You read old preaching the great majority of that preaching was what it was on
Salvation what it is how it is applied
How can you know that you're saved and it's not because one time in your life you prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come
Into your heart. It's not because with some
Evangelist you wrote your name in the back of your Bible and put a date there
You
Know you're saved because the Spirit bears witness that you are born again
because your life has changed and is changing and continues in a process of change and when it stalls in that process of change that
Merciful loving God comes and disciplines you
That's the difference
You see why there's no power in that thing. They call the gospel
Because it's not the gospel that they're preaching it's not and I'll take any man to task who says it is it's not I
Worked in a country for many many years of my life where everybody believed they were saved because as infants they were baptized
They can commit every
Abomination and hellish form of device and thought and yet they believe they're saved because when they were infants they were baptized and
Baptists scoff at that and I tell you Baptists do the very same thing today
The only difference is it's not infant baptism. It's repeating a prayer
Treating salvation like a flu shot. I
Repented don't worry about me preacher. I repented don't worry about me preacher. I done did that
My dear friend salvation is not a flu shot
I
The evidence that you truly repented long ago when you said you did is because you're still repenting now and even to a greater degree
The evidence that you believed a long time ago is that you're still believing now and evermore
believing in greater and greater degrees
Do you want to ask Jesus to come into your heart no
These are the things that I'll usually deal with a person on I say
Well, the first question is have you repented?
Now I could go into a theological, you know treatise on what repentance is, but usually it will confuse
I'd rather use illustrations that helps people to understand what I'm talking about. I look at them and I say sir
Or a congregation I'll say now congregation
You may have come here today
For every reason in the world other than the right reason and
The whole time I've been preaching you've been looking at your clock wondering. When is this diatribe going to be over?
When are you going to get out of here?
And right now you're only concerned about where you're going to eat or where you're going to go after church
I want to tell you sir
You cannot be saved if that's your attitude because you have no repentance
But
If you came here this morning with all the wrong reasons and you sat here wondering when this was going to be over
but part way through this sermon
You knew that someone was dealing with your heart and you begin to see the holiness of God like never before
You begin to see your sin as never before and your attitude towards that sin about which you once boasted
Has totally changed and you hate it and you're ashamed sir. That is repentance. You can be saved you lack one other thing
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Give you another illustration and it's been very helpful to many people
It doesn't always happen this way sometimes I have preached and people have come and talked to me for no fewer than a few minutes
I've even had people come down the aisle crying out
What must I do to be saved cry out to the Lord and be saved but that's not the way it happens always
Remember preaching up north one time and a girl came forward and she says I need to broken. I need to be saved
And I knew something of her case. I knew her father. Well, and I said, but how many times
Have you been saved?
How many times have you prayed that prayer?
She said six and I said it didn't do any good did it?
She said no
My life is vile and sinful and I'm empty and lost
And I said, well, there's no sense then in us repeating that same mistake. Is there she said no
She said what do I do I said go home
just go home and
Cry out to God as though hell were opening up its mouth to swallow you down cry out to God that he might save you
She came the next night and she looked just tore up just just
Totally broken and she said I cried out to God all night and he did not answer me and I fell asleep
But I woke up this morning and I'm just in such distress. I don't know what to do. She says what do I do?
I said you have two options
Most of you will think this is cruel. I
Said you have two options
Stop crying out to God and go to hell or continue crying out to God till he saves you
She
Went home
The next night I was there with her father and we were talking about these things and he was excited
most fathers would have been mad but he was excited about what God was doing in his daughter's life and the way that it was
handled and and
everything and we were up there weeping and the old man was crying out for his daughter and then the music started and he went
And sat back down and I took my seat up there in the front and I was sitting there
I was still crying out for this lady and all of a sudden someone plopped down beside me
Opened my eyes and looked and it was her
She's glowing I said what's happened?
She goes if every person in the world got together and told me right now I was lost
I would still have the greatest of confidence that my God has heard my voice and he has saved me
I said what happened?
I said she said I cried out all night and I fell asleep and just total distress and I didn't know what to do
And I woke up the next morning and as soon as my eyes just flew open
She said God pressed upon my heart. I have saved the daughter
And she said the love of God was shed abroad in my heart
Some of you old old people will remember preaching like that from a long time ago
But we've turned it into a little business, haven't we?
If you're here today you could be saved
You may be saved in the next five minutes, you may be saved in the next five weeks
But as preachers of the gospel we must deal with you honestly and not like charlatans
Salvation is a supernatural work of God
I would submit to you that the work of salvation, the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation
The work of regeneration in that is manifested as much power as when Christ was resurrected from the dead
And greater power than when the Spirit created the world itself
Because in this work the Spirit is creating, recreating
Taking a wicked, vile, God hating heart and recreating it in true righteousness and true holiness
In the image of Jesus Christ, in the image of God
That is the gospel
That Christ died for sins
And that's what we're going to talk about tonight
That Christ died for sin
And why is that necessary?
Payment has to be made
The justice of God must be satisfied
Your sin must be put away so that you can come to God and He can forgive you
And that was done through the blood of Jesus Christ on that tree
That is applied not through some little contract
But it is applied through the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit
But at the same time that it is applied through the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit
At this moment God commands all men to repent and believe
That today is the day of salvation
That you are to flee from the wrath to come
To flee from the law of Moses that condemns you into the city of refuge who is Jesus Christ our Lord
Run to Him
Repentance is simply giving up
To stop fighting against God
And to stop attempting to gain your own salvation through your own works
To literally give up and fall upon Christ
That is salvation
So that you say nothing in my hands I bring simply to the cross I cling