It's the name of Jesus. Blessed be that name. I want you to notice that the
answer in verse number 31, they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved in thy house. This belief we're talking about tonight is
not a bunch is not an assent to a bunch of facts. It has nothing to do with the
fact that you believe that Jesus Christ the Son of God because you believe that
you're going to heaven. That's not going to get you in heaven. All of them. You can
believe everything that you're supposed to believe as orthodox as you can be
right down the line and still go to hell. So what you talking about? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The progressive revelation that's
involved from the time Christ ascended to heaven 40 days after his resurrection
and the calling out of the Apostle Paul and we've studied some of that in
Sunday school and that's not an easy thing to understand. For it says in Mark
chapter 16 verse 16, he that believeth and is baptized should be saved. And if
you read that text it's as plain as it can be that baptism is involved with
salvation. But my friend when you read that and look very carefully at it you
must understand that that's part of a commission that was given before the
Church of God was ever called and called aside and the Apostle Paul was ordained
as the first man to give the revelation of the grace of God to the church. That
revelation in Mark chapter number 16 I believe personally is a direct reference
to the Jewish believers. I believe it's a reference to them to openly identify
themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that ties in with the book of
Hebrews plainly where it says that it's impossible to renew him again to
repentance seeing that he crucifies himself the Son of God afresh and puts
him to an open shame. All scriptures they say today you know they say well if it's
in the Bible it's for us right now. Well then apply Hebrews 6. See what I mean?
All the Bible is for us but all the Bible may not necessarily be doctrinally
for us. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness that the man of God may
be perfect, thoroughly furnished, and to all good works. Yes sir it is. And all
Scripture is for us. But all Scripture does not have a direct
doctrinal reference to us as believers. Jesus Christ. Did Mary go to heaven? Of
course she did. Why? How do you know that preacher? For at the cross at Calvary the
Lord Jesus Christ looked down and saw the Apostle John standing there with his
mother and when he looked at her and he said something to her that is very
important to understand what he meant by what he said. What did he say preacher? He
said to the Apostle John, Behold thy mother. To his mother behold thy son. And
what he was saying to Mary easily flies across the top of the head if you don't
pay special attention to it. Here's what he was saying. He was saying I love
you, you're my mother, you brought me into this world, but you better know me as
your Savior. And from this day forward your claim on me as your son is over
null and void. From this day forward John takes you to his house and John will be
your son and your relationship with John will be as this as if it was with
me. From this moment on Mary I am your Lord God Almighty and Savior and that's
what it is and that's the way it is and she had to be born again like all the
rest of us. John 3. The new birth has not only to do with salvation, it has not
only to do the forgiveness of sins, it has not only to do with the with with
the fact that you now have become an entirely different creature. The new
birth in John 3 is absolutely necessary for you to be in that second man last
Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to go into the future into what God has
laid in store for us. The new birth puts you in the Son of God, folks. This is why
Nicodemus, you must be born again. The new birth certainly includes salvation, it
includes the forgiveness of sins, it includes all of these things, but it also
includes the great truth that you could never enter into the future in that last
Adam, second man, unless you were in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. So you must be
born into him. You're born of God and born into Christ. Did you know the Bible
says that you, the Apostle Peter says this, that you were begotten again to a
lively hope by what? What does Peter say? How does he say that? I'm going to make you
think tonight. You have been, you've been begotten again unto a lively hope by the,
there you go, say it again, of what? Jesus Christ from the dead. Now go home and
think about that. So if, if I were one who wasn't sure about my salvation, I would
take what this great apostle has to say who's writing about 80 to 90 AD. Here's a
man who wrote the Gospel of John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John and Revelation. He wrote the
last book in the Bible and the Apostle John in his five little short chapters
in 1st John. He talks over and over and over again about the believer keeping
the commandments of the Lord. And by this shall you know that you have the love of
God in you if you keep my commandments. By this shall you know that you have
truly believed if you keep his commandments. His commandments are not
grievous commandments. What the Apostle John says in that little five chapters
of 1st John, so powerful, for he talks about the hatred of Satan and the love
of God. And he says that to keep the commandments of the Lord are not
grievous. If it is a horrible burden on you to try to live right, to try to live
to please the Lord, then it's for certain you don't know him. You got a bunch of
stuff in your head but there's no life in your soul. For if there is life in
your soul it will manifest itself in the way you live. This cavalier generation
today that believes in eternal security, and I do, if I believe, if I believe that
you're born again then you're born again. But I also believe what the
Apostle John says in 1st John. He says they went out from us because they were
not made they were not of us. They went out from us and it may be made known
they were not of us. I can't quote it exactly but the bottom line is he says
they went out from us because they were not part of us. They didn't belong to us.
The old-fashioned believers called it the perseverance of the saints. So let me
give you a little test tonight to see if you really are saved. Let's see if you
really do know the Lord. 1st John lays it out for us now. He deals with sin and he
says that if you say you have no sin, his word is not in you. If you say you have
not sinned, the truth is not in you. The word and the truth. If you don't have sin
then you can't see that you sinned then you have no spiritual perception. To walk
in fellowship with the Lord is to walk in conscious understanding that
you're not perfect but you want communion with God and if you walk in
that understanding and that communion, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, is
going to constantly cleanse you. Once you get out of the will of God, start walking
in ignorance and darkness as a Christian, dear friend, then you're going to walk
toward death as a Christian. The way God keeps you from dying and from
committing the sin unto death is by having you in fellowship and communion,
walking in the light as he is in the light, constantly confessing that you
need the blood of Christ to cleanse you and by doing that you walk in communion
with the Lord. Now what I just said to you is a powerful thing. Say why is it
powerful, preacher? Because there's no place in there to slack off. There's
nowhere in there to get saved and lay back and just float on into heaven.
There's nowhere in there for you to get saved and then live any way you please.
There's nowhere in that text for you to say, well I got saved 20-30 years ago and
you know I mean once saved always saved and I believe in eternal security and
God's not a liar so I'm going to heaven. I may not get the rewards of communion and
fellowship. Folks, if you don't have communion and fellowship with the Lord,
you're going downward. The only thing that can keep you from going downward in
that spiral downward is to walk in the light as he is in the light and you have
fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses
you from all sin. The cleansing is not a once-and-for-all thing. It is a constant
everyday communion and fellowship with the Lord. Now when you were born again
your sins were washed away in the blood of Christ. That happened once.
The Spirit of this age with everything in you, you have got to constantly work at
communion and fellowship with God and I'm afraid that a lot of my Baptist
brethren, a lot of the Baptist preachers that I know, I'm afraid that they'd spend
an awful lot of time preaching an awful lot of cheap grace and they make they
preach a lot to make people feel good in the situation they're in but there's no
communion and there's no fellowship with the Lord and that's sad. That's real
sad. What must I do to be saved? Well in Acts chapter number 16 if you'll notice
the Philippian jailer was told believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. Eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead and he commanded us
to preach unto the people to testify that it is he which was ordained of God
to be the judge of the quick and the dead to give all the prophets witness
that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall have remission of
sins. Verse 44, while Peter yet spake these words what happened? While he's
preaching, you say what what's happening here preacher? Let me tell you what's
happening in Acts 10. The Apostle Peter is like Apollos. He knew so much. He was
preaching remission of sins, Acts 2, where the Jews are going to be forgiven, the
died are going to be forgiven, the sins in the past are going to be forgiven and
have been forgiven by the death of Christ on the cross for the remission of
the sins that are past. When Christ died on the cross he died for all the sins
past but he's died for the whole nation of Israel as a collective body of people.
Watch how simple he makes it. For I delivered unto you first of all that
which I also received. How that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures. That he was buried and that he rose the third day according to the
scriptures. That's the simple truth of the gospel. What follows is proof of the
resurrection. He was seen of Cephas, he was seen of this one, he was seen of that
one. That is the simple gospel. What is it? Christ died on the cross for your sins.
He was buried then he rose again the third day from the dead physically,
visibly. We say, isn't there something else involved? Isn't there something else?
Don't we need, do we need water baptism preacher? You need water baptism as a
witness and testimony after you're born again. Christ. How do you receive him then
preacher? How do you receive him? How are you saved? You need to answer that
question tonight dear friend. You do. You need to. Let me say this to you one
more time. Some of the most horrible damage has been done especially to the
Baptist Church by these big churches that have these soul winning one, two,
three, believe after me quick prayerisms. If your salvation doesn't mean any more
to you than that, you just, some people just breeze into church. You know we've
got pilgrims here too like everybody else has. You say what's a pilgrim? A
pilgrim is one that shows up once or twice a year and makes a pilgrimage. You
know two or three times a year certain events what have you, Mother's Day, Easter,
Christmas, whatever else. They make a pilgrimage but they never darken a
church door again the rest of the year. How could somebody like that think
they're saved? That cheapens what you believe. Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. The
Greek word translated believe for the most part is pistuo. That word pistuo
simply means to put total complete trust into, to cling to, to embrace into your
life. You don't, you're not saved because of what you believe about Christ. You're
saved because you have Christ. You receive him. You know folks when you live
a godless, reprobate, filthy life and then you come in contact with the Lord
Jesus Christ and all of that just changes all of a sudden. Most of the time
people like that don't doubt too much their salvation because they know good
and well that there's no way they could have changed without the power of God. A
lot of folks are raised in church and they're raised in a good family, good
people, clean people, moral people, born-again people and they never really
get out and do anything. They don't realize the potential is there for
everybody but they don't really get out and do anything and I'm not in, I'm not
telling you to do that, to go out and do something.