they deserve reparations
and all these things.
And they often portray the European settlers
and colonists as being just evil people.
But Europeans weren't eating people, though.
That's an absolute degenerate thing to do.
You know, and yeah, but they're eating the colonists
because the colonists, no, no, no,
they're eating other Indians.
They ate other Indians.
Well, yeah, but you colonists, they brought slavery.
The Indians enslaved other Indians.
That's what they did.
No, but you know, they came and they just like,
stole the land.
Indians were stealing land from other Indians.
They're pillaging them, stealing from them,
cannibalizing them, raping them.
So a lot of these accusations,
which by the way, a lot of that stuff
did happen, like the Europeans did participate
in a lot of atrocities for sure.
But let's not minimize the fact
that these Indians did the same thing, though.
And in some cases, even worse, okay?
I mean, absolute depravity, okay?
And it's like, yeah, but that's just the way of the land,
you know, just how they grew up and, you know,
oh, just naked, barbaric and cannibalistic?
No, because they had a conscience
that told them that that was wrong and they ignored that.
That's exactly how it happened.
And so, you know, and I'm not against
Native Americans or anything like that.
I'm just against the victim mentality type thing.
And I'm definitely against people trying to get reparations
for things that didn't happen to them.
That's not you, okay?
Unless you're still cannibalizing people, I don't know.
Point being here is that the role
that God the Father plays in salvation
is that he draws the center.
You and I were drawn into the Lord through the scriptures.
We were drawn through creation.
We were, you're like, why didn't he creation?
I grew up like in the city.
Well, you're drawn by your conscience
and you probably had an abundance of exposure to the Bible
without even knowing it.
And look, if I were to think long and hard,
I can think of various instances in my life
as a child up until I got saved
where I was exposed to the Word of God.
Someone explained the, and look,
some of it was through like false religion too.
I'm just saying, you know,
even though they took it out of context,
I was exposed to the Bible.
In fact, you know,
how many of you have ever heard of the cult
called La Luz del Mundo?
Okay?
It's a major cult in Mexico.
It's made its way here.
I went to that church,
not out of convictions because of a girl.
And I was, a girl in vitamin.
You're like, I'll go to your church, you know?
And it was weird.
You know, I remember going there
and you know, I want to sit next to her
and she was like, actually here we sit separate.
You know, the males sit here, the women sit here.
And I remember them reading scriptures.
And in my mind, I'm like, man,
what they're reading doesn't seem to match up
with what they're doing here.
But I didn't really care about religious things
at that time, you know?
But I just remember reading that
and seeing that and thinking to myself,
something doesn't seem right here.
You know, that was God exposing me
to the Word of God, even through Balaam.
Okay?
And so we all get exposed to the Word of God
throughout our lifetime.
Maybe some of them might give us a verse.
We see it on social media.
Maybe it's family, friends, whatever it may be.
But it's essentially the Lord trying to draw you
unto him.
Go to Acts chapter four, if you would.
Acts chapter four.
Acts chapter four, we're talking about roles in salvation.
Talk about God, the Father's role in salvation
is to draw you.
It's to bring you to the lights, right?
It's to help you to respond to the light
that he gives you.
You know, the Bible talks about Jesus Christ
being the light of the world,
but it also says that he is that true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
So the more we respond to the Word of God
and the light, the more enlightened we become to the truth.
But let's talk about God, the Son here.
So the Father draws a sinner in the role of salvation.
The Son, of course, died and resurrected for us.
All right?
Now look at Acts chapter four, verse 12.
It says here, neither is there salvation in any other
including Mary, including saints, works, baptism.
No exception in any other
for there's none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved.
Oh, I'm just kidding.
You gotta go to the mom too though.
You gotta pray into the mom to get to the son.
Doesn't work that way.
The Bible says there's none other name
given among men whereby we must be saved
meaning that the only name that can save you is Jesus.
That is the name.
And obviously we know that people in the Old Testament
they got saved through the same manner.
And obviously they're not calling upon the name
of Jesus Christ because the name of Jesus
was not revealed in the Old Testament.
But his name has varied throughout history.
And the stipulation of what name we have to call upon
has changed, has it not?
The manner of salvation has not.
Meaning that someone can't just call upon
the name of the Lord, we need to specify to them
they need to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus has to be the one they believe in.
And look, it's important that we defend the name of Jesus
in the day and age in which we live
because there's so many alternatives to this.
Yahashua and Yeshua and people are like,
well, isn't that his Hebrew name?
You don't know Hebrew though, okay?
And you're like, yeah, but that's what they called
each other, you don't know that.
We can speculate that, we can conjecture that,
but if we're to go to the written word of God,
even in its original language,
there's no existence of that, anybody calling him that.
Just under Isus, which is modern day
what we would say in English, Jesus, okay?
And you say, well, what's wrong with Yahashua, Yeshua?
Well, here's the problem with it, okay?
Often it's connected to a lot of false doctrine.
I have yet to meet a person who uses that name
and has the right salvation.
Whereas the name of Jesus is associated
with justification by faith.
It has the salvation that is in line with the Bible.
Whereas most of the time you have these people
who use these terms, and I'm talking about teachers
and false prophets who use these terms
and they believe in a false salvation.
What kind of salvation do they believe in?
Well, it's often a Judaizing movement is what it is.
A Hebrew roots movement where they're trying
to bring people back under the law,
try to get you to obey the law instead
and try to minimize the work of Jesus Christ.
That's exactly what that movement does.
And you know what?
That's what the Bible means by another Jesus, okay?
The name we have to call upon is Jesus Christ.
That is what the Bible tells us.
Go to Romans chapter four, you're in Acts four,
go to Romans four, if you would.
Romans chapter four.
Romans chapter number four
and look down at verse number,
let's see verse number 22.
It says,
What does that mean when it's counted
unto him for righteousness?
What exactly does that phrase entail?
When the Bible talks about righteousness,
it really depends on the context
of what we're talking about.
There's instances in the Bible
where righteousness is simply referring
to someone's moral conduct.
Their uprightness, right?
You see this a lot in the Old Testament.
This is a righteous person,
meaning they're morally upright,
they're an outstanding person,
they're an honest individual and so forth.
But in the context of salvation,
it's often referring to the righteousness,
the perfection of Jesus Christ,
the sinlessness of Jesus.
Now you and I both know that the Bible teaches
that we are sinners.
For all of sin and come short of the glory of God,
the Bible also says that our righteousness
are as filthy rags,
meaning we have no righteousness,
perfection, moral purity in and of ourselves
we are tainted with this corruptible flesh for sinners.
And that's the problem.
That's why we can't save ourselves.
So in order to be saved,
it's not like, well, I need to work on righteousness.
I need to become a righteous person
because of the fact that the Bible says
that there's none righteous.
No, no, no, I'm just gonna keep doing the right thing
and keeping God's commandments
and obeying the Bible and serving the Lord.
Not enough.
It's not enough.
And people think it's enough sometimes.
Like, well, if you just do these things,
you'll be saved.
No, because the Bible's already condemned you.
So what are you gonna do about the last 20 years
of all the disobedience and sins that you've committed?
What about that?
You know, you're righteous.
When he says there's none righteous,
it means from the time that you were born
because you have a corruptible flesh
up until this time right now,
you are an unrighteous person in the eyes of God.
You're not perfect.
You sin against the Lord.
And on top of that, you have this corruptible flesh.
So the answer is that we need someone else's perfection
to be placed on our account.
This is what the word imputation is referring to.
Okay, meaning that Jesus Christ takes his own righteousness
and he gives it to you.
Because keep in mind, the condemnation from God the Father
is that there's none righteous.
So he looks at you as just like unrighteous,
but then when you get saved,
the righteousness of Jesus goes on you
and God sees you through the perfection of Jesus Christ.
Not your own perfection.
Your own perfection sends you straight to hell.
Straight to hell.
You know, you go straight to hell for that.
It cannot save you whatsoever.
Then why do you do works?
Then why do you have maintained good works then?
To please the Lord?
Because I want rewards when I get to heaven?
Well, I do it because I love God.
No, you don't.
Because you're not saved.
If you believe works save you,
then you don't have the love of God in your heart.
Okay?
Because the love of God is shed a bra
through Jesus Christ.
We can think we love God prior to salvation,
but we don't really love God
because of the fact that God is love
and the one who sheds love into our hearts
is Jesus Christ at the moment of salvation.
Because then you realize what salvation is, right?
When you get saved you're like, man,
you know, God did commend his love toward me
and that while I was a sinner,
Christ died for me.
Like he loves me, he paid for him,
then you start realizing,
as the Bible says in Ephesians chapter four,
the length, breadth, depth and height
and to know the love of Christ
that passed through all knowledge.
That's what the love of God is, right?
And so once you have the righteousness of Jesus,
at that point, when God looks at you,
he doesn't look at you based upon the sins you've committed.
He doesn't look at you based upon the sins
that you will commit
when it comes to the context of salvation.
He sees you through the perfection of Jesus Christ
which leads us to this term, justification.
So when he sees you, he doesn't condemn you,
means you were already justified in the eyes of God.
And a lot of preachers have said,
justification a good way to explain it is like saying,
just as if I've never sinned.
So this is what it means when it talks about
that righteousness was imputed unto Abraham
and how was it imputed by him keeping the law?
No, because there was no law back then.
How was it imputed because he believed God?
Yeah, but that's Abraham though.
That's Old Testament, that's Abraham.
Well, look what it says.
Verse 23 again,
now it was not written for his sake alone
that it was imputed unto him,
but for us also,
to whom it shall be imputed,
listen to this,
if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification,
there you have it.
So he is delivered for our offenses
meaning that he was crucified for our sins,
past, present, and future,
big and small.
We see that in the chapter as well.
And he's also raised again for our justification
because folks, if Jesus died for us
but he did not resurrect,
it would just be meaningless.
Because he wasn't able to conquer death,
but he did conquer death, okay?
So this is the role of Jesus Christ
in the subject of salvation,
is that he died and he resurrected
and he is the only name that can save us.
And we need to eradicate
the doctrine of interlopers into that doctrine.
People who try to interfere like Mary,
you know, and obviously she's in heaven,
she doesn't agree with what Catholics are doing.
I'm saying people who, you know,
use and abuse her name
in order to assert that we have to also trust in her
for salvation, it's nonsensical,
it's not in the Bible.
And look, let me just tell you,
Catholics don't have a leg to stand on
if they only use the Bible.
They don't have a leg to stand on.
Because in order for them to prove their doctrine,
they have to go outside of the Bible, okay?
They have to go to the church fathers
and other heretics and false prophets
in order to back up what they're talking about.
Go to John chapter 16.
Let's go to John chapter 16, if you would.
John chapter 16, the roles in salvation,
we talked about the father drawing the sinner
through the scriptures, through creation,
through the conscience.
We talked about the role of Jesus Christ.
He's the one that dies and resurrects.
And then we have the role of the Holy Spirit.
Now what's interesting when you actually observe
these three in its context of salvation,
you notice that like obviously everyone
does a lot of work for this thing, right?
But there's a lot that the Holy Spirit does
when it comes to the moment of salvation.
Even prior to salvation, at the moment of salvation
and thereafter, he does a lot, okay?
Like he has a lot of responsibilities, okay?
And we're gonna look at one of them first and foremost
in John 16.
What are we gonna talk about?
The Holy Spirit reproves sinners, okay?
Look at John 16 and verse number eight, if you would.
Actually, let's go to verse number seven.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expeding for you that I go away
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come
unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment,
of sin because they believe not on me,
of righteousness because I go to my father
and he's seen me no more, of judgment
because the prince of this world is judged.
So what does the Bible say in here?
It's saying that one of the ministries
of the Holy Spirit is that he reproves unbelievers.
Now, I don't believe this is referring to
like an unregenerated person, unsafe person,
just feeling bad about something
because according to the Bible, that's the conscience, right?
The conscience is doing that.
I believe the way the Holy Spirit reproves
is through the preaching of the word of God, okay?
And what I mean by that is this, you know,
Jesus said, my words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life.
So he works through the preaching of God's word
to bring reprovement upon a person.
And look, we've had this happen even here.
Where unsafe people come to church
and they're not saved and we talk about salvation
and they're just kind of sitting there
and they're just like, I'm not saved.
You know, like, I don't believe this.
I need to believe this.
I need to be saved.
And, you know, you said, what is that?
That's the Holy Spirit reproving you.
That's like when we would say like
the Holy Spirit is working on you, okay?
And make no mistake about it, prior to salvation
all of us had the Holy Spirit working on us.
Just like working and working.
Hebrew chapter six describes it as, you know,
being a partaker of the Holy Ghost.
Meaning that the Holy Spirit
through the preaching of the word of God
is coming to you, he's working in your heart.
He's confirming what the truth is being stated, right?
And we know that the Holy Spirit does this after salvation.
Like, you know, if I'm preaching
or anybody else is preaching about a particular sin,
you're like, oh man, I feel like he's talking about me.
Or I feel like I've just dealt with a situation like that.
Or I feel like this is relatable
to what I'm going through right now.
That's the Holy Spirit bringing that application to you.
Okay, this is not me, you know,
gossiping with other people about you.
Okay, this is not me like, hey,
you guys got anything from me?
I need some content or something.
I'm just preaching the word of God
and the Holy Spirit comes
and he kind of translates that, he brings it unto you.
Well, prior to salvation, he does the same thing.
He's using the word of God, okay,
to bring compunction to the heart,
to bring those thoughts to your heart,
to help you to realize like, man, I don't think I'm saved.
I need to be saved.
And he kind of brings that type of compunction to say like,
hey, I think I need to get saved right now.
Like that urgency, right?
And I remember being an unsafe person,
thinking to myself like, you know,
when I almost drowned that one the night before
I got saved, I thought to myself like,
I should have gone to church tonight.
Not because I thought like the church can save me
but I just knew that salvation was there though.
Like the truth was over there.
And so like there's this sense of urgency
that the Holy Spirit brings to you.
And this is what the Bible says, you know,
to make sure that you don't harden your heart, right?
To the Holy Spirit.
Because the Holy Spirit is constantly working.
He's using the word of God.
You don't wanna just like shut him off.
Because the more you harden your heart,
the more likely it is that you can become
what the Bible calls a reprobate,
which is someone who's beyond the hope of salvation, okay?
So he reproves unbelievers, go to chapter 15.
Chapter 15, it says in verse 26 of chapter 15,
but when the comforters come
whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the spirit of truth which proceeded from the Father,
he shall testify of me.
And he also shall bear witness
because you have been with me from the beginning.
So what else does the Holy Spirit do?
He reproves and then he testifies of Jesus Christ, okay?
What does that mean?
It means that he bears witness of the truth.
And look, again, obviously this is personal experience,
but I do remember hearing the word of God
and various gospels that were false.
I'm like, man, I guess this could be true,
but there's like this always a sense of doubt
of that gospel, right?
And it wasn't until I got the right gospel,
it was just like night and day.
And you know, obviously fundamental Baptist churches
are not the only churches that have the right salvation,
but they're pretty strong on the right salvation.
I went to a fundamental Baptist church
and I remember thinking to myself like the confidence
of this person, the way they're explaining it,
the verses that they're giving me is just like,
this is it.
And I feel like the scales fell off.
I feel like I was enlightened.
That's the Holy Spirit testifying of the Son.
And look, it doesn't take much.
You know, I remember someone explained to me
in Eternal Security, and I was like,
so you can't lose your salvation for any reason whatsoever?
And they're like, for my grace,
are you saved through faith?
And then not of yourselves, it is the gift of God,
not of works that standing man should boast.
And then he walked away and I was just like, huh.
Yeah, that's, I'm not confused about that anymore.
Like that's not a confusing thing to me anymore.
That's the Holy Spirit enlightening,
testifying of the Son.
Now one point that I wanna make in this regard
is that the Holy Spirit does not speak of himself, right?
He testifies of the Son.
So he's not gonna tell you something
that's contradictory to the Bible.
And we have a Christian culture, not here,
but in various churches where people think,
well, the Holy Spirit told me this.
But if it's not in line with the Bible,
then it's not the Holy Spirit.
It's a spirit for sure.
But it's not the Holy Spirit.
And you know, people get all offended at that
and bent out of shape because they want
to associate Christianity with emotionalism
and that which is of the sensations and how they feel.
But let me just tell you, we walk by faith, not by sight.
Meaning the senses of the body is not what we use
to determine if something right or wrong.
Cause we walk by faith.
And this is not blind faith,
it's faith based upon the word of God.
Meaning that if you hear something,
you always gotta compare it to the word of God.
So it's like, oh, the Holy Spirit told me this
and you're just like, no, that's not true.
I don't know who told you that.
I feel God told me, you know, run screaming
in the opposite direction when you are in a church
where people are constantly saying, God told me.
Cause what are they doing?
They're making themselves the authority
of that particular place, okay?
And look, the Bible specifically says
of false prophets in Jeremiah chapter 23
that he condemns these people who steal his words
and that say, he saith when I have not spoken unto them.
Stealing his words, claiming that God spoke to them.
And look, if you feel like, well, you know,
I feel like in a dream, God told me this.
Well, let's go ahead and go to the Bible
and if the Bible agrees with that,
then we could just ignore your dream.
Yeah, but it's true though.
Yeah, but God said it first though here.
So they're just copying him.
Your dream has just copied him.
Maybe you read it here
and then you had a dream or something,
but it was already here.
That revelation is already here.
And if it contradicts the Bible,
then we definitely disregard it.
The problem with people saying he saith
or the Holy Spirit told me this
is that now they can come up
with all kinds of false doctrines.
They can contradict the Bible all the time.
And look, don't base what you believe off
of what you dream about.
Don't base it off of what you dream about.
Don't base it off of a vision.
Don't base it off of whatever.
Have the conviction to do it
off of what the Bible actually says.
Okay, are you guys getting baptized over there or what?
So you have the Holy Spirit
who reproves unsafe people.
Okay, he testifies of the sun.
Go to Titus chapter three, if you wouldn't.
Let's go to Titus chapter three.
Titus chapter three.
And then we're gonna go to Ephesians chapter one.
Titus chapter three is a lot.
The Holy Spirit does a lot.
He's working through approving them.
He's testifying of the sun.
And at the moment of salvation,
when someone believes on the Lord,
you know what he does?
He regenerates you.
He regains you spiritually speaking.
Look at Titus three, verse five,
not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy, he saved us.
I want you to notice this
by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
So he renews and he regenerates.
Meaning that this is just kind of a fancy way of saying
that he brings your dead spirit to life.
He resurrects the spirit that dwells within you.
Because we're all born with a living spirit.
At the moment of birth, we have a living spirit.
But somewhere along our life,
we're exposed to the standard of God.
And according to Romans chapter seven,
the law slays our spirit.
It kills our spirit,
which is why the Bible says that we're dead
in our trespasses and sin.
So what we need is the resurrection
of our spirit for salvation,
which happens when we believe on the Lord.
So then the Holy Spirit comes
and he just resurrects us.
Not our physical flesh, just our spirit, okay?
And this is what the Bible says in 1 John chapter three
that, you know, that which is born of God
does not commit sin.
Because the spirit doesn't sin.
The flesh does.
Flesh is corruptible.
The works of the flesh are made manifest
which are these adulteries,
fornications, thefts and so forth.
The flesh is always sinning.
Whereas the spirit is sinless.
It's already been glorified.
It's resurrected.
This is what the Bible calls the new man, right?
If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature.
Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new.
So this is what he does.
The Holy Spirit comes
and he's just like, clear.
And your spirit comes to life.
Now you have like that new man.
Now look, the new man desires righteous things.
Desires the preaching of God's word
in conjunction with your effort
in cultivating those desires.
Because look, if a person gets saved
but they never go to church,
they never endeavor to read the Bible,
they never learn doctrine,
guess what, they're gonna remain a carnal person.
Not because their spirit is not saved,
but because they haven't cultivated
the righteous desires.
You have to feed the spirit
in order for you to have the right desires.
And none of us are born again with the right desires,
just already present.
They have to be cultivated, okay?
You know, when I got saved,
I did wanna go to church
because I was just attracted to the truth
and I just jumped in head first
and I started going soul winning,
reading my Bible and so forth.
But not everyone is like that.
Sometimes it takes people like a really long time
to actually get right with God
and be in church and do all the,
and then you start seeing people
who were not in church in times past
that are back in church
and then they're on fire for God.
I'll tell you why they fed the spirit.
They're giving the spirit,
the spiritual nutrients that it needs
in order to grow in their faith
and be a successful Christian and so forth.
This is the renewing and regeneration of the Holy Ghost.
Go to Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians chapter one, if you would.
So he's working.
Holy Spirit is doing a lot.
He is reproving.
He is, you know, testifying of the sun
at the moment of salvation.
He is regenerating you.
He's renewing you, right?
And then after salvation, he indwells you.
Okay, look at Ephesians one verse 13,
in whom you also trusted after that
you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation
in whom also after that you believed
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise
which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession
until the praise of his glory.
Meaning that the moment of salvation
the Holy Spirit comes and he dwells within you.
So we have the new man dwelling within us
but we also have the Holy Spirit.
And the Holy Spirit is within us
for a variety of reasons, okay?
One is to empower us to do the work of the Lord, okay?
But another reason is because he operates
somewhat as a down payment on this corruptible flesh.
You understand?
So it's like a promise to us that like,
hey, your spirit is redeemed
and you're gonna struggle for the rest of your life
with your flesh.
Your flesh is sinful, okay?
It's corruptible and you're gonna fight the flesh
for the rest of your life
but I promise you I'll redeem that one day too.
And look, anybody who wants to live a godly life
and has endeavored, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Oh, wretched man that I am
who should have delivered me from this body of death?
You know, you wanna do right,
you wanna think right,
you wanna behave right,
you wanna talk right,
but the stupid flesh,
that old man,
the old Bruce Mehe is just constantly getting in
and no matter how much I crucify him
with the affections and lust,
he's still there.
21 year old Bruce Mehe is still there.
His sinful desires are still there.
His sinful way of thinking is still there
and it could be vexing, all right?
It's just vexing, he's like, man, I hate the old me.
I hate that this stuff is still in me,
in my mind, in my heart,
maybe bad habits, bad ways of thinking,
they're still there.
But the Holy Spirit operates as a down payment, right?
The earnest of our inheritance to say like,
one day I'm gonna possess the entire body.
Now, this shouldn't cause us to think,
well, I'm gonna be redeemed anyways,
I'm just gonna live a godless life or something like that.
No, because the Bible says be holy as your father,
which is in heaven is holy, right?
The Bible talks about sanctification
and the Bible talks about you suffering consequences
severely if you disobey God.
That's the sermon for another day.
The point being here is that the Holy Spirit comes,
he indwells you, he regenerates you,
he testifies of the Son.
This is his role in salvation.
Turn with me if you would.
Let's go to Acts chapter 13.
We're almost done here.
Acts chapter 13.
So that is the Trinitarian role
of salvation for every individual.
The Father draws the sinner,
Jesus Christ dies and resurrects for the sinner.
The Holy Spirit reproves, testifies of the Son,
regenerates, renews, and indwells the believer, right?
Now let's talk about the last day,
and I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time on this,
but here is the fourth participant in our salvation,
and that is the church.
The local New Testament church plays a vital role
in the salvation of a lost person.
Not, I don't mean like they come here
and then they get regenerated or something, right?
Like there's holy water or something.
I mean, there's water there for sure.
You guys are getting some holy water
sprinkled on you today, but none of it's holy.
The church, what does the church do?
It sends out the soul-wanderer.
The church is the place where the believer is trained,
is discipled, and is taught how to preach the gospel
and is sent out of there.
Look at Acts chapter 13, verse one.
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch,
certain prophets and teachers in Barnabas
and seeming that was called Niger,
and Lucius and Cyrene and Menean,
which had been brought up with Herod,
the tetrarch and Saul.
And they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
or as they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul,
for the work, where unto I have called them.
And of course, as we know, Barnabas and Saul,
not under their own accord,
they were sent out by a church
to go and preach the gospel, do missions work,
and get a lot of people saved, okay?
And look, folks, we need to not minimize
the importance of a local New Testament church,
especially in regards to missions work
and getting people saved.
You know, the Bible talks about
that He gave you some pastors and prophets
and some evangelists and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
talking about the fact that the church is there
to complete you as a believer
in your virtue Christian living,
but let me just also say this,
in your ability to preach the gospel as well, okay?
And this is why it's important to be a part
of a local New Testament church
so you can be trained on how to preach the gospel.
Obviously you have people out there
who don't have a church,
they all have to preach in the gospel.
You do a lot better job
if you're actually in a local New Testament church
and you learn to actually preach the gospel there first.
Say why?
Well, because of the fact that these ronin soul winners
can often come up with some funky practices.
Just come up with weird,
and then they're kind of like their own authority.
They don't have anybody there critiquing them
and they might have like bad practices,
things that just are not working.
And so you need the exhortations of a church
to kind of mold you into being a soul winner.
Point being is that the church plays a vital role
in the salvation of the loss.
It sends out soul winners.
Our church sends out soul winners.
I mean, there's people that are going
to Barbados today, right?
You guys are going to,
tonight you guys are going to Barbados
to preach the gospel to the heathen,
you know, whoever's there, whatever.
These islanders or whatever,
to preach the gospel to them.
This is because a church is setting forth
the project of going there and doing so.
And so the church plays a vital role.
Let me also say this,
is they go with me if you would
to go to 1 Peter chapter one.
1 Peter chapter one.
So the church plays a vital role.
It sends out the soul winner.
Let me tell you what else plays a vital role in salvation
and this is very important, the scriptures.
The scriptures play a vital role in salvation.
Not your illustration.
Not your testimony.
Not your, you know, cute little phrases or whatever.
Use them if you want.
But the Bible needs to be preeminent.
The scriptures are what they say.
Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Look at 1 Peter chapter one.
And verse 23, if you would,
it says, being born again,
not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible,
by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.
Folks, we live in a society
where people just want to have a way with words.
They want a way with explaining salvation.
And they're almost trying to like win people
and win people over by arguments
and debates without the Bible.
But the power is in the Bible.
You know, the word of God is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword.
It pierces even to the dividing of thunder
of soul and spirit, joints of the marrow.
It's a discerner of the thoughts of the intense of the heart.
The word of God is what saves people, okay?
And I'm not downplaying illustrations,
testimonials, and so forth,
but they need to be used in conjunction
with the saturated amount of the Bible.
You know what that means?
That means you need to know the Bible.
That means when you're preaching the word of God,
you better have some verses memorized.
You better have passages memorized
or you better have them tabbed up, highlighted in your Bible.
You need to make sure you place your faith
in the word of God
and you want people to place their faith
in the word of God as well.
You know what that means?
It means when you're preaching to someone,
show them what the Bible says.
Okay, like, hey, you know, this is what the Bible,
read it, you know?
Read it.
I remember one time I was out souling with my family
this lady came out and I was preaching the gospel
to her and I'm like showing her
and she just kind of like looking at me
and I'm just like, man, this is late.
And I'm just like, hey, you know, right here,
here, you know, I'm preaching in Spanish.
And then, you know, after a while, she's like,
oh, I'm blind, I can't see.
It's like that fish lens.
Like, man, she's like, I can't see.
Well, good thing faith comes with my hearing, man.
So at that point, I just closed my Bible
because I can preach the gospel just from memory.
But, you know, at that point, I was just like,
okay, then this is no point, you know,
using the physical Bible because she can't even,
she can't even see it.
But in general, you're gonna run into people
who can't see and you wanna make sure
that they see what you're saying there,
what you're reading so that they're not placing
their faith in you but in the actual power of God
which comes through the scriptures, okay?
Very important.
And let me also say this, you know,
in 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 15,
it talks about Timothy being wise into salvation
through the scriptures, meaning that, you know,
as a child, he was learning the scriptures
and, you know, his mother was teaching him
the scriptures, his grandmother was teaching him
the scriptures, and what did that do?
It kind of prepared his heart to receive salvation later on.
You know what that means, parents,
you need to make sure that you're reading the scriptures
and talking about the scriptures
to your children at home.
Do not minimize the importance of the Bible
in your household, okay?
And don't think, well, you know,
I just don't think they understand, oh, they get it.
Okay, they probably listen better interest
than you do sometimes.
That's just the fact.
Kids absorb things like a sponge.
And, you know, I try to make sure as best as I can
and my wife does a way better job at this than I do
because, you know, she's a keeper at home
that, you know, we give them, we're teaching them the Bible,
we're teaching them biblical concepts,
even if they're not saved,
because we believe that the scriptures
can make someone wise into salvation, okay?
Saturates their heart, it's preparing them
to receive salvation, okay?
Go to Romans chapter 10, if you would,
go to Romans chapter 10.
Romans chapter 10, if you would.
Woo-hoo, spirit, yeah.
That's God's judgment on you, Pastor Maria.
How shall they believe in him
in whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
You know what they need?
They need a preacher of the gospel
to bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
So you know what?
God the Father can do all this work.
God the Son died, he already did the work.
The Holy Spirit can reprove.
He can testify of the Son.
The church can send out soul winners.
The scripture has the power, but if you don't go,
it's all meaningless, okay?
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine,
1 Corinthians chapter nine, if you would.
And look, make no mistake about it.
Let me just tell you this, we save people, okay?
Oh, brother, let me just correct you
on one thing real quick.
We don't save anybody.
God says, no, no, no, we save people.
The Bible says that we save people.
And if some have compassion, making a difference,
others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.
And you know what, anytime someone tells me that,
like, brother, we don't say it,
I tell them, like, yeah, you probably don't.
We probably don't preach the gospel at all.
You know, because you always have
these Monday morning soul winners online
that think that they can tell you how to preach the gospel,
how to get people saved, how to do missions
when they never do it.
I'm not gonna take advice from people like that, okay?
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter nine and verse number 19.
It says, for though I be free from all men,
yet have I made myself servant unto all
that I might gain the more.
Unto the Jews, I became as a Jew
that I might gain the Jews to them
that are under the law as under the law,
that I might gain them that are under the law,
to them that are without law as without law,
being not without law to God but under the law to Christ,
that I might gain them that are without law.
Look at verse 22, to the week became I as weak,
that I might gain the weak.
I am made all things to all men
that I might by all means save some.
Bible says, the apostle Paul saved them.
And you know what, that's our job as well.
We need to make sure that in order for us
to complete this circle,
we gotta get involved in saving people, right?
And taking credit when we do, that's what the Bible says.
Now, what's the, here's my conclusion, okay?
What's interesting about these points?
Well, they kind of mirror one another, don't they?
They mirror one another.
God the father, right?
He draws them.
He sent the son.
God the son is the one who actually did the work
on the cross, okay?
And then you have the Holy Spirit
that testifies of the son.
Or the second half, the church sends the soul winner.
The scripture, just like Jesus,
is the word of God that actually saves.
And you know what, the Holy Spirit, like the soul winner,
testifies of the son.
All of these have to work in conjunction
in order to get people saved, my friends.
These are the rules of salvation.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word
and thank you for the explicit teachings of the Bible.
Help us as your people to do our part, Lord.
God the father has done his part.
God the son has already done his part.
The Holy Spirit is doing his part.
Churches are doing their part.
The scripture can do its part.
And Lord, you need us to do our part as well,
to go out there, open our mouths boldly
to make known the mysteries of the gospel.
Help us to do so.
Keep those who are going to Barbados safe, Lord.
Give them a prosperous journey.
May they get a lot of people saved out there, Lord.
And I pray that you give them a prosperous journey
as they do so.
We love you, we thank you.
We pray the sins in Jesus' name.
Amen.