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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. If you can grab your hymnals and open up to song 201. Or 301, sorry. 301. Song 301, Sweet Hour of Prayer. Song 301. On the first. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. That calls me from the world. And it's my hand that asks of care and ends me at my father's throne makes all my wants and wishes grow. In seasons of Whose truth and faithfulness engaged a waiting soul to rest. And since he bit me, seek his face, believe his word, and trust his praise. I'll cast on him by every care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer. On the last sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy consolation share. Till from my savior's lofty height, I knew my home and gave my life. His throne of flesh I'll drop and rise, to cease the everlasting rise, and shout while passing through the air, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer. Amen. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this church, Father. Lord, I just pray that if there's anyone coming in or is running behind, Lord, because of the weather, Father, you keep them safe as they travel to church. Father, Lord, I just pray that during this service, the teaching, and the preaching, and the singing, and everything is all for your glory, Lord, and that we do it for your glory. Father, we love you, and we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. All right, let's turn to our next song, song 208. Song 208, great greater than our sin. Amen for that. Song 208. Amen. All right, church, let's sing this song for the first. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, praise that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured, there where the blood of the lamb was spilled. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that will pardon and cleanse within. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that is greater than all our sin. Sin and despair like the sea weighs full, threatens the soul with infinite loss. Praise that is greater, yes, praise untold. Poins to the refuge, the mighty cross. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that will pardon and cleanse within. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that is greater than all our sin. Dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is plowing of crimson tide, whiter than snow you may be today. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that will pardon and cleanse within. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that is greater than all our sin. Partheless, infinite, matchless praise, freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing to see His face, will in this moment His praise receive. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that will pardon and cleanse within. Praise, praise, God's grace, praise that is greater than all our sin. All right, great singing this morning. This time we're going to go through our announcements. If you do not have one of these bulletins, put your hand up real high, we'll make sure we get one out to you. And if you open up to the first page, you'll see our service time is listed there, Sunday morning at 10.30, Sunday afternoon again at 4 p.m., and then Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in Isaiah 45 this week. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of February as well as for 2022. We've seen a lot more salvations this year, so far to date than we did last year at the same time, so we're doing really well. We have a lot more people going out and knocking on doors, so it's really exciting. We had a great week last week. I know it's kind of rainy today, but we're still going out. We do this every week, rain or shine. We go out and preach the gospel, so we'd love to have you join us, especially if you've never done it before. Come on out with us. You don't have to do anything other than just show up the way we do things. There's always one person who does the speaking, and the other person is a silent partner, and if it's your first time going out with us, and even if it's not your first time, you don't want to feel comfortable, you don't want to do the speaking, just come out with us. You could just observe and witness how we present the gospel to people and show them how to be saved from the Bible. Ultimately, that's what it's all about. That's the most important thing, is trying to lead people to Christ, and that's what we do every week, multiple times a week. You see the times that we have there. Anyone go out this morning and see anybody get saved this week? Need to be reported, anything? All right, very good. Offering tolls that's down there at the bottom of the page through the month of February. Prayer requests. I got an update from the Rogers family that Leon Matthews is still apparently in the same condition. That's the last information that they've received, is that he's still on a ventilator and in the hospital, so he's been kind of back and forth. He's on a ventilator, off the ventilator, out of ICU. If he's on a ventilator, he's got to be back in ICU again. I don't know if they put people on it without being in intensive care, but be in prayer for everyone on our list. I don't have many other updates. Does anyone have an update for people on the prayer list that we should know about? All right. The churches and pastors, so pray for Steadfast Baptist Church in Hearst, Texas. They have been evicted from their church building, from their location. If you want to know more about that, Pastor Shelley put out a video just yesterday about all that happened there. This is just a sign at a time. This is where we're headed. I'm going to preach about this a little bit in the evening service so you can come back for that, but this is where America is headed. It's a cancel culture. The loud and proud sodomites out there, it's ultimately who it is. It's the people who hate God. Whether they are in relationships with the same gender or not, it's a bunch of God haters out there that are getting more and more vocal and that are gaining more and more power because a lot of people just don't care anymore. So many people's hearts have turned away from the Bible, turned away from God, and they just don't care anymore. They don't want to hear the Bible being preached because that's what Pastor Shelley does over there. He preaches the Bible. That's what we do here. If this can happen in Texas, of all states in the United States of America, you better believe it can happen anywhere. Getting kicked out literally because people protested their church. People who hate God protested their church because of their stand on what the Bible says literally because of what the Bible says about homosexuality. That's it. That's the bottom line. Now churches are getting kicked out because of their properties. Because of that. And going through multiple judges in our court system. So-called judges, right? They're supposed to be the people that are the educated ones that are supposed to be preserving freedom and, you know, the values that this country was founded on and the laws of the land. Nope. Now it's all just political People just don't want to hear the word of God. And that's where we're headed. Like I said, I don't want to get too deep on this right now. I've got a sermon that's going to highlight a little bit about what happens in countries when this happens. We see that all throughout the Bible. It's going to be no surprise. It doesn't change what we do. You know what? They're in good spirits. So the Bible says rejoice when people shall speak of you evil, falsely. Jesus said, you know, leave and rejoice. If you're being persecuted, that just means, you know, look at what they did to Jesus. You're in good company. Look at what they did to the prophets. You're in good company. So we don't need to be in despair or discouraged because I bring this up because we want to pray for them. They have to go through a lot. They have to find a new space to rent. When I thought that we might have to be out of this space in a much shorter time than I was anticipating, that's really stressful because it's not easy to just jump into some new location. It's not like they're just all over the place just ready to hop into especially for churches because a lot of people don't even want to rent to churches, just in general regardless of what they believe. But then you add on top of that someone, now they've been in the news and everything else, now no one wants to touch them. Right? So it's going to be that much harder. So we're praying that God will just open up some doors. We know that there's still people out there that are not bowing in need of bail and just pray that God will work it out that they'll have a place. I know they'll have a place. I know that they'll find somewhere. But it is very stressful. It's something that a lot of extra work added on the shoulders of Pastor Shelley and their staff and their church to have to be able to do everything so quickly. And ultimately it's just a big distraction from the greater goal. That's what's happening here. So we're going to pray for the church, pray that everything will go well, that God will work things out for them, that God will judge the wicked people who are just attacking the Word of God and bring justice and bring their snares and their traps back on their head. You know, read the book of Psalms if you don't like what I'm saying right now. It's very biblical for those that hate God to have their recompense brought back on them, that they reap what they sow. And I've also announced this on Wednesday because I just found out about all this stuff on Wednesday. But I fasted on Thursday for Steadfast Baptist Church and I'm also going to be fasting again tomorrow. So the month of February was our prayer challenge month. It's not listed here. We've got the March challenge already since February's almost over. But we're closing out the month tomorrow. Tomorrow's the last day of February. So anyone who wants to join me in the fast, I'm going to be fasting and praying all day tomorrow completely fasting and just entreating the Lord to bless that church and to help them to get into a place so that they can continue to serve the Lord and do what they're doing without much hindrance because of this. So you're welcome to join me in that. Obviously it's still up to you but I think the more people we have doing this God hears our prayers Excuse me. So that's what that's scheduled for tomorrow. It's a good way to close out the prayer challenge anyways I think. It's just kind of a if you've been keeping up with that the prayer challenge was to pray for a minimum of 20 minutes every day, pray for everyone on our prayer list and if you've been keeping up with that through the month of February we'll just withhold physical appetite from yourself and just focus on serving God and praying and make it pray for much more than 20 minutes tomorrow as well. If you're going to go through the effort of fasting be in prayer throughout the day That's what I'm going to be doing. Every time you feel that hunger pain pray to God. So anyway that's the prayer list. Bring us home with you. I know tomorrow is the last day but don't stop praying for the people on our list just because the prayer challenge is over. The whole point of our challenge is to help you to make this normalize things that we should be doing anyways. Prayers should be normal in a Christian's life. It should be a daily part of your life that you pray for people anyways. We have these prayer lists all the time, not just the month of February because we ought to be praying for one another, praying for people that have needs so please continue to pray beyond February. March challenge is redeeming the time so we do this every year where the point of the challenge in the month of March is to identify and eliminate something from your schedule which is a total waste of time. If you're trying to improve your spiritual life it all takes time. Prayer takes time. Reading your Bible takes time. Doing the things that is going to help you spiritually all take time. And you only have so many hours in a day so evaluate what you do that's just a waste of time. I don't need to do this. I don't need to play this stupid game on my phone. I don't need to be on social media so much. I don't need to do whatever. Fill in the blank of your schedule that you have the time and replace it with something else. How about Bible memory? Instead of all those moments you pick up your phone and you start playing those games, how about you pick up your phone and get the Bible memory app and start committing some of God's word to your heart. So that's the point of this. For March, just try to identify that time so you can free up this time to be able to do more things to serve God. Because it's definitely doable. Bible memory passage. Hebrews chapter 1, there's a deadline tonight. We're finishing Hebrews 1 tonight. I know that we have one person has already quoted it. Has anyone else completed Hebrews chapter 1? Just slip your hand up real quick. You got it done? Very good. Amen. Anyone else is planning on having it done tonight? You're planning on getting it done tonight? Okay, good. So that's 4. Write that down. So I've decided, I think we're just going to keep on marching through Hebrews. So if you want to have a little bit of a head start, and you want to go through our Bible memory, I'm all for it. Because if you're memorizing this stuff, then great. We're going to march through the book of Hebrews. This is going to be our Bible memory as a church for the next couple years probably. I don't know how long it's going to take. Because our pace is very slow. This is a slow pace to try to help people to get involved with the Bible memory. And I might split up some of the chapters into sections because I like having shorter and longer sections so that we can try to get more people involved. Because when it's 4 or 5 verses, more people tend to do that than when it's longer passages. But that's going to be where we're going. So if you want to kind of get ahead, if you want to just get excited about this challenge, and we're going to try to memorize the entire book of Hebrews. So that's where we're going with this. Just so you know. So we're starting this week in chapter 2. And if you can memorize all of chapter 2, I'm giving you 9 weeks. It's 18 verses. So this is one of the longer ones. But the key is to get started early. Don't let it get past you. And stay on it. I mean, if you could make this, you do the redeeming of time and you can just start doing this every day. That's how you get these things done. That's how you get a big task done. How can I ever in the world memorize the entire book of Hebrews? It might just look undoable and too many people will look at that and say I can't do this and just throw up their hands and say forget it. I'm not that smart. I'm not that good with memory or whatever. If you break it up into small pieces over time. That might take me two years to get that memorized. Okay. Okay. Maybe it will. But you still have the book of Hebrews memorized. If it takes you three years. If it takes you five years. How about you just work at it? Right? Just chip away at it. What's another alternative? Just not do it? Because it's too hard? Break it up. If you need to break it up into smaller pieces than I'm doing here, then do that. Who cares about the prize? Right? The whole point of having the prize is to incentivize you to get God's word in your heart. So that's why we do that. Alright. I'm taking way too long in announcements time. We've got a lot of birthdays coming up this month. And I've got the anniversaries listed there as well. So you can see all those. And then on the back we've got the upcoming events. So once a year, we'd like to I didn't do it last year, but this year we're doing the birthday bash. We basically were celebrating everybody's birthday and the whole church. So instead of celebrating everybody's birthday every birthday, we should do it all at once. It's kind of like a church picnic basically. So it's going to be at Road Jordan Park from 10 to 5. I got everything secured. There's an issue with the first place I was doing the inflatables with. But this one, everything I said on Wednesday night is still going to stand as far as the things that we have rented. This is going to be a lot of fun. And look, everybody's welcome to come. If you're visiting for the first time, come and join us on March 12th. If you're here, it's Saturday. We'd love to have you there. Everything's free of charge. We're going to have all kinds of stuff. There's bouncy houses and slides and there's a jousting thing, right? You get to battle on the joust. And the jousting thing doubles as a bungee run, where apparently you tie a bungee cord around you. And it's like a race, so it gets harder as you get closer to the finish line. So that's kind of cool. There's a huge obstacle course. All kinds of stuff. It's going to be a lot of fun. So there should be something for all ages there. I got a separate thing for toddlers. You know, there's all kinds of stuff there. We've got a snow cone machine. We'll have some lunch, some food. It's going to be good. So come on out and join us for that fellowship on March 12th. I'd love to have you there. Everything else there is listed as far as the upcoming events. And that is about it for our announcements. So I'm going to turn the service back over here to Brother Peter. Church, if you could open up your hymnals to song number 261. Song number 261, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. Song 261. All right, church. So you sing this out on the first. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting, He passed and we followed Him there. Over us in no more half dominion for more than conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. On the last, His Word shall not fail you, He promised. Believe Him all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Amen, church. Great singing at this time. We're going to collect our Sunday morning offering. I'm going to ask little Lindsey if you can do that for us. Church, while that offering plate is being passed around, you can open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 2 Timothy, chapter 2. 2 Timothy, chapter 2. And as we do customary here at Stronghold Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter, and I'm going to ask brother Jesse if he can please do that for us. Therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. But the word of God is not bound. But to the subverting of the hearers. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strife. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. In meekness instruct them those that oppose themselves, if God pure adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. Let us pray. Father, we thank you it's time you've given us to come here to gather together to hear the preaching and teaching of God's word, and I pray bless, pastor, first right now, Holy Ghost, help them be able to teach the word of God effectively in a way that we can all understand, and pray help keep all our tracks to a minimum. And we pray all these things in Jesus' name, Amen. I'll be here, I don't know, doesn't know exactly how long I'll be in town, but he's looking to just get a little, scrape up a little extra money, so if you're able to provide him with any type of work like that, I would be interested in helping out with that. So, he's right front, you can talk to him after the service, just wanted to make sure everyone, if there is anyone here that has anything to offer, that he's willing to do a little bit of work to help him get, continue on his on his travels. So, with that being said, I'm going to jump into the sermon now. We start off in 2 Timothy 2, and what I'm going to be preaching on this morning is it's called Soul Waning Essentials, is the title of my sermon. I've been preaching a lot on soul-waning lately, partly because we've got a lot of newer people that have been coming to our church, and it was great, last week I was just overjoyed with how many people came out with us, and a lot of people that are newer to going on soul-waning, and I want to first of all just recommend people, while preaching the gospel in and of itself, the gospel is easy, it's not complicated, you know, it's a very simple concept of receiving eternal life just by putting your trust in Jesus Christ, it's one of the easiest things that anyone could ever do. It is very simple, and anybody can get started soul-waning at any time. Once you're saved, I mean, you know what it took to be saved, so you should be able to share that with other people. However, we want to be very effective in being able to show people and be able to answer questions and being able to remove doubts and be able to kind of, excuse me, just help people be led to Christ to the best of our ability, so there's a lot of things that go into preparation for preaching the gospel, and this is one of the reasons why just recently, a few months ago, I did a series of soul-waning workshops, there's like three of them, they're available on our YouTube channel, so on both of our YouTube channels, so if you look up a Stronghold Baptist Church YouTube channel, you'll be able to find those, and if you're new to soul-waning here with us, I recommend go through all of those, because I went through in detail a lot of different things that we do, we think about, there's a lot of planning and preparation in this, but this morning, what I'm going to do is just cover the essentials. Okay, this is, these are non-negotiable, you know, people may preach the gospel a little bit differently, you might use some different verses, you might, you know, kind of have a different style, and that's all fine, and that's good, right? We're not cookie cutter, we're not cookie cutter as far as just you must do everything this way. I have a lot of tips and helps and things that I think are going to be valuable to you through experience, through the word of God, that I've, you know, I've covered in a lot of detail with those workshops. But when it comes to us preaching the gospel here at Stronghold Baptist Church, I'm just going to preach to you the essentials of what I expect out of every person who's going to go forth with this church and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and what that needs to entail. Okay, and this is non-negotiable, if you're going to be preaching the gospel, I think, I mean, whether it's our church or any church, I think these are non-negotiable, but definitely for this church, right, if you're going to be coming out with us, these things are required, okay? And we're starting off, we started off in 2 Timothy chapter 2, the first requirement for our soul winning is to go out with a spirit of humility, meekness, uniqueness, humility, okay? No pride. I don't want people going out of here just lifted up in themselves and thinking you are God's gift to everybody to preach the gospel because you know what happens with people like that is they end up getting in a lot of arguments and just vain jangling and get caught up in themselves just trying to argue with people instead of trying to lead people to Christ. Pride gets in the way of everything. We need to have the right spirit. And I don't want people to be confused between some of the preaching you might hear behind the pulpit and railing on sin, right, and just exposing how wicked certain things are and how I might use certain words and preach a certain way to show you how wicked things are, how wicked false doctrines are, how wicked other religions are, and really just foam at the mouth against those things. But that's not the way that you deal with somebody who's unsaved that needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? There's a difference here. What's appropriate, right? The church setting is different because it's for believers. So the teaching and what you receive here is meant to edify you, it's meant to instruct you, it's meant to just help you keep going. You already have the foundation of Christ. So we're building on that foundation. We're trying to increase your knowledge and the way that that is done, I strive to do the best that I can according to Scripture the way that God's prophets have done in the past, the way that God instructed His prophets to teach and to preach. That is why I preach the way that I do. It's not just, oh, well, that's my personality. No, I'm trying to do my best to fill the role that God has for a bishop, for a pastor in a church. I strive to do that. If you come to our preaching classes, I try to impart that knowledge and teach that from the Scripture on how you ought to be preaching, to be in line with how God instructs us to do those things. But that's a different, that's different than going out to the unsaved world and trying to show people salvation, right? So, salvation 100% has to be in the spirit of humility. Now, look down in 2 Timothy chapter 2, there's actually a lot of great wisdom just in this passage here, but we're going to start looking at verse number 23. Bau says, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender stripes. And just in and of itself, this is just good knowledge and information for going out soul winning. People might ask you, people often will ask a lot of foolish questions, just things that don't matter, they don't pertain to the gospel. They're just, they're unlearned, they're ignorant, they don't even really know what they're talking about. And the Bible says just to ignore that. Now again, the context of here isn't necessarily 100% for soul winning, but we can easily apply this to soul winning. It makes a lot of sense for that. And the Bible says here in verse 24, and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. So when we go forth to preach the gospel, right, as a servant of the Lord, we're not going out to start fights, we're not going out to strive with people. We're going forth with gentleness unto all men, right, even people who might try to be contrary towards you, even people who might want to, you know, try to rile you up, be gentle, be apt to teach, you know, try to be able to teach them and show them from the scripture and be patient. The Bible says in verse 25, in verse 24, that there is a weakness instructing those that oppose themselves. The problem with people who aren't saved is that they're actually in contradiction to themselves if they don't have Jesus Christ, if they don't know the plan of salvation, if they don't know how to be saved, anybody who has, you know, the false religions of the world are inherently self contradicting. They're relying on their good works to save them fail because they've already broken the laws. I mean, you cannot, you cannot pay a debt by doing what you're supposed to do. And that's the bottom line. And as I try to get this through to people is, you know, salvation, once you break the law, a penalty needs to be paid for that. People think that, oh, well, when I do good things, that makes up for the bad that I've done. But it doesn't because we're commanded to do good things. You're literally just reaching the minimum. God sets a minimum of saying, you need to do all these good things. You need to be a good person. You need to do on others as you'd have them do. You need to live this way. So, any time you actually do that, you've reached the minimum. And then when you fail, you haven't even reached the minimum. So, the good works don't ever, you're never going above that minimum. You can never pay for what you've done. That's why we need a savior. That's why we need someone to save us. We need our sins, all those times that we've fallen below the minimum, to all be paid for and be covered. So, you know, people who are believing in whatever they're believing that's outside of Christ, they oppose themselves. Whether they realize it or not. We need to meekly instruct those people that oppose themselves so that they could see the error in their reasoning and their thinking and their faith, right, whatever they're trusting in. The Bible says here, in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves, if God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. They oppose themselves because they're believing in lies. They're believing in untruths. We are going forth with the word of God to show them the truth, but we need to do so meekly. Because if you go forth with a haughty, arrogant, proud attitude, even if you have the truth, trying to show people the truth, no one's going to want to listen to you. Because you're going to sound like an arrogant jerk. And it turns people off, and they're not going to want to listen to you at all. They're not even going to want to give you the time of day when you show up, oh man, let me show you, oh you think you know the Bible, let me, you know, look, that attitude's got to go. You are not going to be a very good servant for the Lord with that type of an attitude. And I don't care if it's some Jehovah's Witness or whatever that thinks that they're all puffed up and they're all proud, and they think they know the Bible, you still do so meekly when you instruct them. If they're not going to hear you, then leave. Right? I mean, if they're closed off, they don't want to hear what you have to say, fine. But we need to go meekly instructing those that oppose themselves because they might repent in their mind, and look, I love this too, another definition of repentance, God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Not from stopping a sinful lifestyle, but from acknowledging the truth. Like, oh, the truth is that Jesus Christ died for my sins. The truth is, I need to trust Him to save me. That's the truth. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by Him at His will. So a spirit of humility is essential. We have to go forward in the right spirit, the right heart, the right mindset, we're going forth as servants to love people, to show them the truth, and to just help them to find Christ, to be brought to Christ so that they can be saved and have eternal life. That is the point. Not to show off your knowledge, not to get in arguments, not to win arguments, it's all about helping them get to Christ. Now, another essential when it comes to us preaching the gospel is that the gospel is clearly explained directly from the Bible. When we go forth to preach the gospel, you'll notice that everybody's going to have a Bible in their hand. This is critical, and this is non-negotiable. Now, if you have the Bible on your phone, I'll accept that. And if you have the Bible in your heart, memorize word for word, that's also acceptable. But you have to, you have to use the Bible to show people how to be saved. You have to be using the word of God. Turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 10. The only way that anyone can ever be born again, be saved, is through the power of the word of God. It comes from God's word. It comes from hearing and receiving the word of God. So, no matter how good you may be at explaining things, the power is in God's word, not yours. The salvation is going to come from God's word. The seed that gets sown in an unbeliever's heart is the word of God. That is the seed that we go forth sowing that might bring life in that person. And essentially, you know, if you understand John 1, 1, Bible says in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus Christ is the word. Jesus is the word incarnate. All of the words, and people say, oh, it's just the Bible, it's just a compilation of old stories. No, look, this is Jesus Christ. Jesus embodies all of these words that are found in the Holy Bible. And, you know, this is why we can believe just as much as Jesus Christ was perfect and without error, the word of God is perfect and without error, just as much as Jesus Christ is required for a person to be saved, the word of God is required for someone to be saved because Jesus is the word. When you're receiving Jesus, you're receiving the word of God. This is also, you know, and this is kind of a side note, but I think it's a good way to see, you know, it's a package deal. No one can say they believe in Jesus and have it be true and have it truly trusting and accepting Jesus, and being able to point to God's word and be like, well, I don't believe that, and I don't believe that, and I don't believe that. You haven't accepted the word. You haven't accepted Christ, the word of God, if you think you can just do that. It's a package deal. It's all or nothing. Just as much as you can't have the Son without the Father, the Father without the Son. It's a package deal. So, you know, the Jews, they just, they believe in the Father, but not the Son. No, they don't believe in any of it. They don't. But Romans 10, look down at verse number 17, the Bible says, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We know that that we have faith is what saves us, right? Well, how does that faith come? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It's essential. When we go out so many here, you must use the word of God to lead people to Christ. You have to. Because your words don't matter. God's word is what matters. That's the foundation. This is where we go forth. The Bible says in 1 Peter, turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 23, the Bible says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You are born again by the word of God. Non-negotiable, you must use Bible verses to lead people to Christ. Non-negotiable. Now, how about non-negotiable is preaching the gospel. Right? Because that's what we're preaching the gospel. What is the gospel? What is the good news? Well, we have a great definition of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is what we preach. You look down at verse number 1, the Bible says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. So what do you say? I'm declaring unto you the gospel which I preached unto you. Well, this is great. There's a great model then for us to follow. Hey, why don't we preach the same exact gospel that the apostle Paul was going around preaching and getting a whole bunch of people saved. I mean, that sounds like a good plan to me. Which also ye have received and wherein ye stand, verse number 2, by which also ye are saved. So you're saved by what? The gospel. The gospel that he preached. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, look at verse number 3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. So Paul didn't come up with this on his own. By the way, Paul didn't invent some new gospel to go forth and, you know, like the dispensationist will try to teach you that, well, Paul had a different gospel for the Gentiles and Peter had a different gospel to the Jews. No. There's one everlasting gospel. There's one. One. And Paul didn't come up with this. He also received it. He says, I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. I received this from someone else. And now I'm passing it on how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. So if you're going to be preaching the gospel to people, you better be talking about Jesus Christ and the fact that he died for your sins. Now when we go out soul winning, you're going to use other Bible verses to show this, to demonstrate this, that Jesus Christ died for your sins. A common one that I use and maybe other people use, Romans 5-8. But God commanded his love for us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Right? For God so loved the world, how about John 3.16, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Right? So these many, many verses, right, we talk about that show that Christ died for our sins and he says here, died for our sins according to the scriptures. Right? According to the Bible because that's what matters. That Christ died according to the Bible, according to God's word. And that he was buried. Like he literally died. This isn't figurative. This isn't just like well, you know, look, he was dead and buried in a grave. Like they put his body in the tomb. And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. So preaching about Jesus Christ being crucified and dying is important. It's essential. That's part of the gospel. The fact that he died, he literally died and was buried and put in the tomb, that is essential. And the fact that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures is essential. So you're preaching the gospel to people, you better be preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Non-negotiable. That is the gospel that saves. This is what we must be doing. Now, when we preach, we want people to have a clear understanding. And, you know, everyone might be at a different level with this. We're always striving to do better. But the point is, when we go out soul winning, you're not just running through verses and just trying to get people to pray a prayer. We are trying to explain to people what Christ actually did for them and try to impart that understanding of the gospel to them. And the fact that Jesus Christ did all these things means that he took the penalty for your sins. And once he's taken that, he's removed it completely forever. So, one other aspect here, soul winning essentials, turn to Romans chapter 4. Turn to Romans 4. Notice, also in the gospel here, that the apostle Paul is preaching that we saw in 1 Corinthians 15. It's all Jesus. So the things that he's preaching is all Jesus, it's not you. It's not, well, you have to turn from your sins. You have to start living a good life. You have to start going to church. Was that the gospel that he preached? Or did he preach Christ and him crucified? That's the gospel. Gospel means good news. The good news is that someone paid your sin debt for you. That's good news. That's not good news. You have to pay your own debt. You have to start working off that debt, buddy. You got to start doing all these good things that hopefully will pay for all the things you've done wrong. That's not good news. Because you're buried in debt if you're looking at how much you've sinned in your life. You're overwhelmed. You need someone to pay that debt off for you. And that's what Christ did, and that's the good news. So what we do not do is preach anything about the works of a person being required for salvation. Works are never required for salvation. Ephesians 2 8 and 9, the Bible says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. It clearly says, not of works. Salvation is not of our works at all. And it's not, you know, because some people will say, Well, it's not of your works, but, I mean, come on. You've still got to do something, right? God's grace saves you, but if you're not living right, then if you're not doing something good, well, how do we answer that? Look at Romans chapter 4. Let's go to the Bible and see what God says about someone who doesn't do any good works. Are they still saved? What if someone believes and they do nothing for God? Nothing. Is that person saved? Well, let's see what the Bible says. Because the Bible actually answers that question. Look at Romans 4 5. Verse number 5, the Bible says, But to him that worketh not... So do we have someone here that's not doing any good works? Yeah, to him that worketh not. They don't work. But believeth on him that justifieth in God. So here's a person that doesn't work, but they believe. What does it say? His faith is counted for righteousness. His faith is counted for righteousness. Not his good works are counted for righteousness. His faith is. Because it's the faith that saves. Because the works aren't required for your salvation. And if we continue reading, it just continues on the same vein of understanding, the same line of reasoning. Verse 6 says, Also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Isn't it blessed? The man that's blessed is the man that can have righteousness imputed onto him, which is given to him, right? God is placing righteousness on a person who's done no works. That's a blessing. Amen. Saying, Whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's the bottom line. God will not impute sin unto the person who puts their trust in Christ, even if they don't work. And actually, you can't be working, you can't be trusting in those works because your trust has to be completely in Christ. So, essential, essential part of the Gospel, when we go out and preach the Gospel, no works. And this is essential that it's part of our preaching the Gospel because everybody who doesn't, who isn't saved right now, is trusting in one degree or another in their own works. Every other religion of the world is a works-based religion, every single one. Every single one relies on their works. It all has to do with how good you are and the balance of good and bad and everything else. I mean, that's... All the major religions of the world will fall into that category of trusting in their works. But the religion of the Bible, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is no works. That is the main differentiator between anything. So, if we're going to preach the Gospel to people, they have to understand it's all Jesus, not you. All what He did, nothing what you do. Essential. Cannot have it any other way. Along that same line is the teaching of eternal security. Okay, it's a term that we put on having the assurance... And turn, if you would, to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John near the end of the Bible, 1 John chapter 2. Eternal security means that you are secure in your salvation forever. Okay? This is an essential, when you go out sowing with Strong Old Baptist Church, that you're showing people and explaining to people because this is inherent to the Gospel. The reason why I say it's inherent to the Gospel... I mean, what if some people believe you can lose your salvation? What's so big of a deal about that? People believe different things. You have arguments about... Some people believe one way, some people believe another way. Well, if we all just believe in Christ, does it really matter? It does matter. It does. And here's why it matters. The person who is claiming they put all their faith in Christ, but then still will also claim, well, you can lose your salvation if you're breaking some aspect of the law, all of their faith is not in Christ. They're trusting. They may say they're trusting in Christ, but they've split their faith into trusting Christ and obey the law to some degree. Now, people have all different lines that they're going to draw on how much of a law you have to obey before you lose your salvation, but it's all foolishness. It doesn't matter where someone draws the line because if you're going to add any element of keeping the law, which is works, your good works are from keeping God's law. If you add any element to that, then you believe in a workspace salvation. Well, the Bible already said it's not of works. So it's really critical to understand that Christ's payment is complete. It's paid in full regardless of the sins that you commit even after you're saved. It's 100% paid for by Christ. The Bible says in, you're in 1 John chapter 2, Titus 1, 2, the Bible says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Eternal life means forever, eternal. Eternal life is part of the gospel, right? Isn't that what we receive when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal life? Well, the Bible says that that's a promise from God. God promises that. That's a strong, I mean, now look, if God makes you a promise, I don't know what God you believe in, hopefully you believe in the same God I do, that's why you're here today, right? If you believe in God, is God a liar? I mean, the Bible says he can't lie. So if God makes you a promise, can we hold God to his word? Of course, you could hold God to his word more than anything in the world. God does not back down from his word. God is holy, God cannot sin, God cannot lie. So when God makes a promise, you better be 100% sure that he keeps that promise. And he made this promise before the world even began, and what is that promise? Eternal life. So if God says, I've got a gift for you, and it's eternal life, all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus Christ and you get that gift. Once you put your faith in Christ, God has to keep his end of the deal. God has to keep his promise, he has to give you eternal life. Now, if you say, okay, great, I have eternal life now, and then 10 years down the road, you know, you're like, well, you know, you start getting enticed by sin and you get off into the world and you get off into drugs and booze and everything else, you kind of lose your way, so to speak. If you were to die and go to hell, then that means you never had eternal life, you had temporary life. God doesn't promise us temporary life. He promises eternal life. So the moment he gives you eternal life, you know by God's own word, by the fact that God's not a liar, that that lasts forever. That's some good news. That is critical to understanding the Gospel is that Jesus Christ's payment is paid in full. And if you start to think like, well, if I sin or do this or that, then, you know, maybe I won't go to heaven, then you don't believe that when Christ died on the cross, he paid for all of your sins. It doesn't say in the Bible that Jesus Christ paid for your sins up until the point you believe, and then you have to do good works to keep your salvation. That's foolishness. That's ridiculous. You couldn't do the good works to begin with. You can't do them good, you know, afterwards. Is there anyone here that's sinless? Anyone here that just doesn't ever sin, ever? Glad I'm not seeing any hands raised. We should all at least understand that. We're not perfect. And, you know, and thank God, you know, most of the world will at least accept that statement that we're not perfect, we make mistakes, that we fail, we fall. We fall short, we sin, we do things that we're not supposed to do. Now, it's not right, it's not good. We shouldn't do those things. But we do do those. If we could lose our salvation because of sin, we would all lose our salvation. But we can't because God promised that He's eternal. Because God said that Christ paid for all of your sins, and Christ paid for your sins before you were even born. Which means that your sins, right, are sins. You know, however old you are, you've lived a certain amount of time, you have sins you've done in your past and sins that you're going to do in your future. But the sins of your past were all future sins for when Jesus died on the cross. They hadn't happened yet. You hadn't even been born yet. You weren't even thought about being born yet when Jesus Christ died on the cross. Yet He paid and covered sins going into eternity future. All sins. When He died on that cross, He took that payment for all sins. Which means all of your sins, even in the future from this point forward, have also been paid for. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, good news. That's how you get eternal life, because you've accepted the payment. It covers you 100%. Now, people get offended by that, because, oh, that means you can just go off and do whatever you want, and you think you're still saved? Yes, I am still saved. But the Bible answers that question, too, in Romans 5 and 6. At the end of Romans 5, the Bible says, hey, we're sinned and abound, grace did much more abound. So the more that people sin, grace covers all that sin. But then in chapter 6, it says, well, what shall we say? Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. So the teaching of the Bible is, of course you shouldn't sin. Of course not. You should be obeying your Father. You should be doing what's right. You should be living the good life. But if you continue in sin, grace does abound, because Jesus paid for all of them. It doesn't mean it's okay to sin. It doesn't mean God's telling you, well, go ahead and sin, then. That's not what He teaches at all. But it does mean that you are covered for all of your sins. That's what the Bible teaches. And this is what we need to impart and explain unto other people when we go forth and preach the Gospel, that Christ's payment truly is sufficient. And you need to be trusting in that. Which is why 1 Corinthians 15, what's the Gospel? Death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ, because He did it all. So we need to trust completely in what He did. And what we try to do is use language to try to explain to people the impact of that, that it truly is Christ. It's not you. 1 John chapter 2, look at verse number 1, the Bible says, My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Jesus Christ died to pay for the sins of the whole world, for everybody. That's why He died. And this is another one of those great verses. We talk about the death of Jesus Christ, right? 1 Corinthians chapter 15 is another one of those ones you can turn to to show people, hey, Jesus Christ died for everybody's sins. Jesus Christ isn't the God of the white man. He's not the God of any particular group or nation or people. He's the God of the whole world. And He died for the sins of the whole world, but leaves a choice up to you whether or not you're going to receive that gift, whether you're going to put your faith in Him. It's up to you to decide that, but He still did it. And the Bible says here, if any man sin, hey, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So you don't lose your salvation because you already have an advocate. If you're trusting in Christ, He's your advocate. He's going to go to the Father for you. So think about it this way. Anyone who wants to think that, oh, if I sin, then I might not be saved anymore, once you've accepted Christ, He's your advocate. So every day that you sin, He can go before the Father and say, I paid for that. I paid for that. I paid for that. I paid for that one, too. Paid for that one, too. Paid, paid, paid, paid, paid. They're all paid. But what if someone commits adultery? Paid! What if someone commits murder? It's paid! What if someone commits suicide? It's paid! It's done! Jesus Christ paid the whole way. He's your advocate. You don't lose your salvation for any reason. Because Jesus Christ never turns His back on you. Even if you turn your back on Him, He doesn't turn His back on you. The Bible says that He'll never leave you or forsake you. Never. Flip over to chapter 5, 1 John chapter 5. Eternal security, understanding that the eternal life does last forever. This is one more reason why this is critical. This is essential. This has to be part of our explanation of the gospel. What we're going to see here in 1 John chapter 5 is that if you don't believe these things, you're making God a liar. If you don't believe that you have eternal life, that it lasts forever. This is why when we talk to people, one, we ask, hey, what do you think you have to do to be saved? That's a great question just to understand where is their heart at? What do they believe in? Are they trusting Christ? Are they trusting their works? What are they doing? Some people will say, well, yes, I believe and it's just by grace and it's not in my works. But then when it comes to the eternal part, they'll kind of falter and say, well, I mean, if you do this or do that, you could lose it. And the reason why we go into that and even ask those questions and why it's so important is because if you think that you could lose your salvation based on some bad sins that you do, you are not trusting completely in Christ. You're not trusting that it's eternal. You're not trusting that what God, the payment that God made is sufficient, which means that your heart isn't completely resting on the finished work of Jesus Christ. That's why we, it's not for any other reason but to understand what a person believes and then demonstrate that they're in error in their understanding of the gospel and how powerful it really is so that they can completely believe it. And let's just get into this passage now because the Bible gives us the explanation of why this is so critical. Look at verse number 10. We're going to start reading. Paul says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. So, as I was saying, if you believe on the Son of God, you have the witness to yourself. You're saved, right? You have the Holy Ghost as a witness. You believe, you're saved. And then it's talking about, so this is separating those that believe and those that don't believe. And what this is saying is that if you don't believe, then you're basically saying that God is a liar. If you don't believe what God says, then you're saying he's lying. Right? If God makes statements and you say, I don't believe that, then that's making God to be a liar. I mean, it's very simple to understand. If I make any statement in the world, if I just tell you, you know, Brother Chris, I've got a white van, you could either believe that statement or not. If you say, I don't believe you, well, then what you're saying in effect is that I'm lying to you. I mean, it makes sense, right? So this is what the Bible's teaching here. You say, okay, well, if you don't believe the record that God gave of his Son, then you're basically saying God is a liar. If you're saying God's a liar, then you're not saved because you're not believing what you need to believe. And this breaks it down. What do we need to believe? What is that record? What's the record that we need to believe that if we don't believe this record that we're making God a liar? Verse 11. And this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Very simple. There's three points here that are brought in this one short verse. Verse 11, the record. God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. The first point is that word given. God hath given. Given in a sense of a gift. Given and not earned. Given by grace. What has he given to us? Eternal life. I'll get to that in a minute. And this life is in his Son. It's only through Jesus Christ, right? So one, it's given. It's a gift. Three, because I'm jumping ahead, it's only through Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by him, right? It's only through Jesus Christ. But that middle part there, it's eternal life. So here's the thing. If you don't believe that it's a gift from God, then you're making God a liar because he said it's given. It's a gift. If you don't believe that it's only through Christ, through his Son, then you're making God a liar because he said it's only through Jesus Christ because Jesus said that, right? You're making God a liar. And if you don't believe it's eternal life, which means forever, then you're making God a liar. And if you don't believe any of these three things that are found in this verse, you're making God a liar and you're not saved. This is why it's so important. This is why it's essential. This is why it's critical. This is why we bring it up to people. And in fact, this is a great verse to use to show people who want to think that, well, if I believe I could lose my salvation, it doesn't mean I'm not saved. I just don't agree with you on your stand. I show them this because some people don't understand the importance of how essential this is to salvation. This is essential to salvation, understanding that the price paid is complete. It's completed. It's eternal. If you don't think it's going to last you forever, you're not saved because you're making God a liar because he promised before the world began that it's eternal, that it lasts forever. And then, of course, verse 13 says, These things that I have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. This is why we have that assurance is because of what he says right here. We know it's eternal. We know that we're saved. We could be confident 100% when we normally go out and preach to gospel people, we ask people, hey, do you know for sure if you die today you'd be going to heaven? Right? And some people aren't very sure. But we explain why you can know for sure. Hey, I'm 100% confident that I'm saved and going to heaven. Why? Why am I so certain? What if you do some horrible sin next week, Pastor Burzins? I'm still saved. Why? Because I believe the record, because I believe the things that were written here and I know I have eternal life because it was a gift, because I believe through Jesus Christ, and I know that it's eternal. God's never going to take that away from me. It's not based on how good I am. Essential. Last point. So to this point, spirit of humility. Essential. Go forth with spirit of humility. Using Bible verses. Essential. Death, burial, and resurrection. The gospel is essential. Right? Should go without saying. Works are not a part of salvation. Essential. We need to explain that. Eternal security. Essential. We need to explain that. Okay? Once saved, always saved. You are saved forever. The last point, calling upon the name of the Lord is essential. Calling upon the name of the Lord is essential. Turn, if you would, to turn to Psalm 116. When we go forth and preach the gospel, calling upon the name of the Lord is essential. And I'm going to show you briefly why that's so essential. But I want to make sure that it's clearly known what we believe at Strong Old Baptist Church and why we do the things that we do and that when we go forth and preach the gospel, that we do lead people in a sinner's prayer and we're going to get to that at the end of the sermon because it is so essential. And I want to make sure that because it is biblical, it's scriptural, and it's necessary. But going all the way back to the beginning of time, people have called upon the name of the Lord for their salvation. Genesis chapter 4, verse 26, the Bible says, And to Seth, to him also there was born a son. Seth was a direct son of Adam and Eve. We're talking about going back to the beginning of time here. And he called his name Edos, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Calling upon the name of... Look, that started way back then. Okay, this is nothing new. This isn't a new doctrine. This isn't a new belief. I had you turn to Psalm 116. Look at verse number 9. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed, therefore have I spoken. Which that's also an important verse, and I'll kind of cover that in a little bit. But don't forget that. I believed, therefore have I spoken. This is why you call on the name of the Lord is because you believe. Okay, but like I said, I'll get into that in a little bit more detail in a few minutes. I was greatly afflicted. 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. I'm going to take the cup of salvation, and call on God. Call on the name of the Lord. For salvation. This is found all throughout Scripture. Turn to Romans chapter 10. And this is a doctrine that gets attacked regularly. Sometimes one people get confused about this, and I'm trying to help you just understand. Clearly what this is all about. But two, this is going to come under attack. And you know what? This is essential. You're going to go out soloing with us. This is essential. Everything I've listed here, this is what we do. It's a biblical model. You're going to see here in Romans chapter 10, this is a biblical model. And we lead people in prayer to get saved. To call on the name of the Lord. Verse number 13, Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. The Bible says, 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? Now, I'll tell you this much. Absolutely, 100 percent, the Bible says that, you know, for whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Right? Faith is essential. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Right? Absolutely. The seed sown in your heart needs to be received and believed on. Okay? And that will bring you salvation. But here's the thing with calling on the name of the Lord is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The Bible says that I'm going to take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. People can't be calling on the name of the Lord. Why? Because I believed, therefore I have spoken. And I'll tell you this much, and, you know, this doesn't have as much weight as the Word of God, but I know for myself, when I got saved, you know, we go forth trying to help people get saved. We try to show them the verses and have these good conversations and get them to understand these things. And then when we finish with them and we feel like, okay, I think they've accepted this, so you kind of verify. We ask, like, hey, do you believe this? Do you believe this? What do you think about this? Does this sound true to you? Are you willing to accept this and stake your soul on Jesus Christ? Great. If you're confirming and assenting to these things, then let's just tell God that that's where your faith is and call on the name of the Lord and tell God that you are trusting in Jesus for your salvation. We do as much as we can to help that person in their path to receive Christ. I didn't have that happen to me so nicely by having someone right there with me kind of holding my hand and showing me all the way through. Now, I have had this Word of God personally in my salvation testimony sown in my heart at some point in my life. And I have reference points where I think that probably happened, where I was able to come to the understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But when I got saved, I was alone in my bedroom in my apartment at college. No one else was there with me. It was me and the Lord. God had to bring me down really low. Okay, I was humbled. I was in a low state. And when I finally gave in and realized that, you know what, I need Christ, then what did I do? At the moment, I accepted the fact that Jesus Christ is Savior in the same moment I was calling on God to save me. Now, what I don't understand is people who want to fight against this and say, Oh, no, prayers are working. You know, you call it. It's just a belief. It's just a belief. Look, this is such a personal matter of your own salvation. Like, if you really understand that, you know, I don't want to go to hell. God, I need you to save me. And you understand that importance, how could you not call on the name of the Lord? How could you not make sure that God knows where your heart is? Whether that's out loud verbally or in your heart just communicating with God saying, God, I believe in Christ. This isn't just some assent in your mind to some facts that, well, yeah, okay, Jesus died on the cross, and I think, you know, like, if you were to ask me about that, I'm going to say that's true. Because that's where I was before I was saved. I had an understanding of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and if you were to ask me if I thought that was true, I would have said yes, because I was brought up as in a Presbyterian household, and that was what I was taught. I was taught that salvation was by grace through faith. I was taught all those things, and if you would have asked me, I would have been like, yeah. But I didn't put my faith in Christ. I wasn't really trusting in that. I had a knowledge in my mind of those facts, okay, and that that's what the Bible taught, but I was not trusting in Jesus to be my Savior. But the moment I put my trust in Christ to save me, you better believe I'm calling on Him to save me. I don't see how you can separate the two. It is the most natural thing to do when you're saying, yes, I'm going to accept Christ. Tell God I'm believing in you. There is no separation of the two, of the belief and the calling on the name of the Lord. Your experience may not match up 100% with my experience, but I'm telling you, this calling on the name of the Lord has to happen, because if it's not happening, I just have the question, do you really believe? Did you really understand? Was it really that important to come to a conclusion of saying, I was not saved. I need to be saved. Because that's the repentance that's necessary as understanding I was not saved before. This is true. Now I'm saved. I believe. You saw in Romans 10, look at verse number 13, Bob says, For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? So, of course, you have to believe. The belief happens first, and then you call on the name of the Lord because you speak, I believe, therefore I've spoken. And how shall they believe in Him in whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Turn, if you will, to Luke chapter 18. It's the last place I'll have you turn, Luke chapter 18. And for the people who want to say, well, prayer is a work, you're writing works of salvation. Foolishness. Asking for something is not working for something. What's something that a lot of people will say to a panhandler that's just asking for money? They'll say, get a job. Isn't that something that's commonly just said to people who are asking for something? Right? Well, if asking for something is a work, you say, well, I am working. I have a job, but I'm asking you. Isn't that silly? Isn't that ridiculous? Can you really say if someone asks you for something that they're working? So go around to any of these businesses and ask them to give you a paycheck, and if they ask you about the work, well, I've asked you. I mean, there's my work. I worked for you. By me asking you, I'm working for you, so give me my paycheck. See how much that flies. How many people are you going to convince of that? In John chapter 4, when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well, He said this in verse 10. Jesus answered Sid under, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Living water. Do you think Jesus is talking about salvation there or not? I don't know. Living water. That He goes on to explain that if you drink of this water, the living water, you're never going to thirst. He's not talking about physical water. And He's talking about salvation, and He's saying if you knew, if you really understood, if you knew the gift of God and who I am, you would have asked me. If you knew, you would ask. Is Jesus preaching a workspace salvation? No, because He says, and I would have given it to you. But did He give it to her without her asking? No. Luke chapter 18. This is where the term, the sinner's prayer even comes from. Let's see what the Bible says here. I'm sorry, in verse number 10. Actually, let's start at verse number 9. The Bible says, and He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. I think this is worded just awesome. He prayed with himself. He's not praying to God. See, a lot of people will pray in church, in temples, wherever, but they're not even praying to God. This guy's praying to himself. And he's got this grand prayer, right? God, I thank Thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterous, or even as this publican. He's looking at this guy next to him. You know what, God? Thank you. Thank you, God, that I'm not like all these people. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Look at how great I am, God. Thank you that I'm so great. Thank you that I'm not like this guy over here. Thank you, God. What a lifted up, proud jerk. Verse 13. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven. You know what that means? He's humble. He's not even lifting up his eyes to heaven. He's got his head bowed because he's in humility and meekness and reverence to God, not even feeling like he can lift up his face unto God. But smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He's calling on God and asking for mercy because he's a sinner. God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And what does the Bible say? I tell you, verse 14, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. God heard that prayer and justified him because he called on the Lord seeking for mercy and for forgiveness. For the everyone that exalted themselves shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. This is where we get the concept of the sinner's prayer. We see that Jesus Christ says, hey, you'd ask of me. We believe, therefore I've spoken. The disciples said we cannot help but teach and preach the things that we have seen and heard. We can't help it. And I believe this, that when a person understands the gospel and believes, it's the most natural thing to do that's tied in with believing is some form of communication with God. Now, the words are very different that people can use. The words themselves aren't that critical. Okay, it's not like you have to say the right words. But you have to affirm somehow to God by calling on him in some way that you have received and you believe him. You're believing Christ. Like I said, the thief on the cross was, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. This man's saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You know, people have said different things, whether it be out loud or in their heart, to assent to this. And honestly, I don't even remember what words, and I don't even remember if I was saying them out loud or not when I got saved. I don't remember, but I do specifically remember calling on Jesus to save me. Absolutely. I don't remember the words. The words didn't really matter because God understands when you're calling on him because of the belief in your heart. What we try to do is to help people find those words and use good words and language and stuff and just make sure they understand that. But we absolutely, it's essential that we lead people in that prayer. And I'll close with this because, you know, I've come across people that don't want to pray, and I'm not saying that they don't actually, there's not anyone who's ever not actually believed, but I have to just question why, you know, there are reasons why someone might not want to pray in front of other people. So that could be a reason why someone might not want to pray in front of you. People get hung up on things for whatever reason, but in general, I mean, your salvation, how could you not call on God if you're already consenting to everything that he did for you to just say, God, save me. There's something that simple. It's an essential. So, you know, as we go forth and preach the gospel here, these things are non-negotiable in this church. This is what we believe and this is what we're doing. Lots of other tips, lots of other techniques, lots of other helps, lots of other things that you can do to improve and to just help be, make things a little bit easier to understand and illustrations and all kinds of different things, but these things are critical. And, you know, there's a few others I didn't touch on, but there's just not enough time. You know, the fact that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, right? The right Jesus is extreme, you know, like that's critical, okay, because everything's about Jesus, so you got to have the right Jesus. But as far as our word of prayer. Dear Lord, love you. Thank you so much for your word. Pray that you please help our church to continue to reach a lot of people with the gospel. I pray that you will please help people, lead us today to people who are going to be willing to listen, even though the weather might not be that great, that you just lead us to those who won't care about those things and will still want to hear the truth, the good news, and I pray that you will please just use us to lead those people to Christ. We love you. In the name we pray. Amen. All right. We're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, please lead us. All right, church. If you could open up your hymnals to song number 410. Song 410, Faith is the Victory. Song 410. On the first. In camp Along the hills of life Ye Christian soldiers rise And press the battle Where the night shall fail The glowing skies Against the fold When bales below Let all our strength be hurled Faith is the victory we know That overcomes the world Faith is the victory Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world His banner over us is love Our sword the word of God We tread the road The saints above We shout of triumph try By faith they lie A world with breath Swept on o'er every field The faith by which they conquer death Is still our shining shield Faith is the victory Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world On every hand the foe we fight Drown up in dread of rain Let tents of ease be left behind And onward to the fray Salvation's helmet on each head With truth hovered about The earth shall tremble Neath our tread And echo with a shout Faith is the victory Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world On the last to him That overcomes the foe My frame it shall begin Before the angels he shall know His name confessed in heaven And onward from the hills of life Our hearts will love a flame We'll vanquish all the host of night In Jesus' coming name Faith is the victory Faith is the victory O glorious victory That overcomes the world Amen. Church, great singing. Thank you so much for coming. You guys are dismissed. Thank you.