(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now the part of the chapter I want to focus on is beginning here in verse number 8 of Romans chapter 10 where the Bible reads this, it says, But what saith it? What saith what? The righteousness which is of faith, mentioned in verse 6. What saith the righteousness which is of faith? But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? And we'll stop there for now. But what I want to preach about tonight is what's mentioned there in verse 13 and elsewhere in the chapter, calling upon the name of the Lord, calling upon the Lord and being saved. Now what's interesting here is that God basically gives us a formula of the order of events in order for someone to get saved. But what's interesting is he gives it to us in reverse order. It starts at the result, okay, and then he works backwards. He starts out in verse 13, and just the part that I want to talk about right now, he said, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? You see, it starts out where someone is sent out to go preach the gospel. They're sent out of their local church, and that's not just a pastor or a missionary. That's just a born-again child of God sent out to go preach God's Word, and they preach God's Word in order that people might what? Hear God's Word, and the people hear God's Word in order that they might believe God's Word, and they believe God's Word in order that they might call upon the Lord to be saved. That's what the Bible says. It says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And it says, of course, they can't call on him if they haven't believed. And guess what? If they call on him without believing, they're not saved, because you have to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead in order to be saved. There's a reason why. Because with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. They both are hand in hand. One of them takes place in your heart, one of them takes place in your mouth, and salvation takes place as a result. Now turn, if you would, to John chapter 4. And put your finger in John 4, and then turn back to Psalm 116. John 4 with one hand and Psalm 116 with the other. You see, this is the crux of the message tonight. And this is not why I'm preaching the message tonight, but just as an example of why this kind of message needs to be preached, and this is not why I'm preaching it, because I already decided to preach this message before this happened, but this morning I got an email at about 10 o'clock from some kind of a Calvinist, street-preaching, whatever, false teacher, and he condemned me for preaching decisional regeneration, is what he called it. You know, this email that I got from someone. I skimmed over it and deleted the thing. But he said, oh, decisional regeneration, as if it's all about a person making a decision to be saved, and he said that's why you shouldn't pray with people and have them call upon the Lord for salvation, as if they're the one doing it, or they're the one making the decision. You know, this decisional regeneration, he said, no, salvation's a process. He said it's, you know, you hear God's word, you believe it, you believe it a little more, you believe it a little more, no! Decision takes place in an instant, and it's a decision that you have to make. Now look at John chapter 4, the Bible says in verse 10, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, what is the gift of God? If she knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, say it to thee, give me the drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Because living water is the gift, because Jesus said in John chapter 7 that whosoever believeth on me, he said that the Holy Spirit would spring up in him a well of living water unto eternal life, in John 7. And so the living water and eternal life are one and the same. That's why he said if you drink of this water, you'll never thirst again. Now keep your finger there and look at Psalm 116. You see, the New Testament teachings, they're not new in the New Testament. The New Testament basically goes into detail most of the time on things that are already taught in the Old Testament. It builds upon the Old Testament. I mean Jesus Christ didn't come on the scene and just start preaching a totally different doctrine. Why do you think when he looked at Nicodemus, when he preached to him about being born again and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, are thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things? Why did he expect him to already know it from the Old Testament? Because of the fact that the teachings of the New Testament are found in the Old Testament. Because Jesus Christ is saying yesterday, today, and forever. And so we understand much more in the New Testament. It's much clearer in the New Testament, but the teachings of the New Testament are found in the Old Testament. They're found throughout the Bible. To him, give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth shall receive remission of sins. And so the things that are taught in the Bible are taught throughout the Bible. That's why Jesus said, in my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. He didn't say if it were so, you know, I told you, he said if it were not so, I would have told you that it were not so, but you already knew that before I even came on the scene that my father's house were many mansions, and if it were not so, I would have told you otherwise. Because he'd already learned the Old Testament. Look at Psalm 116 verse 3. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Notice the pains of hell. Notice the sorrows of death. He says, Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. This is the Lord, and righteous ye are God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple. I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of living. Look at verse 10. I believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. And it's clear he's talking about being saved from death, talking about being saved from hell. He says, I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. You see, the cup of salvation is something that you have to take and drink it. And you do that by calling upon the name of the Lord. And believing that that cup contains the living water is not enough. You have to say it, Lord, give me the drink, and drink the water. And I'm going to go into that more in the message here. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 13. Notice though that he said, I believed, therefore have I spoken. You see, faith and saying the words, stop and think about it, my friend. Where did you get the faith in the first place? Faith cometh by what? Hearing what? Words. How do you express what you believe in words? How do you know what I believe tonight? How do you know, Brother Dave, how do you know what I believe, Brother Dave? Because I told him what I believe. That's how he knows what I believe. And no one knows what I believed except that I had told them. Is there any other way to know what I believe? No, there's not. Look at 2 Corinthians 4 verse 13. We have the same spirit of faith, dispensationalist. The same spirit of faith that David had in Psalm 116. We have the same spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up also us by Jesus and shall present us with you. Just one page to the right in your Bible, look at 2 Corinthians 6, 2. 2 Corinthians 6, 2, for he said, I have heard thee in a time accepted. I have heard thee in a time accepted. I have heard thee in a time accepted. And in the day of salvation have I suffered thee, behold, now is the process. No, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Look at Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter number 12. First book in the New Testament, Matthew chapter number 12. Matthew chapter number 12, the Bible reads in Matthew 12, verse 34, oh generation of vipers, Matthew 12, 34, how can ye being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, he's talking to the Pharisees, a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. Now watch carefully, verse 36. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. Now hold on a second, do you think that I as a believer am going to have to give an account for every idle word? No. The day of judgment that's referred to here is talking about the great white throne of judgment, where people will be judged, every man according to his works, and the books will be opened, and the dead, small and great, will stand before God. Now those who have been saved, they've already been risen again, they've already been glorified, so forth. The dead will stand before God and be judged according to their works. And they will give an account for every idle word that they have spoken. You say, Pastor Anderson, that sounds like a big waste of time. Does it really matter what every idle word that a bunch of unbelievers spoke? Well but see, if we were just reading verse 36 alone, you might have that question in your mind. So what? You know what I mean? But look at verse 37, here's why. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. That's why. Because I firmly believe that when unbelievers stand before God at the great white throne of judgment, they will be damned to hell, my friend, based upon what they have said, which exhibits what they believe. Because of the fact that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak it. Look at Psalm 53, turn to Psalm 53, we'll see the same concept. You see, somebody will stand before God and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works. And then while I keep professing them, I never knew you. Depart from me. Depart from me who? You either work iniquity, you're workers of iniquity. Now wait a minute. What if they say, oh, but I believed in you alone, Christ. Oh really? On December 27th, 2004, you said that salvation was through baptism. That's funny because over here on December 3rd, 2005, you said that the Bible was not God's word, that it was written by man. And over here you said you could lose your salvation, and therefore you go to hell. You see, they'll be condemned by their words. That's what the Bible says. The Bible says that in the day of judgment, their words will be used against them to condemn them to eternity in hell. Their own words will be used against them. That's what it says. By thy words thou shalt be justified. How did I get saved? I was justified by my words, my friend. I believed in my heart, but the only reason that I knew that is because I said it. That's how I know I'm saved. Because I believe, therefore I have spoken. I took the cup of salvation by calling upon the Lord. Look at Psalm 53. You say, well, I don't think so. I think you just believe, but you don't have to call upon the Lord or confess with your mouth or anything like that. Look at Psalm 53, verse 1. Look at what the Bible says here. The fool hath said in his heart. So it's possible to speak in your heart, isn't it? You see, when Jesus knew their thoughts, it wasn't a picture. It was words where they said, who is this that speaketh blasphemy, who can forgive sins but God only? That was a thought that they had. As he speaketh in his heart, so is he, the Bible says. Here it says, the fool hath said in his heart. There is no God. It didn't just say he thought about it, no, he said it in his heart. And God knows what he even said in his heart. There is no God. Corrupt are they and have done abominable iniquity. There is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. Every one of them has gone back. They are altogether become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no not one. Now look who we're talking about in verse 4. Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? So who are we talking about? The workers of iniquity. They're the fools who said that there is no God. And he says here, who eat up my people as they eat bread, they have not called upon God. Do you see that? Why is that significant? Because they didn't call upon God to be saved. Now Genesis 4.26, you don't have to turn there, turn if you would to Acts chapter 2. Genesis 4.26, and to Seth to him also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Genesis 12.8, and he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Haai on the east. And there he built in an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord. That's Abraham calling upon the name of the Lord. What's interesting is that this event in Genesis 12.8 is referred back to years later. In Genesis 13.3, when he said, and he went on his journeys from the south even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Haai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. Why does that matter? Well later on, it's referring back to the time at the first, at the beginning, when God first called him, and he called upon the name of the Lord there, okay? Seth called upon the name of the Lord. Isaac in Genesis 26.25 called upon the name of the Lord. Acts 2.21, are you in Acts 2? And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 2.21. Look at Acts 22.16. Acts 22.16. Acts 22.16. And look what the Bible says here. It says, and now why terriest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now we know that the walkers of baptism can't wash away your sins, because the Bible says that baptism in 1 Peter 3.21 is not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. So basically when the Bible's talking about washing away your sins, it's talking about calling on the name of the Lord. You see, in order for Ananias to baptize Paul, he wanted to know that he saved, so he said, you know, you've heard it preached, whatever you believe, but he said, you know, you need to call upon the Lord to be baptized, and that's the order. Obviously sometimes things are spoken in a different order, but obviously you need to call upon the Lord in order for Ananias to know that he saved so he could baptize him. So we see this all throughout the Bible. I've got another four pages here, and we will go through all four pages, because of the fact that this is an important issue, and because of the fact that there are people in our church who seem to think, and have been telling others, and have decided that calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation is worse, and that if we add that to the Gospel, listen to me now, that if we add calling upon the name of the Lord or confessing with our mouth, and this is a small minority in our church, don't get me wrong, but it still exists, they've said we're adding something to the Gospel. Now let me ask you something. Based on what I just read to you, are we adding something to the Gospel? Now hold on a second now. You say, well it's just belief, it's just belief. Yes, but you speak what you believe, and you believe what you hear in the ear. It goes in words, and it comes out words. That's what the Bible teaches. But you see, they say, well, if a person believes that you have to confess with your mouth and call upon the name of the Lord for salvation, then that person is teaching work salvation, and the person who's teaching that is not even saved, according to some people in this church that have spoken to me. That a person who thinks that you have to confess with your mouth or call upon the Lord, and they believe that you have to do that to be saved, is not saved themselves because they've added works. Well let me ask you something. Have you ever read the invitation to our church that we've handed out hundreds of thousands of? And in fact, Brother Dave, would you come please and hand every single person in the auditorium one of these right now? You've already got a sack. Let me give you a few more just in case. Let me ask you another question. Have you ever watched the soul winning demonstration video created by Brother Dave and myself in 2007 to demonstrate how to win somebody to Christ? Did you notice something at the end that we prayed a prayer and somebody prayed and said, please save me right now and give me eternal life. I'm only trusting you Jesus, amen. Do you remember this question that I asked? If you asked Jesus to save you right now, would he do it? And the answer was yes. And how long would you be saved for eternity? Now do you remember seeing that demo made in 2007? Or maybe you remember a sermon by Roger Jimenez, those that go back this far. On February 25th, 2006 when he stood up and preached and said this is where Abraham got saved in Genesis 12.8 where he called upon the name of the Lord. This is where we see Abraham's salvation in scripture, February 25th, 2006. Or maybe you remember a certain Bible study I did on Romans chapter 10 where I discussed with Brother Dave and we talked about the fact that he had a love one with Alzheimer's who was unable to speak and we went through this whole issue in depth. You can download the sermon and start at minute 16, it was preached in 2007. You see if you look at the back of this invitation right here, and by the way, can I tell you something about this invitation? It has never changed. The only way that it has changed is to update a phone number, to update an address, and to add one point to what we believe. I'm going to just be very forthcoming with you and tell you everything that has changed since this church started. The address and the phone number have changed. Under what we believe, I added a section that says we believe only in the local church and reject the teaching of a universal church. That section was added. Nothing else has been added or altered or changed, except for the fact that under what faith for a Baptist church offers your family, instead of practical biblical teaching, because I didn't like that wording, we changed that to sound biblical teaching. I don't like this idea that everything has to be real practical. It's all practical. You know what I mean? If it's from the Bible, it's all profitable for doctrine. That's all that's changed, my friend. Let's go to the back, shall we? Let's read together as a church here. You can just follow along silently as I read. The Bible way to heaven. Number one, admit you are a sinner for all of sin and come short of the glory of God. No one is good enough to go to heaven, and you're not going to believe who came up with every word on the back of this, me. I wrote this. I wrote this in November of 2005. No one is good enough to go to heaven on his own merit. No matter how much good we do, we still come short. Isn't that the truth? Number two, realize the penalty for sin. For the wages of sin is death. Just as there are wages for good, there is punishment for wrong. The penalty for our sins is eternal death in a place called hell. Number three, believe that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again for you. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Number four, trust Christ alone as your savior. How are you going to do that? But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Eternal life is a gift purchased by the blood of Jesus and offered freely to those who call upon him by faith. Now hasn't that always been there? It's offered to those who do what by faith? Call upon him by faith. Anyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved forever. Being saved is a one time event. You know I was just trying to make it very clear there. It's a one time pivotal moment when you call upon Christ by faith and he becomes your savior. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Let us help you word a prayer. Realize it's not words that save. Is that what it says? Does it say it's not words that save? No that's not what it says. What does it say brother Dave? It's not mere words that save. It's not just words that save, but your faith in Jesus Christ you must call upon him by what? Faith. Dear Jesus, here's a sample prayer. It's just helping you word a prayer. Nothing magical about these particular words. Dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I deserve to go to hell. Please save me and take me to heaven when I die. Amen. Now, it's not the words that matter as in which words you use. It could be Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. It could be God be merciful to me a sinner, a scripture that we're going to look at a little later in the message. It could be, you know, fill in the blank, Lord give me to drink in John chapter 4. But you know what? This is what the Bible teaches and guess what? This is what Pastor Anderson has always taught and this is what Faith for Baptist Church has always taught and nothing about it has changed. So here's my question for you. If you feel that someone who teaches that you have to call upon the Lord to get saved is adding works to salvation and does not save themself, then what you're saying is that basically this tract here, or it's not really a tract that contains our church, you know, plant salvation on the back, is teaching a false gospel and you're the one who's been handing it out. So you've been handing out a false gospel. How many have you handed out? Do a little estimate in your mind, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500,000? Did you bother to read it before you handed it out? Did you read it first before you handed it out? Probably not. And I can guess why. Because the same kind of person who's too lazy to read the back of the church tract is the same kind of person who's too lazy to read their Bible cover to cover. And it's the same kind of people who want to go by what somebody says instead of what this book says. And listen to me. This church has always stood for the same thing and it came out of this book right here. And let me tell you something, buddy, you better read this book and you better read the tract and you better know what you're doing. You say, why are you so mad? Let me tell you why I'm so mad. Because I'm sick and tired of what Faithful Word Baptist Church is turning into. This is a great church, this is the best church I've ever been to and I don't like what it's turning into because I'll tell you what it's turning into, it's turning into a bunch of people who don't know what they're talking about because they only just are a parent who repeats Pastor Anderson. Now again, I'm not saying it's the majority because it's not. But let me tell you something and you listen to me good and I'm not talking to people that are new. I'm not talking to people that have only been in church at Faithful Word for a few months. I'm not talking to people that are new. But let me tell you something, if you are in this church and you've been in this church for a substantial amount of time and you've never read this book cover to cover, you are not right with God and you are nothing more than just parroting what Pastor Anderson said or what you think he said, what I didn't even say, what I didn't even teach. You don't know what you're talking about. Let me quote Brother Chris Sosi. I like the way he put it, if you haven't read the Bible cover to cover, you don't know nothing. And I agree with you Brother Chris, if you don't read it cover to cover, you don't know nothing. And let me tell you something, you can go out and go out and do a bunch of soul winning and go out there and work and work and work, but know what you're talking about because you've read this book. And you're off balance my friend, which you've got time for everything else, you've got time to go out and talk to everybody about doctrine, you've got time to chit chat about doctrine and talk about all this stuff, you've got time to get on the internet on some forum or some chat room or YouTube or Facebook or whatever, talk a bunch of doctrine. Why don't you make the time to read this book? And the sad thing is that many people who think they're going to be a preacher one day are the ones that are the guilty ones that I'm talking about. Because they think they're going to preach one day and their preaching is going to be garbage. Because let me tell you about garbage, garbage is something that's regurgitated up, vomit. And let me tell you something, unless you read the Bible for yourself and learn what you believe for yourself, all you're doing is chewing up Pastor Anderson's sermon, chewing it up, swallow it, and then you just get up and bleh. That's what your preaching is if you don't read this book. A lot of preachers across America, that's what their preaching is. They regurgitate some fundamental pope, you know, whether it be Jack Scott or Paul Chappell or Jack Treeper or whoever their hero is, whoever their role model is, and they eat it up and eat it up and then bleh. Listen to me, if I want to hear Jack Scott preach, which I don't, I'll go listen to Jack Scott preach. And if I come listen to you preach, I want to hear you preach what you learned from the Bible from the Holy Spirit. And guess what, people don't want to hear you regurgitate my sermon. If they want to hear you preach, they want to hear you preach, because if they wanted to hear me preach, guess what they'd do, they'd listen to me preach. Because I have a feeling I can preach my sermon better than you can regurgitate it. Because you'll take my sermon and you'll regurgitate it wrong. That's what you'll do. That's clearly what's happening. People take what I preach and they twist it and regurgitate it wrong. Because they didn't study the show themselves approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Let me tell you something, if you are not reading the Bible, keep your mouth shut. Don't teach anybody anything. And let me tell you, you know, you guys got your preaching night on Tuesday nights, you don't need a preaching night, you need a reading night. You need a Tuesday night reading circle. And if you want to come down here and do something and get together and do something for God, sit down and read your Bible together for crying out loud and know what you're talking about. You're imbalanced when you can't read the Bible. You say, oh, you're reading so hard on people, the Bible's such a long book. Help us. Are you kidding? If you read it for a half hour a day, you'll be done in six months. But you're too busy preaching. You're too busy debating. You're too busy trying to figure out whether the King James Bible you have, whether the red letter matters. Or trying to figure out whether the punctuation and the spelling matters. You're too busy trying to figure out all this stuff. You haven't even read the book. What do you know? Nothing. Nothing. And yet you're going to come into our church and tell us how to go soul winning. And let me tell you something. It's dishonest to come to this church to know what we preach. To know what's on the back of the invitation, because I'm sure you read it just like you read your Bible five times. I'm sure you read it. I'm sure you saw the demo. I'm sure you know what we believe. I'm sure you heard me preach this. And then to go out and go soul winning a different way. And I'm not saying you have to be just like me, but can you at least have the elements of salvation as stated in the Holy Scriptures that we taught you? Go out soul winning a different way and then come back and report how many people you got saved and we rejoice thinking that the people really got saved. Now I'm not saying that all of them didn't get saved. And that's what I'm going to get to right now in the sermon. Which of the people did get saved with your new soul winning method? And what is the new soul winning method that people in our church have been doing? And I'm not sure who all has been doing this. And it's nothing personal. It doesn't matter who's been doing it. It doesn't matter whether it's my favorite people in this church or not that I even play favorites. What matters is that people in this church are doing it. And I never taught it to you. And you know what else is funny? I never seen you do it. Now I've been down soul winning with most people in this church and I've been their silent partner before. Maybe not everybody. Maybe I need to be everybody's silent partner. Maybe Brother Dave needs to be everybody's silent partner. Because neither Brother Dave nor I have ever seen anybody do this to this instant. But yet I find out that people are going around and this is what they're doing and I'm going to tell you why it's wrong. And you know if you got somewhere to go tonight then you know if you need to get up and go or whatever at any point in this message go ahead. I won't be offended. But I got to tell you that I got to get through this material because we're putting this to bed right now. Let me tell you something. This new method that people are using is basically sharing the gospel with people, giving them the scriptures and so forth, getting through the information and then saying this. So do you believe what I showed you? Do you agree with this? Do you believe that it's all through faith? Do you believe it's true? And you know basically that you can't lose it. It's eternal. What if you did this? What if you did that? You know nothing. You can't lose it. It's eternal. It's eternal. It's eternal. And then it's eat and then it's see you later. Or it's well you're already saved and then sometimes maybe a prayer is prayed okay after you pronounce them saved. And then people start wondering well if they're already saved why are we praying the prayer? So then it's just let's forget the prayer. Now well that sounds really cool guys but you know it's not new because I remember when I was 16 years old in an NIV preaching, liberal, new evangelical church, the pastor sitting down and telling me why we shouldn't pray the sinner's prayer and why we don't need it. You know what I mean? And how it's not scriptural. Well you see here's the problem with your soul eating method and I'm going to explain it to you point by point right now. And what's funny is I don't have to go back two weeks. I don't have to go back two years. I don't have to go back four years. Let me just go to an illustration this Sunday. This Sunday, I'm talking about three days ago. I was out soul eating. Brother Garrett was my soul eating partner. He stood beside me. I knocked on the door of a lady. I gave her the gospel. I go through the whole plan of salvation with her. I gave her all the verses. She agreed with me. She answered every question right. Now your soul eating method would say okay you're saved. But no. I said if you ask Jesus to save you right now would he do it? And when it came time to pray to ask Jesus to save, you know what he said? She said, well, no, you know, I need to follow Christ's teachings. You say, well, wait a minute, I should actually answer the questions right. But when it came time to pull the trigger, she said, no, I still think this and that. So then I took my Bible and showed her again other scriptures proving that it's just faith. No, no, you don't have to follow Jesus' things or Jesus' commandments. I showed her more scriptures. And then said, do you still believe? And I said, do you understand that? Oh, yeah, yeah, now I see it. I said, but wait a minute, but do you still believe that you have to do something? Like, do you have to keep your mind? She's like, yeah, I do. And I said, okay, if you live. Let's go back to another story. I was out soul eating with my brother-in-law, Robert Starnes, in Fort Worth, Texas. We knock on an apartment door. I'm giving a young guy the gospel. He's about 17, 18 years old. And I give him the gospel. And I give him the scriptures. I'm asking him all the questions. Yes, yeah, can you lose it? No, no, it's eternal. Because I'm showing it to him that it's eternal. I'm showing him the verses. It's right there in front of him. And I said, do you believe if you were to pray and ask Jesus to save you right now, can you do it? Yeah, okay, well, let's do it. Let me help you pray right now, and I'm just gonna help you. Just tell God that's what you believe, and just get saved right now. No, no, man, I'm cool. No, I'm cool. And I said, well, did you understand what I told you? I mean, this is it. This is salvation. You need to get this settled right now. No, no, I'm good, man. I said, why don't you wanna just pray and just ask Jesus to save you? I said, if you don't get saved, you'll go to hell. Don't you think this is important? He said, I'm not gonna go to hell. He said, I've gone to church. He's like, I haven't done anything that bad. There's no way God would send me to hell. You can say what you want, but he answered all the yes or no questions right when I'm showing it to him, same. And it's funny, because when you get to the door, you let them talk. You say, oh, do you know for sure if you died, did you go to heaven? Yeah, how do you know? And then it comes right out of their heart what they really believe, without you coaching it to them. Because let me explain something to you, my friend. It's a lot easier if I say, do you believe, so do you believe that, like the Bible said, everyone said all liars are having their part in the lake of fire, that all liars deserve to go to hell. Do you believe that you deserve to go to hell? It's easier to say, yeah, yes, yeah, oh yeah, I believe that. Then how about for you to open your own mouth and say, God, not even the man. God, I believe I deserve to go to hell. That's two different things, my friend, that's two very different things. Because people will lie to you, they won't lie to God in many cases. Now all people are different, some people won't lie to you. Some people will lie to God, but many people, they might just go along with you. Okay, and I'm gonna get into tons more reasons why this is a bad method. They'll go along with you, but they're not gonna look up at God and say, I deserve to go to hell, save me right now. Because guess what, saying save me right now implies something. I wasn't saved before, and now I'm getting saved. And guess what, that's what salvation is, it's an innocent, it's a change. It's a change from believing one thing to believing something different. And your method would have been, you're already saved. Would he have been saved? He said he'd never done anything that bad, and that he'd been in church, and that there's no way God would ever send him to hell. You see, salvation occurs in a moment. Now let me explain this to you, and I'm not just trying to rip your face tonight. I am here to rip your face tonight, if it needs to be ripped. If it doesn't need to be ripped, just buckle your seat belt and just whatever. But the point is that I'm here to teach you, I'm here to help you. Now I'm angry, have you noticed? I'm angry because I don't like the fact that people would just come in here and bring this kind of garbage in here. And basically they're damning us all to hell with their false doctrine, okay? By saying, well, we're not saved, so we're condemned to hell, I guess. I don't know why they joined our church and hand out our literature, if that's what they think. Maybe they just haven't thought it through, maybe they just haven't read it through. Or maybe they're just a little too big for their britches. But whatever the case may be, you see, salvation happens in an instant. Because you believe on Christ, meaning that you trust in Christ. Now, if it's just believing in facts, well then guess what? What if a person believes the fact that Jesus died on the cross was buried and rose again? But what if they think they have to be baptized and live a good life? Are they saved? So it's obviously not just believing the facts about Jesus, is it? Cuz if it was just believing the facts about Jesus, then basically, technically I guess the Pope would be saved, Billy Graham would be saved. They all say that they believe in Jesus. But the problem is they don't believe on Jesus. They're not trusting Jesus as their savior. They believe facts about Jesus. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. They don't believe on Christ. Now, let me explain something to you. In the book of John, and if you would turn to the book of John. The book of John is the only book in the Bible. Turn to Acts 10, but keep going toward John chapter 10, but look at Acts 10. You see, in Acts chapter 10, here's a verse and you say, well, wait a minute, what about Acts 10 where the people, just while they yet heard the word, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word. It seems like the moment that they believed and heard it, they were saved. But hold on a second, how did we even know that? How did Peter know that? Because it says in Acts chapter 10, verse 44, while Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, for they heard them speak. You see that? They heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. You say, what's the tongues about? These men were from Judea. The men that were there were Italians. They heard them speak in their own language and magnify God. Because God was trying. Why did God allow them to speak in a different language in this miracle of speaking another tongue? Because he wanted the people from Judea who'd come with Peter, who thought that salvation was only for the Jews or something, he wanted them to know and see that these people really got saved. So he even allowed them to confess with their mouth in a language that he understood, just to teach these people. And then he said, can any man forbid water that these should be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Now the book of John, go back to John 10, is the only book in the Bible that claims to be written to show you how to believe and to be saved. It says in John, you don't have to turn there, turn to John 10, but in John 21, the Bible says, and there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. OK, but he said, I'm sorry, it's in verse, I was in chapter 21. It's in chapter 20, verse 30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. Verse 30 said, many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written. These what? These what? These signs. So the signs in the book of John are written that you might believe. Now, the book of John is the only book that claims to be written so that you might believe. I'm sure that there are other scriptures that are great, but John is a great book on salvation. Who thinks that John's a good book on salvation? You know one reason why I think John is a good book on salvation? Because it says the word believe 90 times, and salvation is truly by faith. But you see, in the book of John, you'll see another pattern over and over. You'll see Jesus using illustrations to help illustrate how a person conceives salvation. In John chapter 4, he uses the illustration that we saw a little earlier of taking a drink of water. Look at the illustration in John chapter 10. It says in John chapter 10, verse 9, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. Now, salvation is like unto going through a door, right? Now, when I'm on this side of the door, I'm not saved. The door is Jesus. Jesus said, I'm the door. When I go through the door, I'm saved. That make sense? If any man enter in by me. Did he say, if any man believe that I'm the door, he'll be saved? He said, if any man enter in by me, he shall be saved. OK. So let me have somebody come up here for a little volunteer. Chris, why don't you come up here for a volunteer, if you don't mind. And Chris, you're going to represent someone who's not saved, OK? And I say to you, Chris, I say, Chris, I'm telling you about Jesus here. You're condemned, Chris. And of course, I would go into much more detail and show you scriptures and so forth. But the gist of what I'm saying, Chris, is that you're condemned, and you're going to go to hell when you die because of all the sins that you've committed on a daily basis your whole life. And all these different sins are condemning you to hell. It's a terrible place. It's fire and so forth. It's eternal. This is salvation right here, Chris, OK? Now, if you go through that door, Chris, you'll be saved. That door is Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He said, I'm the door, Chris. If any man enter in by me, he shall be saved. How does he provide salvation? Well, because he died on the cross for you. And I go through and show all the scriptures on the fact that he died, and he was buried and rose again, shed his blood, purchased it for you. Now, Chris, if you go through that door, you'll be saved, Chris, OK? All right, do you believe that? Yes. OK, all right. OK, well, you're already saved then. OK? All right, I'll see you later. OK. Now, is something missing? Come here, Chris. Something's missing. Chris, go through the door, Chris. Here, in fact, let me help you go through the door. Here, put your hand on the handle right here, OK? Look, you got to unlock it. You got to unlock it, OK? OK? Now you're saved. Now, come on out here for a second. Does salvation a process, or does it take place in an instant? At what instant was Chris saved here, based on Jesus's illustration, when he walked through the door? OK. Now, go ahead and have a seat, Chris. Now, think about this. When I'm giving Chris the gospel, perhaps Chris grew up in church, and maybe it was a liberal church that's teaching him false doctrine. He didn't get saved. Maybe he grew up learning. You know what, in fact, let's just say Chris was a Roman Catholic, by the way he was raised, OK? And Chris is a Roman Catholic, so does he believe the gospel that we believe? No. So he thinks that he's baptized as a baby, salvation's a process, you live a good life, you confess to the priest, blah, blah, blah. He's got icons, whatever. Now, when I open my Bible and show Chris there's none righteous nor one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You know, I'm already kind of tearing down what he believes at that point. Then I start talking about how hell's eternal. You know, he might have been seeing about purgatory and stuff. I'm showing him hell's eternal, it's fire, it's literal, it's torment. But then when I get to the part about how Jesus paid it all, first when I'm talking about Jesus dying on the cross, he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, I already know this, I'm Catholic. I get to the part about Jesus rising from the dead, oh, yeah, I know that, Jesus being God in the flesh, oh, yeah, I got that. When I get to the part about what must I do to be saved, and I show him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in the house, and I say, Chris, does that say that you have to go to church to be saved? No. Does that say you have to live a good life to be saved? No. Does that say that you have to be baptized to be saved? No. Does that say you have to confess your sins to the priest to be saved? No. What does it say you have to do to be saved, Chris, believe? OK. Wouldn't you think that he's starting to have doubts about his Catholic religion? But does that necessarily mean that he's just already come to the conclusion that everything he's been taught his whole life is false, that his parents have taught him false, that everything he believes is false, and that his church is a lie? Do you think that he necessarily has come to that conclusion yet? No. Do you think he's even come to the conclusion that necessarily his religion is even wrong? Now, you might just be doubting it, saying, well, maybe that's just one verse. Maybe there's an explanation. Maybe my priest could tell me. Whatever. But then I show him another verse, John 3.16. And this is a famous verse that he's heard. I show him John 3.16, and I've heard that my whole life, but I never even notice that it's whosoever believeth. I show him John 3.18. He'd have believed on it. He said, wait a minute. All I have to do is believe on Jesus Christ. I don't have to go to church and confess. And I can't really be sure I'm going. I'll die to find out. Now, look, don't you think that he's a little bit more doubting of Catholicism and more believing what I'm saying on the third verse than on the second verse? And don't you think that maybe when I get to the fifth verse or the sixth verse, he's starting to really see it more than he did two verses ago? OK? But wait a minute. That doesn't mean that he's saved yet, because he's got to make a decision. Listen to me now. Oh, a decisional regeneration. You know what? Do I need to put it on the statement of faith, we believe in decisional regeneration, because we do. We do. You know what I like about the word decision, decision? It's like a cut. It's like a line in time. OK. Decision. It's a parting of the ways. You make a decision which way you're going to go. So hold on a second. What point does he get saved at then? Because you just told me that salvation happens in an instant. Is it when he gets to John 3.16, 3.18, John 5.24? You say, oh, it's when you talk about eternal security. You know, I talk about eternal security, but now I'm really nailing it down with him. This flies in the face of everything. You know, he thought for sure that there's all these seven deadly sins, committing suicides of unpardonable sins. Boy, I'm tearing it up. It's shaking his whole world of what he's believed his whole life. But does that mean that he's made the decision to abandon what he believed and subscribe to what the Bible's teaching of salvation and believe on Christ alone? No. But you see, there comes a point in my soul winning where I bring him to that decision and I make him choose. Are you listening to me? I make him choose. And when I make him choose is when I say, go through that door, Chris. Chris, I know you've been taught something else, but you need to go through that door, Chris. I know you were taught something else, but this is what the Bible says. You've been nodding your head. You've been saying yes. You've been going along. What else could you do, Chris, when it was right in front of your face? What are you going to do, look like an idiot and say, let me explain to you. Most people think it would be blasphemous or sacrilegious to point at the Bible and say, I don't believe that. Most people, and I've had people point it and say, I don't believe that. Most people are not going to have the guts to stand in front of an almighty God and point at his word and say it's not true. And you're showing it to them point blank. What else can they say? But yes, I see it. And by the way, if I'm talking to Brother Dave about a subject that he knows more about, programming an Excel spreadsheet, if I'm talking to him and he starts telling me stuff and it doesn't seem to jive with what I think about Excel, I'm going to think to myself, well, this guy knows a lot about Excel. I don't. These people are probably thinking, I haven't read the Bible that much. So I don't want to mouth off and say, no, you're wrong. Now, some people will tell you, you're wrong. You've got to live a good life. But a lot of people might just be going along with it. Are you hearing me? Because they don't want to argue or they don't know what they're trying. They don't have a verse to back up what they're saying. OK, OK. But you know what? That's why you've got to say, now, pull the trigger. Open the door. Go through that door. And if you don't, did they really make that decision? Because what if they just 80% believe? You say, well, it's impossible to 80% believe. You either believe or you don't. Wrong. Many people believe a lot of things, 70%, 80%, 90%. There are a lot of things that I believe, but I don't necessarily know that they're true. You know what I'm saying? You might kind of believe something. Maybe you see a little more evidence, you believe it a little more. But what is salvation? Salvation is not how much faith you have. It's when you make the decision to put all your faith on Christ. And when he calls out to God and says, I know I'm a sinner. I deserve to go to hell. Save me. Please save me. Give me eternal life, whatever the words. I'm only trusting you, Jesus. That's the moment that he saved. God hears him. Let me go back and review one quick thing. One quick scripture, but we're moving on to new ground. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted. And in the day of salvation have I suckered thee. God hears you at the day of salvation. He is rich unto all that call upon him, whether they be Jew or Greek. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the moment that he makes the decision and goes through that door. Any of the illustrations in the book of John, he said, I'm the bread of life. You must eat my flesh to be saved. And then you go, oh, it's your literal flesh? No, it's an illustration. Born again, how can I have it the second time and my mother's womb be born? Said, it's not a physical birth, it's a spiritual birth. Just as you were born an instant. Now, you may not know exactly when you were born. I've met people who did not know their birthday or even the year they were born. That sounds strange, but it's true. I've met people that were from third world countries. They didn't know. But we all know that they were born an instant, don't we? And the fact that we see them is evidence that they were born. Now, you may not know exactly when you got saved. You may not be able to tell me the date or the time or even maybe what the scenario was. The fact that you believe on Jesus Christ alone for salvation and have that nailed down and settled in your heart is proof that you are saved and you will go to heaven. Because you're not still iffy about it. You have made that solid decision in your heart. But guess what? You got saved in an instant. Whether you know exactly when that was or not, you got saved. You say, oh, you're saying that people can believe and not be saved? No. Anybody who believes on Christ, on Christ is saved. But there are many people who maybe kind of believe and they're thinking about it. But no, salvation, my friend. You have to step out of the boat. You see, this is what believe means. I'm holding this Bible right here. It takes energy for me to hold this Bible up. My arm, if this were a 50 pound weight, it would be difficult, right? Because it takes energy to hold something off the ground. Okay? How do I relieve myself? Because isn't that a very similar word, relieve? In fact, it's only one letter different than believe because it comes from the same root word as the word believe. How would I relieve myself of this? How do I relieve myself of the book, the Bible? Drop it. And this is how I believe, okay? Where I'm standing on the solid rock, where this is what's holding me up. You see, if I were to use this illustration of this chair and I said, do you believe that this chair will hold up your weight? Do you believe that? Yeah. Now sit in the chair. That's what salvation is. You have to rest upon Christ. To be saved, you must trust in Christ. You must believe on Christ. That's why it says believe on. Because the fact is that just believing a fact about Jesus is not enough until you say, well, I personally am going to take that step. I'm going to receive the gift. Okay, how about this? Our favorite soul-willing illustration, the gift, right? I use it every time. It's in the demo. It's on the back of the invitation. Let me have another volunteer come up here. Who wants to come up here? Nobody wants to come up here. Come on up here, Chris Broad. Okay, let's use the gift, okay? I got a gift for you, Chris, okay? And in fact, I paid for it, okay? But you gotta give me $5. Is that really a gift? No way. I've got a gift for you, Chris, but you gotta wash my car. Not a gift. Not a gift, okay? Well, what about this? I paid for it, Chris. It's all yours. All you gotta do is ask me and I'll give it to you. All you gotta do is ask me. Ask me for it, Chris. Can I have the book? Now, would anybody say that he paid for that or earned that or that it wasn't a gift because he asked for it? Turn to Matthew chapter seven and have a seat. You say, well, if you have to ask for it, it works. You're earning it. Well, let's see what the Bible says. Look at Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven says this. Verse seven, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you whom if his son ask bread? Will he give him a sown? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a servant? Now, how many times does it say the word ask? We saw ask in verse seven, ask in verse eight, ask in verse nine, ask in verse 10. And did you know that in verse seven it actually spells the word ask? If you look at the words ask, seek, knock. Isn't that interesting? Does anybody understand what I just said? Yeah. Isn't that neat? So anyway, it says here, it says, if ye then being evil know how to give good what to your children? Well, if they had to ask, it wasn't a gift. No, it looks like you asked for a gift and then you received it. It says, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? So you can ask for a gift and it's still a gift. Look at Luke chapter, Luke chapter number 11, I believe. This isn't in my notes, but look at Luke 11. Luke chapter number 11. You say, how do you come up with all this stuff off the top of your head that's not in your notes? Because I read the Bible. Try it sometime. Luke chapter 11, verse number 13. Actually, let's start reading in verse number nine. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and in the knocketh it shall be opened. If any son shall ask it, bread of you, and any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if you ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If he then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Now, my friend, it's clear. If you ask, you receive and it's a free gift because asking is not paying for it. That's like saying that unwrapping the present was earning it. I mean, you gotta unwrap the present. I mean, you gotta take the book out of my hand. You gotta take the gift. Receiving the gift is what you have to do to be saved. Believing that the gift is there and will save you is not enough. You have to take it and it's done in a moment and it's received by faith and the only way you express that faith is in words because even your thoughts are words. Even when it's said, the fool has said in his heart there is no God. That's why he's gonna go to hell. And by the way, everybody who goes to hell, it's gonna be because of something that they said or something that they didn't say. And if you go to heaven, it's because of what you said because it's said. Look, the Bible says, by thy words thou shalt be justified. Faith, just as temperatures are measured in Celsius and Fahrenheit degrees, faith is manifested in words. The word of faith which we preach is in your mouth and in your heart. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That's how you get there, my friend. You see, I don't think it's possible to partially believe. Yes, it is. Agrippa said he was almost persuaded, but was he saved? No, because he didn't get all the way persuaded. Now, I might see evidence about something and I believe it more, I believe it a little more, believe it a little more, believe it a little more, but there comes a time when I, by faith, say, I choose to believe this. I choose to rest upon this wholeheartedly. Now, think about this. What if somebody showed me something? And I'm gonna use an illustration that maybe some people might not connect with. Some people might be offended by this illustration and some people might even become so distracted by the illustration that they miss what I'm saying. But it's such a good illustration, I'm gonna use it anyway. Because I want you to grasp what I'm saying tonight. Has anybody ever heard of the fact that a lot of people believe that 9-11 is an inside job? Okay, now think about this. They're called 9-11 Truth, right? And then there's those who believe the official government story, okay? Now let me ask you something. Do you think that the first time somebody hears about 9-11 Truth, they just all of a sudden just, you're right, just jump on board with it? No, because they have to accept so many things to swallow that pill. They would have to accept that the government is so evil today that it would murder 3,000-some of its own people, okay, right? Is anybody following me? You're like, what is he talking about? And look, and think about this. You have to accept that what you used to believe about it was a big lie, and you believed it for a long time. Now let's say somebody started showing you some real hard evidence that 9-11 was an inside job. And they're showing you the evidence right in front of your face. You're not gonna tell them, that's not true. It's a lie. Because they're showing you the evidence. And they might say, look at building seven. You know, and you're like, can't explain it, wow. It looks like somebody detonated that building, came down in free fall, you know. And you're seeing this, you're just like, wow. And let me ask you, if you weren't sure one way or the other, because this is a new thing. I mean, you're, whoa. I heard that people who believe this are kooks, and you're telling me this? Okay, and you're kind of like, but I can't deny what's in front of my eyes right now. You know, I'm seeing evidence, you know. Here, look, it's on the LA Times' own website. You know, this story about the Bush family and the bin Laden family and how they have business dealings. It's in the Wall Street Journal. Here, let's go to the Wall Street Journal's website. And you're seeing all this evidence. You're seeing video footage. But wait a minute, let's say somebody showed all this to me. And I said, wow, you know, this is really interesting. Wow, you know, this looks like some pretty damning evidence here, you know. Well, do you disagree with anything I've shown you? No, no. I mean, do you believe that this is really an LA Times art? Oh yeah. I mean, you see it, you believe it, right? Yeah, oh yeah. Okay, get on TV and say it. Whoa, hold on a second. I need to look into this a little more. Get behind the pulpit and say it. Oh there, tiger. You know. Because there's a difference between saying, oh wow, this is probably true. Wow, this looks interesting. Wow, I'm seeing it. Oh yeah, well, what I believed before is a lie. But there's another difference of saying, that's it, 9-11 was an inside job. I'm putting the bumper sticker on the back of my car. That moment that you put that sticker on your car is when you're a 9-11 truther. And no sooner, no I'm just kidding. But do you understand, do you understand my point? There comes a time where you make that decision to reject the official version and say, I'm going with the 9-11 truth version. You know, that this was a conspiracy. Does everybody follow the illustration? There's a moment in time where it switches us from theory, from I'm looking into it, I'm still deciding, I'm doing the research, I wanna hear both sides. I mean, if somebody hears about this, they'll say, well, let's hear the other side. Okay. Now some people might be convinced right away, some people might take on it. Now let me ask you this. When they say it, that's it, it's an inside job, put the bumper sticker on the car. That's when they believe it, because that's when they've embraced it as their own personal belief system. But hold on a second. What if a person believed that 9-11 was an inside job, but didn't wanna say it publicly because they were a politician, maybe? Think about this. They're a politician and they don't wanna be committing political suicide. Okay. Is it possible that they still believe in 9-11 truth just as much as I do, even though they're not willing to say it? Is that possible? Who thinks that's possible? I do. They could just say in their heart, right? And just say, that's it. You know, I'm convinced. They may not say that openly because of some kind of embarrassment or whatever. Same thing's true with salvation. You'll see people in the book of John who believed on Christ, but they said they wouldn't confess that openly because they were afraid of the Jews. They were ashamed. And it said they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. But I believe the Bible when it says that they believed on him. And we'll see him in heaven. And so it's possible, but wait a minute. Wait a minute. What moment does it occur when you say either verbally, openly, in your heart, whatever? Because you know, Brother Dave and I talked about this. What about a person who can't speak? You know, somebody who is dumb or deaf and dumb. And they, or they have a disability or whatever. And you know, it's funny. People bring up the disability. What percentage of people do you think that is that are unable to speak with their mouth at all? You know, people love hypotheticals. But the bottom line is, you know, obviously a person who believes in their heart and has it solid in their heart can pray in their heart. Just as the fool says in his heart, there is no God. They can say in their heart to God that they're trusting him alone for salvation. So I'm not saying it has to be a public, come down the aisle, shake my hand, get baptized. I'm not saying it has to be public. But I'm saying it comes at a point in time and confessing it openly, out loud, calling upon him is what God wants you to do, my friend. And that's what you should do. And the people who didn't do it were wrong. Now, they did believe on him. And they were rebuked harshly for not saying it with their mouth. So why are you afraid to get somebody to say it with their mouth? Because you're afraid you're adding to salvation? Well, you know, then Romans 10's adding, because Romans 10 says to be saved, you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart. That's how you get saved. That's how you get saved. That's the problem. That's how you open the door. Now look at, let's see here. Look at Luke chapter 18. Now let me give you another illustration. Do you think it's possible for someone to believe or try to believe? Have you ever known someone who tried to believe in two contradictory things at the same time? How about this? Theistic evolution. Well, I believe the Bible, but I think evolution might be true, too. I've known an infant of a Baptist to say that. Well, I believe the Bible, but I also believe in evolution. Maybe somehow God used evolution to do it. Billy Graham said that God might have just breathed in the nostrils of an ape, and he became Adam. That's what Billy Graham said. I heard him say it. Wonderful hero you have. Anyway, think about this now. Do you think it's possible for somebody to try to have it both ways on certain issues? Have you ever seen people try to do that? Doesn't it bug you? I'm not really like that. I try not to be like that, but there are some people who are, that's just kind of how they are. And in fact, a lot of people are that way about certain things. Now hold on. Do you think it's possible for the person that I'm giving the gospel to at the door who's agreeing with everything I'm saying to still believe in a false religion and still try to agree with everything I'm saying at the same time? That's very possible. To say like, oh yeah, it's a gift. You know, it's a gift. It's eternal, you know. Oh, but I still have to follow the commandments, you know. You gotta try. You see people do it. And they're trying to believe both. That's why you gotta get them to make a decision. And just because they agree with you and say yes, yes, uh-huh, yep, that's what it says, eternal, doesn't mean that they're safe. So don't say to them, okay, you're safe. Until they say with their mouth, I deserve to go to hell. And I'm not saying they have to say those exact words. These are the words that I use when I get people saved. Because I've had a lot of people get to the part about I deserve to go to hell and say, whoa, I'm not gonna say that. That's why I have them say that, just to make sure they got it. It's true. But you know, whenever you pray with them, when they call upon the Lord for salvation, thereby acknowledging the fact that they, you know, something's changing here. It's not just something that you've augmented what they believe. But they have rejected what they did believe, and now they're realizing I wasn't saved, now I'm getting saved. That's the purpose of calling upon the Lord. That's the purpose of taking the cup of salvation, confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus by calling upon him, okay? Now, that's the moment when salvation occurs. Where did I have you turn? Luke 18. And then I'm gonna give you an illustration of a soul in the illustration. It came to pass that as he was, verse 35, sorry, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside baking. And hearing a multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passed by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace, but he cried so much the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying, what wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee. Why did Jesus make him tell him what he wanted him to do? I mean, didn't Jesus already know? But he said to him, what wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved. Where was the faith? The faith was when he asked Jesus to give him his sight because he believed that Jesus could give him his sight because he believed that that would heal him. And that's why he asked for it. And that's why he got it by faith. And that's how you get saved. You believe Jesus is the only savior, he's the only way to heaven. You receive it by faith. Another illustration, I'm out soul with him. Muslim girl in Tempe. She was East European, but Muslim. She comes to the door, I give her the gospel. I go through it with her point by point. I go through it again and again and get down to the end of it. You know, I emphasize certain things because she was Muslim, you know, about Jesus Christ being God in the flesh and so forth. I get to the very end. And she said she agreed with everything. And I said, if you ask Jesus to save you right now, would you do it? Yes. You know, how long did you be saved for? I said, let's pray right now. I'm gonna help you do that right now. And she said, just a minute. Ran away, came back with a necklace. With some kind of a religious icon on it. And I said, what's that? And she said, I always pray. She said, I have to hold this when I pray. And I said, no. I said, you don't understand. You don't get it. You're not adding something to what you already believe. I said, you are changing what you believe. You must put your faith on Christ and leave Islam behind. Including that necklace. And she paused. She didn't just say, oh, okay. And she looked down at it. And then she threw it across the room and prayed and got saved. That's when she got saved. Not when she answered the question right. When she got saved was when she called upon the Lord. And had rejected Paul's doctrine. Because you can't believe both. You can't be Buddhist and Christian. You can't be Islamic and Christian and still say, no, you must reject work salvation in order to believe on Christ. Because it's impossible to be believing on Christ if you're still believing the words. But some people are trying to do it. I'll just read you some other scriptures real quickly. But I don't want to take all night. I'm taking as long as necessary. I'm not taking any longer than necessary. But whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelt in him and he in God, 1 John 4.15. Luke 18, 13, and the public in standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven. But smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other. How do we know he was justified? God is called upon the Lord for salvation. Psalm 55, 15, let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into hell. Remember this one? See this one on CNN? For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. But did you read the next verse? You that love my preaching, did you read the scripture that I was preaching from? As for me, I will call upon the Lord and the Lord shall save me. You know, did you read that part? Did you read the next verse? Did you get the context? Or do you just trust Pastor Anderson to always give you everything in context all the time and to spoon it all into your mouth? You see, it says they're going to hell, but as for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. That's Psalm 55, 16. Psalm 80, verse 18, so will not we go back from thee, quicken us and we will call upon thy name. That's where the quickening takes place. Turn us again, O Lord of God of hosts, cause thy face to sign and we shall be saved. Psalm 86, five, for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous and mercy unto all them that call upon thee. Psalm 100, you say, oh, that's just Romans 10, one scripture. Well, first of all, God only has to say it once, but he said it a lot, my friend. Psalm 145, 18, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him. He also will hear their cry and will save them. You say that's Old Testament. Doesn't matter, but 1 Corinthians 1, two, I'll humor you. Here's a verse from the Epistle of Paul. 1 Corinthians 1, verse two, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. So who are we talking to? Those that are at Corinth, who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints. But who else are you talking to, Paul? Just the church at Corinth? With all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. So those who are sanctified and saints in Corinth are just like all the other people all over the world who do what? Call upon the name of the Lord. Joel 2.33, and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. And that's quoted in the New Testament as saved, delivered, saved, or synonymous. Ananias answered, Acts 9.13, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints Jerusalem. You say wait, Pastor, you're reading us too many verses. If you don't read them yourself, then I'm gonna read them to you. Read the Bible. And you know what, I can't understand how people, I mean, have I failed as a pastor, have I failed as a leader or something that people can come to this church and not get it when I say to read the Bible? That people can listen to my sermons and still think that reading the Bible doesn't matter and that they're gonna preach one day and they're gonna start a church one day. You know how many times I read the Bible before I even started this church, not to mention memorizing over 100 chapters of the Bible before I started the church? You know how many times I read the Bible? It wasn't one, it wasn't two, it wasn't three, it wasn't five, it wasn't, oh, we gotta get married so that we can start a church. We gotta get married and have kids so we can start. No, you gotta read the Bible about 30 more times so you can start a church, okay? That's what you oughta be doing. And get married and have kids while you're at it too. But you know what, it's gonna take you longer at the rate you're going. You're gonna be 150 before you've read the Bible enough to start a church at the rate you're reading. So, you know, I don't, you know, I don't know what getting married has anything to do with it for you. It says in verse 9, 13 of Acts, Then answered Ananias, Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints in Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. How about verse 21? But all that heard him were amazed and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? Luke 13, 22, and he went through the cities and villages teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? That's a good question, right? Are there few that be saved, or is it the majority? And he said unto them, strive to enter in at the straight gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able. Why are they not going to be able when they seek to enter in, if you know the passage? Because it's too late, right? That's the passage, he says, strive to enter in at the straight gate because many will seek to enter in and will not be able. Listen to this, when once the master of the house is risen up, that's when it's too late. And it's shut to the door, right? And ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! Isn't that what they should have done before? Isn't that how they were gonna enter in at the straight gate because if that's how they're trying to enter at the straight gate, it's not that they were doing the wrong thing, it's that they were doing it too late because that's how you enter in. You come to the door and you say, Lord, Lord, open unto us. You come to the door and you go through the door and the door's open tonight. The door will be open tomorrow, one day that door's gonna shut, just like the door to Noah's ark shut. That's why God told Noah, just put one door in the ark. Only one, Jesus is the door, he's the only way. But when the door was shut, let us say that it's raining. Too late. He says here, you'll begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us! And he shall answer and say unto you, I know not, I know ye not whence you are. Then shall ye begin to say, we've eaten and drunk in thy presence and have taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence you are. Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth and ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. See, the timing was wrong there. Psalm 54 one, save me, O God, by thy name and judge me by thy strength. Save me, O God, by thy name. Because there's none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. So we say, save me. That's what the Psalms have taught us. Psalm 18 19, open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them and I will praise the Lord. The gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. You get the idea of entering into a gate, going through a door? I will praise thee for thou hast heard me and art become my salvation. When did he become their salvation? When he heard them. The stone which the builders refused has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. Psalm 78 19, yay, they spake against God, saying, they say, can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gust out and the streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people? Therefore the Lord heard this. He heard what the wicked said when they denied him and was wroth. So a fire was kindled against Jacob and anger also came up against Israel because they believed not in God and trusted not in his salvation. How did he know that they didn't believe in God? How did he know that they didn't trust in his salvation? Because of what they said. That's how he knew, he heard them. He heard you when you called upon him. And he hears the wicked say, it's works. There's another way, it's Islam. It's baptism, it's the Catholic church. Just going through my notes, making sure I didn't miss anything here. But I think you get the idea because this is not something that's mentioned once or twice. It's something that's from Genesis to Revelation. And so let me just give you a little advice. Why don't you go out soul winning listening to somebody teach you how to go soul winning who knows the Bible. Instead of listening to somebody who doesn't know nothing. Now I don't know who you're listening to. I don't know. But you're not listening to me. And again, I'm talking to the minority. It seems, sounds like I'm just ripping out our whole church. I'm talking to my own. I don't know who you're listening to, but you're not listening to me. You're not listening to any sermon that I preached. You're not listening to any demonstration that I made. You're not listening to anything you've heard me at the door do when you were my silent partner because I have never, never in the last 11 years that I've gone soul winning every week for 11 years, I've never come back to church and said that somebody got saved who I didn't hear with my ears call upon the Lord. I've never done it. I just haven't done it, my friend. Now you say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, are you saying that everybody that we didn't pray with didn't get saved? I'm not saying that because here's what I believe. Even with the worst soul winning methods, if you're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith alone, you're gonna get people saved every once in a while. And the better methods you use, the more you're gonna get people saved. The more scriptural you are in your presentation, the better you're gonna do. But I've seen people with the most messed up, even the one, two, three, repeat after me people, and you've seen them. These people, it's just all about getting them to pray the prayer and they just one, two, three, repeat after me. Even once in a blue, they get somebody saved who's just ready to get saved, who sees it right away from the nurses because they're giving them the word of God. They're telling them it's by faith. I'll tell you this. If you don't explain eternal security to people, when you're giving them the gospel, nine out of 10 people won't get it. They'll still think you can lose it. They'll still think you gotta live a good life unless you show them everlasting life, eternal life. But probably one out of 10 people will get it. You say, but is it possible for people to get saved? Who without praying the prayer? Yes, it is. And you know what? It's possible for me to put on my pants with a pair of chopsticks too. But that's not how I'm gonna put my pants on, my friend. It's possible for somebody to get saved without you showing them eternal security. Just by saying it's all Jesus and it's all belief and he paid it all, they should get that. And I've had people get it. Even before I explained to them, they were already saying, no, you can't lose it. If he paid it. But most people need that explained. That's why I always explain to everybody. Now think about this. What if I'm giving somebody the gospel and just when I'm about to pray the prayer and hasn't this happened? You get all the way done and you're just about to lead them in prayer, a car pulls up, she's gotta go, right? And you're interrupted. Chris, come on back up here if you don't mind real quick. Sorry to pick on you. Let's go back to my illustration with Chris. Remember Chris, what happens when you go through the door, Chris? What happens? Is there any other way to be saved, Chris? No. Okay. Oh, all of a sudden, I gotta go. What's the logical thing that Chris is gonna do as soon as I'm gone? He's gonna go through that door, right? But don't you think it's possible that when he gets in the car to go to soccer, maybe Britney Spears is on the radio and all of a sudden he just, while he's still mulling this over, all of a sudden he gets distracted and maybe even because the devil or one of his devils heard us talking, he says, I think I'm gonna catch away that which was sown in his heart and don't you think it's possible for him to get in the car and don't you think the devil could bring somebody across his path maybe in the next day or so that would start to undermine the things that he heard before he had settled it in his heart, before he'd made his final decision, I'm trusting Christ alone, that somebody could have got with him in the meantime and messed it up by filling his mind with other confusion and he'll never get saved. But you know what, I hope and pray every time that happens because that happens to me sometimes where I'll get interrupted right at the end. I was out soloing with Brett. He was giving the gospel, he was just about to the prayer and then just boom. Car pulls up, she's gotta go. You know what, Brett and I hope and pray. Man, I hope she got it, I hope she got it. I hope that she will be saved and nail this down in her heart and ask God to save her. That's what you're just hoping, that she believes on Christ and doesn't just have it in the theoretical stage. There is a theoretical stage, my friend, where you're learning the facts, where you're getting the information, where you're digesting it, where the seed is planted and it's being watered but it hasn't been reaped. You hope and pray that they get it. And any reasonable person using this illustration, whether I'm there to hold their hand and take them to the door, I hope they'll go through that tour. Go ahead and have a seat, but I'm not gonna come back and say, he went through the door, Pastor Anderson. Three went through the door, four went through the door. If I didn't see him go through the door, I'm not gonna say they went through the door. I hope they went through the door. You following me? Don't come back here and tell me that people got saved. When you didn't pray with them. If you're not praying with them, you need to get a scriptural soul-wanting method. In fact, I'll teach you one. It's the method I do. It's the method that other people in this church do and have done for years. And I want you to do me a favor. I want you to come tell me how many people you reported that you had saved that you didn't pray with. Now, am I saying that they all got saved? In fact, I can almost tell you that I'm sure that many of them did get saved. If you were thorough in your presentation, I'm sure you were. I'm sure your heart's in the right place. You have a zeal of God, just not according to knowledge. Sure your heart was in the right place and you were thorough. I hope you were thorough. I have a feeling that many of those people really did get saved. But I'll promise you one thing, many didn't. And you know what? I don't want the numbers in that bulletin to be a bunch of junk or some shot in the dark. Okay, so you come tell me how many were like that so I can subtract them from the number. And if you're not sure, just round them. And if that hurts your feelings, then let me just tell you something. Just because we subtract the number doesn't mean is it gonna take those people's salvation away from them? If it bothers you, you're a little too into that number, buddy. You know what I mean? Don't get too into that number. Because if you're that into it, something's wrong. So guess what? We'll round up. Because guess what? When we say we had 19 people saved, I wanna rejoice and know that there were 19 people saved. Now, well, people are telling me 90 is probably more like five. Because that's the five that the people I know are doing it right came back and reported, okay? Or no, I want it to be 19 is 19, and 20 is 20, and 21 is 21. And so that's why you say, well, Pastor Anderson, you're a dictator. You know what? Go do what you want. Go solo anyhow ever you want. Go street preach and hand out tracts and go ahead and do your prayerless salvation plan. That's fine. But just don't come bring me the numbers because I don't want your numbers. And if you keep bringing me numbers like that, then we'll just stop counting. You count yourself. I'm not gonna count numbers like that. I'm not gonna do it. And so don't bring me those kind of numbers. Bring a real number. And I'm not a dictator. I'm not gonna tell you what to do, whatever you want. I'm just preaching the truth. You do what you wanna do. Go drink beer for all I care. What do I care what you do? Go solo anyhow ever you want. I'm not gonna tell you how to go soloing. I'm gonna tell you how to go soloing if you wanna be right with God and do it the scriptural way and how you wanna go soloing if you're gonna tell me that people got saved and expect me to announce it and put it in the bulletin. So let's bow our heads in a work prayer. Father, we thank you so much for our church, dear God, and I thank you for the wonderful people of our church. And I do love every person in our church and I love our church very much. But God, you know my heart and you know that I'm not pleased with the lack of Bible reading among some people in our church, which is evidenced by thinking that they know everything when they don't. And so God, I just pray that you would please just help everyone in our church, dear God, to just maybe cool down and sit down and relax and maybe stop and find some time to read your word and figure out what they're doing and what they believe and why. And Father, I pray that our church will be in one accord and with one mind and with one spirit, dear God. And God, you know my heart and I'm preaching the truth in love tonight, but you've left me here to lead and so I must lead. And so we pray that you would please just fill us with your spirit, dear God, and help many, many people to continue to be saved. And I praise God for the many, many people that have been saved through this church ministry and that are saved every week. And I thank you for those who are excited about soul winning, have the zeal to go out soul winning. And they put in long hours and I know it's not easy, dear God, and it's hard, hard work. And I appreciate every one of them. And Father, I just pray that you'd help us to do the right things and to keep our emphasis right and to keep the balance of knowledge and zeal, not just all zeal and no knowledge. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.