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

James chapter 2 James chapter 2 the Bible reads my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons for if there come under your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel and there come in also a poor man in viral raiment and you have respect to him that wear at the gay clothing and say unto him sit thou here in a good place and say to the poor stand now there or sit here under my footstool are you not then partial in yourselves and are become judges of evil thoughts? Harken my beloved brethren have not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he have promised to them that love him but you have despised the poor do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself you do well but if you have respect to persons you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors for whosoever shall keep the whole law yet offended one point he is guilty of all for he for he that has said do not commit adultery said also do not kill now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the law so speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty for he shall have judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment what does it profit my brethren though a man say he hath faith and have not works can faith save him if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them depart in peace be warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit even so faith if it had not works is dead being alone yeah man may say thou has faith and I have works show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works thou believeth that there is one God thou doest well the devil's also believe in trouble but wilt thou know O vain man that faith without works is dead was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar see us thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed onto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God he see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also let us pray father thank you for this great church we thank you for pastor and his family we just pray tonight that you'll the Holy Spirit will rest upon his shoulders and give him boldness and please give him wisdom to articulate the sermon that he's prepared for us we also thank you for all the souls that were one to Christ today and we just thank you for your son's precious blood that cleanses us from all sin and we pray these things in Jesus name and that men so we're here in James 2 I want to look at a specific verse that's going to kind of be just it's really just kind of I'm taking this one verse from this chapter it's not going to be a sermon on James 2 but the Bible does say in verse 19 and tremble and so we have a verse here that believing that there's one God there's nothing wrong with believing that there's one God of course that's because there is only one God so you know great certain facts about who God is and certain facts that are true and they even have a fear of God yet according to the scripture they're going to be destined for hell and they're not going to you know they're not going to be in heaven because it's talking about a devil so you know what you have to understand is not only can Devils believe things that are true and you know of course we don't know that Devils actually have an opportunity to be saved or not but you know from a humanistic perspective he's kind of relating the two so that leads me to believe that the Devils in this context is also true about because you believe that there's one God hey Devils also believe that so is kind of connecting the human experience with the angel with an angelic type experience so also in the same way I would submit to you that there's plenty of people who believe certain facts about God but they're not saved and the title of my sermon this evening is this how you believe in Christ how you believe in Christ now there's this accusation that's usually hurled at a church like ours or at people that go out soul-winning that we simply believe if you just get to a certain level of knowledge you know if you assent as they call it to a certain level of facts then you're saved basically once you just identified that Jesus died was buried and rose again and that salvation by faith then you're just saved and of course they they try to accuse us of believing something that really no one believes I mean I I venture to say I've never heard of or met a single person that's ever communicated that is simply just really believes that if the even if they do it's kind of a rare thing people don't believe this we of course though believe that salvation is still easy we still believe that it is just a simple trust a one-time trusting and believing in Christ that saves you and the Bible could not be clearer that that's what saves you we have to understand is there are people that you can meet that will come to the knowledge of the facts of the gospel and not be saved now I want to illustrate two very obvious examples of this okay number one group is atheists there are atheists out there and I'm not saying all of them but there's plenty of atheists that can tell you all of the right answers of the Bible they can tell you yes according to the Bible Jesus Christ is the Son of God according to the Bible Jesus Christ died on the cross according to the Bible it's just faith alone in him and his finished work that Ben Shapiro Ben Shapiro can tell you exactly what the Bible says to be safe I've seen it I've heard it you know he argues with Matt Walsh because Matt Walt is a Catholic which Catholics don't believe the Bible so maybe you should you know tell that to Ben Shapiro because Ben Shapiro is always confused at why Matt Walsh doesn't believe the Bible even though he claims to be a Christian and Matt Walsh or Jordan Peterson or any of these people that are out there when they were to talk to Ben Shapiro about what Christianity is he's always correcting them and he's like well actually you know the difference between Judaism and the Bible is that you know the finished work of Jesus Christ paid for all of your sins and if you believe in him then you're saved and it's like right because that's what the Bible says and it's like here's a guy who could tell you exactly what the Bible is communicating about salvation and then not believing it think about this William Tyndale was burned at the stake what was the primary what was the number one accusation against him now obviously my film better know this first he maintained that faith alone justifies they could obviously wrap their head around the fact of what he believed that's why they killed him so it's not like all of the same facts that we do they do they don't trust in the Lord okay so just believing certain facts doesn't save you no one actually believes this and if that is what saved you every person that believes in work salvation will be saved because think about it every person that believes in work salvation believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God virtually speaking they all believe Jesus died on the cross for their sins they all believe that he died and rose again basically I mean you would have to basically say every single Christian and Catholic and one is coming to a certain ascent of knowledge and frankly speaking because they mix up works and faith they would all be saved every lordship salvation is ever repent of your sin I mean all of them because they give lips or they say hey yeah salvation is faith alone yep Jesus died I mean they'll separates what we believe and what the Bible teaches about how you believe in and what all these other people are doing okay well go to Romans chapter number 10 let's the Bible actually explains being saved Romans chapter number 10 I'm out the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised them from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart men believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed so according to the scripture the method in which you believe on Christ the way how you believe on Christ is by confessing with your mouth and simultaneously you believe in your heart in Jesus Christ and you're saved so it's really that simple but of course when we go out and preach the gospel this is not the only verse that we use because we want people to understand this statement otherwise it's a vain exercise notice that the belief there had to be there before you prayed with someone otherwise how are they going to get saved so of course we show that they're a sinner why would you show someone that they're a sinner because if you're a sinner you're going to go to hell and if you're going to go to hell then you need to be saved why would I ask God to save me if I didn't need to be saved so we have to help them realize hey you want to be saved you have to first realize you need to be saved second point is that we explained that Jesus Christ died on the cross and was buried and rose again I mean that we explained he did that for us so that we could be saved right and then once we've explained that Jesus Christ died on the cross was buried and rose again then the last element that we're basically trying to instill in this person's mind is the difference between someone believing those things are true and trusting them I mean at the end of the day the next step no matter what you call it no matter what verses you're going to by explaining eternal security or explaining what believe means you're ultimately just trying to get them to cross this threshold of acknowledging facts about the gospel to trusting them alone as your salvation and of course we use other verses in the Bible like Ephesians 2 8 9 to help us realize that simply acknowledging the facts of the gospel will not save you you know it's it's salvation is not of yourself it's not of works as any man should boast you know passages in Romans 11 we're right here look at Romans 11 and verse 6 and if by grace then it is no more of works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then it is no more grace otherwise work is no more work he's saying look if we get saved that has anything to do with works then we weren't saved by grace so you're either saved by grace or you weren't and you know you say well how do you know that you're right pastor Shelly because think about it I mean we're not God we don't we can't look into someone's heart and know whether or not someone saved I mean who's been able to look into someone's heart and know that they're saved okay no one that's weird yeah I was gonna see if I could find a weirdo in our church obviously we can't do that right and you know there's there's plenty of verses you could just turn to that says like you know if you just confess that Jesus Christ is Lord you know or you know who's ever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God I mean you oh I guess everybody saved then right how would you know that we're right about our interpretation about these things well let me explain to you why I know that I'm right we're right for sure is that everyone that disagrees with us can't understand any other part of the Bible I mean show me the people that believe in work salvation or believe in a hardcore Lordship salvation that understand any of the Bible why are they wrong on everything else why do they always have the wrong Bible why are they always not following the voice of the Shepherd why is it that they don't do any soul winning why I mean if you just look at the fruit of the argument you realize hey we're right here you know you could get you could get to a point where you get jaded and you're like I don't think so winning works and I don't think that these nuances matter I just think we're all saved and let's just all go watch this football game you know it's like that's stupid no no no nuance matters and getting the exact right interpretation of the gospel matters and here's another thing that matters calling on the name of the Lord matters because if you don't believe that you know what there's nothing separating you from the atheist that believes the same facts and how would anybody have any assurance I mean if you did not call the name of the Lord in simple faith to get saved you don't have to call in the name of the Lord how would you have any confidence that you believed enough to even be saved because what would be that signifying mark well you're like okay I understood the facts now what do I do you're saved oh really okay like if you believed oh yeah yeah I believed it how do I how do I know that I believed it and then of course this is where John MacArthur comes along well if you have the works then you believed it and then he basically gets you to believe in what work salvation so they need some basically because they have no actual understanding of how to believe in Christ and they have nothing that actually points to how they believed in Christ then essentially what ends up replacing it is some kind of a pseudo works based salvation and it's dangerous that's dangerous it's dangerous to get away from the correct interpretation of Romans 10 which clearly I mean you I have to believe you're an idiot or unsaved to misunderstand this passage telling you to confess I mean what in verse 9 say it that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth notice what it's starting with talking this verse starts talking then it brings up believing and then it says you're gonna be saved and then some people say oh you don't have to actually say anything or you don't have to confess or call the name of the Lord or ask to be saved and you know where they start they just start in verse 10 well in verse 10 it says for with the heart man believe you know why there's a word for there because it's explaining something for means because and you know it's not a good way to start an explanation something because what do you have to do to be saved because you believed you were you got righteousness what no no it's like how do I believe in Jesus Christ because you believed what do you mean because why are you starting your sentence with because that's stupid you know you start the sentence that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth right and then of course you know they they not only they start in verse 10 they stop in the middle of verse 10 because the next the next phrase says and with the mouth confession is made in the salvation so you know according to the Bible there's a lot of things that lead up to salvation you know and I don't like to put a number on it because you could argue there's you know the feel like there's two things you have to be saved or five things have to be saved or ten things are to be said that's arbitrary the Bible doesn't say that there is no number of steps because you could argue all day long all kinds of different numbers you could say oh it's two things right confession and believing okay well what about verse 14 how then so they call on him that's one and then they've not believed and now so they believe in him and they have not heard the belief that's number two and how so they hear without a preacher hearing that's number three Oh preaching that's number four said that's number five I mean how are you gonna how you can identify the steps some people say oh you got it well you got a first step you believe to your center you got to believe that you deserve hell then you got to believe the gospel but what if instead of saying believe the gospel you got to first believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and then third you got to believe that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and then fourth I mean you could just come up with an arbitrary number of things that's why this is what I always say there's one thing you have to do to be saved because that's the only one thing you have to do it's believe but you know when we explain all the other stuff we're explaining how you believe in Jesus and when I get to the fact that you've understood it and we're now needing to pray you know what I don't say there's another thing you have to do you know what I don't say there's two things you have to do you know what I don't say well there's ten more it this is how you believe which was still the one thing and you know every time I've explained this to someone else so any you know they've never had a problem with it I've never in my entire life and I've gotten so winning a lot I've never one time said hey what's the one thing you have to do to be saved they said believe and I say this is how it's by praying oh I thought you said there's only one thing was belief buddy what's all this prayer talk about I thought you said it was a free gift what's all this works you're adding in now you know I've never had that happen in real life you know why because other the people that I go out and preach the gospel and get saved are not idiots is why they're not fools they're they're being enlightened by the Holy Spirit you know there's all these stupid idiots online that will say that praying is a work they'll say that asking Jesus to be saved is believe works in fact there's a guy he commented on a video where I explained this and he said that I'm teaching a total work salvation some idiot called Jack smack on YouTube he's pretty popular out there some idiots saying I'm teaching a total work salvation for saying that the way you believe in Christ is by confession and by calling upon the name of the Lord and there's other idiots online norm Diamante which I've already preached against and this guy needs to be preached against as much as possible because he's just such a downer on soul winning and he's such a loser that instead of just believing the Bible and reading the whole verse he just has to say well actually you already saved right there and in verse 10 before the end and the second part is just physical salvation what what kind of physical salvation am I in need of I mean what if someone walked up to you and said you need physical salvation what would be your most logical question what am I in danger like what's about to happen you know like I'm not even aware of what physical danger I'm in and to say oh but you have to understand in the context in Romans this is about Israel's physical salvation well that's weird that he wrote it to the Romans what good is that going to do hey I wrote to you Romans what I wish that physical Israel would do so that they could be physically saved I mean what good is that what about like hey you know brother Ben really needs some help here so I wrote a letter to Dylan about it about what he should do you know that's the stupidity of these people is there's oh this is physical salvation well okay what's verse 1 say brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved what are they being saved from verse 2 fry bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God now wait a minute where in this verses did it mention that Israel is in grave physical danger you know what he's he's mad about he's mad about that they have no knowledge hey they have a zeal but then they don't have the right knowledge what's the wrong knowledge what's the issue with the knowledge well they're ignorant of God's righteousness so what is it that he wants them to get God's righteousness and what what was the what does verse 1 say brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved so what's the salvation salvation is getting God's righteousness I feel like we're really close to the context here verse 4 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness through everyone that believeth okay so we don't get the righteousness of the law we get the righteousness of Christ which is through believing for Moses describeth the righteousness which the law the man which do those things shall live by them but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down from above or who should ascend in the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead 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 shall believe in thine heart that God is raised from the dead thou shalt be saved so what is that it what is this saved how is that different than the saved in verse 1 and what was it that the Apostle Paul really wants his brethren to do he wants them to not have their own righteousness which they invented based on their works and he wants them to have the righteousness which is of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ I mean it could not be clearer we're what is it oh there I'm afraid that physical Israel is going to be destroyed physically where did you get that it didn't say that in verse 10 it explains why this works because or for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation does this salvation any different than the one in verse 9 or in verse 1 know so what what gave me the salvation that means I got God's righteous is imputed unto me it was me using my mouth to confess the Lord Jesus Christ and I believed in my heart so this is explaining how you believed and how you receive that salvation that's why it says in verse number 11 for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him should not be ashamed verse 12 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 now isn't it interesting in verse 11 it's saying whosoever believeth meaning anyone that believes and then verse 12 one explains this it's saying that whosoever includes both Jews and Gentiles you know it doesn't say believe you know what it says it says in verse number 12 unto all that call upon him you know why because calling upon him and believing on him is the same thing and then they'll say like you're teaching work salvation they're two completely different things what do you mean they're two completely different things what do you think that they were calling about what how is me confessing to Jesus that I believe in him different than me believing in him what are you talking about what is the difference you're just an idiot you're a prideful idiot if you don't understand that that's the same thing verse number 12 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 oh that's talking about physical salvation again it was the same context saved in verse 9 saved in verse 10 saved in verse number 13 saved in verse number 1 is talking about getting God's righteousness imputed unto them why in the world would I then believe it's about physical salvation I wouldn't because I'm not an idiot I would because I actually read the chapter now let's keep reading though verse 14 how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed meaning what if you pray to God every single day of your life but you don't believe the facts of the gospel and you're not trusting alone in him it will not save you Catholics pray all the time and they're not saved and he's saying how could you truly call on Jesus if you haven't truly believed the gospel and that's why they don't you know what are their prayers Mary will you please help me today to have strength they don't even pray to Jesus they're praying to Mary st. Thomas will you help me to have more money they're not calling upon the name of the Lord because if you think about it what is calling on the name of the Lord Lord I'm a sinner I'm putting all my trust in you save me that's what it means to call in the name of the Lord so you they're not even calling on the name of the Lord they're calling on Mary they're calling on themselves Lord I think thee that I'm not like other men that's not calling on the name of the Lord that's calling on your own name that was justifying yourself the whole essence of calling on the name of the Lord is the act of believing on Christ and it's explaining that you can't do that unless you believed first and he's saying how shall they believe in him in whom they have not heard and also they hear without a preacher and they'll say this well you already saved before you called because you believed but here's the thing you have to understand there was a there was a point in in the salvation process where you believed the facts of the gospel and then there was a there was a moment where it changed where you went from believing them to be true to believing in them to believing on them and you say what was that process it was called calling upon the name of the Lord where you went from hey that's true Jesus is the Savior if I believe in him I will be saved and I do believe that so you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna tell God I believe that and I'm gonna believe in him it's the act of believing in him it's the act of believing on him and it separates you from the atheist that acknowledges hey that might be true or that I probably believe that's true but I just don't even want to believe in Christ because I do believe there are people that understand the facts of the gospel and choose not to believe in him still and they're not saved whether or not they acknowledge that they're true it's not acknowledging that they're true it's truly trusting in them for your salvation and that moment of trusting in Christ is illustrated in the Bible as a one-time confession as a one-time calling upon the name of the Lord and now you're sealed you're saved you're some people make a big deal again because these people are pedantic and idiots they'll say oh you're saying that people that can't speak can't get saved pastor Joey no I'm not you idiot you know I can do lots of things even if even if I wasn't physically able to in the essence of I'm trying and according to the scripture you don't have to have a mouth talk because Sarah laughed and her mouth didn't even move well how did she love well you're an idiot how did they pray if they didn't use their mouth because you can pray without moving your mouth now of course if you have a mouth it's most likely that when you pray you'll probably use it yeah let's let's dumb down the Bible to the less than 0 0 0 1% of the population that can't even use their mouth at all to then not believe that calling upon the name of the Lord is necessary for salvation but this is stupid and they'll say well you got to ask Jesus for everything but salvation and it's like that's just because you're not saved well you ask you got to ask for physical salvation just not that spiritual one you better not do that actually in fact by asking it it works so you won't be saved so you get everything that you asked for from God except for spiritual salvation you know when Peter was drowning he shouldn't have asked the Lord Lord saved me he should just believed it he's gonna he dies and goes to heaven and Jesus is like what happened I believed it he's like well why didn't you say anything well I believed it you know no you didn't it's so stupid it's such a it's such a pedantic stupid doctrine but you know why people believe this junk it's because they don't want to go soul winning or they're just a devil I mean that's your kind of your two options you're either just a lazy jerk that doesn't want to go soloing or you're just an unsaved false prophet devil but there's no there's no good option for you when you're you're attacking soul winning you're attacking these methods I mean I love how this keeps reading in verse 15 it says how so they preach except they be sent as written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things but they have not all obeyed the gospel now think about this he's saying everything that we just explained was the gospel but wait a minute does the gospel have works inside of it if you're gonna say praying or confessing is works then how is he saying this was the gospel that he just explained it can't because this passage has nothing to do with works calling on the name of the Lord to be saved is not works I've heard idiots say you know Church of Christ I heard a Church of Christ podcast they said believing is a work that's stupid because they'll point to some passage in the Bible where it says you know what are the works of God that we must do and he's like this is the work of God believe on him whom he has sent and like oh see it's the work it's like that's the stupidity of the Catholics eating the Eucharist and thinking it's literally Christ's body I mean this that's the type of scholarship you get from the unsaved is they will never truly be able to fit together the pieces of the Bible they're just you know unlearned and rest the scriptures to their own destruction but we don't want to be those type of people I want to prove a few more things on this point because I think it's important but go to acts 22 for a moment and I preached other sermons on this but here's the thing it's really important that you realize that online world is filled with lies and that you need to live in the real world because when you only go to church online and you only soul winning online and you only do anything every online you have just a warped perspective on reality people that go to door-to-door soul winning they don't get mixed up on this very easily because you know they're not just sitting here like wondering how to get these people safe they've helped people pray and call the name of the Lord so many times that it's like it's stupid to think otherwise and I've had plenty of people I'm going out soul winning and I'm kind of getting to the end but I've showed them just over and over like believe this is just believe it's just faith it's belief and you can tell they already believe that and they want to get saved and they they sometimes interrupt me and they say well then how do I do that how do I believe because that's a logical question the logical question after just explaining the only thing you have to do to be saved is believe is then well then how do I believe oh well do you believe that but think about this even their own dog doctrine they would say well do you believe that and they're like yes how do they get them to acknowledge that they believed it they said it with their mouth didn't they I believe that well the way did you just say that out loud you don't believe it then you must believe it works because you just said that you believed in him I mean how do you even walk all these landmines look some people really want to over complicate getting saved it's not hard it's not this complicated you know what you know where confusion comes from the devil salvation is really as simple as believing the gospel and calling on his name one time getting saved it's that simple but why do people want to attack that well because the devil doesn't want people to get saved and he'll try any and all methods to stop people from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and making a decision for Christ and of course that decision is not well I walk the aisle the decisions not to get baptized that decisions not to repent of your sins that decisions not to surrender the decisions not to lay down your life the decision is to call the name of the Lord in faith that's the decision and you know there's been church services I've been to most of the churches I've ever seen they'll even have people you know just praise quietly in their seat and you know someone did that they got saved they didn't have to walk the aisle they didn't have to do a bunch of hoopla they didn't have to say in front of everybody I confess Christ but you know what in their heart they had to believe on him somehow and that's through the calling on the name of the Lord now the Apostle Paul is no exception to this you know the Apostle Paul wasn't born saved in fact he was Saul first okay and Saul was actually not a great person according to him he was the chief of sinners now I believe he was using hyperbole there he's not truly the chief of sinners in the sense that Judas Iscariot got him covered I'm pretty sure okay folks but he just felt really bad about how he had persecuted the church and of course the Apostle Paul does get saved in the scripture now acts 22 is a recounting or retelling of this but I just want to I want to read this and we're gonna go back and we kind of want to I want to study this for a moment but if you have the right interpretation of acts 22 16 you cannot believe the stupidity that calling on the name of Lord isn't necessary salvation or isn't the way you believe in Christ because it explicitly says it look at verse 16 and now why Terry is thou this is Ananias speaking to Paul arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord now this is just clear an example of the connection of salvation and calling on the name of Lord why because me washing away your sins is only a one-time event of believing in Christ there's no other event that's gonna wash away your sins it's you know we could go to Revelation chapter number one and make it really clear that he washed us in his blood okay we just saying are you washed in the blood what it really saved us the blood of Jesus Christ and being washed in it so what's gonna wash away my sin is a sacrifice in the altar no repenting of my sins no getting baptized no that's not gonna wash away my sins the only thing that washed away is your sins believing in Christ now unless you go to a Church of Christ you don't even have to ask this question but baptism clearly didn't do that baptism can't do that now here's the thing baptism might be a it's a symbol of a lot of things there's not just one thing baptism signals but it signifies obviously death to self dying with Christ it signifies death to this world and then the rebirth the resurrection being resurrected with Christ the Bible talks and revel in Romans chapter number six to walk in newness of life it's also a picture of the fact that you now are gonna try and serve God with your life and you're saved in my opinion from future sins because if you weren't gonna go through this process you're probably gonna go down a more sinful path then by committing to Christ saying hey I want to walk in news of life and essentially being saved from the filth of this world in essence and of course it's a symbol there's nothing physical about it at all it's just a symbol but you know I don't get from this passage why Ananias needs him to metaphorically wash away a sense what's the point of that if he was already thinking about that if you're already saved you don't necessarily need to metaphorically wash away your sins now of course you should be baptized and you say okay well does baptism metaphorically wash away your sins sure let's just say that it does and I think that in a case it does you know there's there's a way to say that but is this verse saying that no why well because grammatically it's impossible notice it says and be baptized and the notice is comma and now notice this wash away thy sins does it say and no it says calling on the name of the Lord you know what that means that the two things that are connected are washing away thy sins and calling on the name of the Lord so it's not the baptism that even did that in this passage even if you want to believe hey obviously baptism is a symbol of that sure right because as soon as you get saved you're supposed to get baptized right away which picture the fact you trusted in Christ and that's what washed away your sins sure we got it you know how you actually wash away your sins you actually achieve that by calling on the name of the Lord in faith and then of course you should get baptized now this is what idiots like norm Diamante will say Oh calling on the name of the Lord just the function of the believer it's just something you do afterwards you just pray okay sure we all pray you know people can pray before they're saved as evidence in the book of Acts how about all kinds of different people that are praying and asking for the Lord to send some send Peter unto them so that they could be saved we see ton you can pray I mean Catholics pray they're not saying folks it's not like the only people that have ever prayed in their life or the people have already been saved and the Apostle Paul according to the Bible was praying before this go back to Acts chapter number nine go back to Acts chapter number nine let's get the story here Acts chapter number nine look at verse number three and as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him Saul Saul why persecutors thou me and he said who art thou Lord and he and the Lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutors it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do and the Lord sent him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do now I want to come back to this but skip down to verse 10 and there was a certain disciple of Damascus named an Ananias and to him said the Lord in a vision Ananias and he said behold I am here Lord and the Lord said him arise and go into the street which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight now I want to I'm pointing this out for a reason if the Apostle Paul as opposed by Norm Diamante was already saved he just got saved and he's praying for a couple days then why does he need to pray again when Ananias shows up to wash away his sins what's the point of that there's no number one he's already saved number two he's already been praying so what's the point of this this other prayer and of course the Bible told us the point of it was to wash away the sins but why do you need to wash away your sins if you're already saved you don't but here's the thing in order for Norm Diamante not to look like a giant idiot he has to believe that Paul wasn't saved already because if Paul wasn't saved and he got saved when Ananias came and preached to him well then his entire doctrine is wrong and he looks like an idiot so you know what happens when you get put into a corner and you're a loser you just start believing weird junk it's like here's the verse that proves you wrong well then let's believe something weird about it but notice he was already praying and think about this we already read verses four through six of what happened which verse four or five or six indicates to you that Paul got saved was it was it the one where he said who art thou hey Paul you're persecuting Jesus and he's like here are mine he's like who are you that's usually what I think of people that get saved they don't even know who God is I mean they're confronted with Jesus he's confronted with Jesus Christ he doesn't even know what Jesus Christ looks like he doesn't even know who he is is that when he got saved now what he says in verse six any trembling and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do still doesn't sound saved and the Lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it shall be told me what that must do where's the indication that Jesus preached him the gospel told him to believe on him told him to call on his name told him anything to be saved here the Lord just appeared unto him and told him what to do and you say well by the Lord appearing to him that means he's saved or he got saved okay so every single time the Lord appeared on somebody they got saved I mean you know how about Balaam is Balaam saved I mean the Lord appeared unto him how about this Cain must be saved if you don't believe the Balaam doctrine how about Calem Cain Cain obviously is saved I mean we just got all the all the great people in the Bible you know Cain Balaam I mean as soon as the Lord shows up to you and talks to you I mean hey the Lord talked to Pharaoh I mean think about when when Abraham was traveling down there the Lord showed up and told him hey why are you gonna be with his wife he probably got saved instant save right salvation just right then and there I mean that's a stupid doctrine the Lord can appear to you and tell you to do something and it doesn't mean you got saved that's it's I mean the Lord came in flesh to a lot of people and they didn't get saved and he told them lots of things to do and some of them even did it but they didn't get saved so it's it's silly to then try to have to just force the idea that he got saved right here so that you don't look like an idiot for denying the fact you have to call upon the name of Lord to be saved now he said in verse number 13 then and I answered Lord I have heard by many of this man how much evil he had done to thy Saints at Jerusalem and here he hath authority from the chief priest of bind all that call on thy name notice how Ananias describes people that are Saints all notice what he said all that call on my name why why is he using that as a deciding factor of who say because that's how you got saved he didn't say all that believe on you he said all the call on my name but you know why because it's the same thing folks isn't that interesting that in the chapter that explains people being saved by calling on the name of the Lord is people saying this is a chapter proving you don't have to call the name of the Lord it even says it again look at verse 21 but all that hurt him were amazed and said is not this he that destroyed them which call on this name in Jerusalem every time they wanted to decide decide who saved or who believed in Christ how do they decide that all the ones who called on Jesus Christ it's like what what in the world it's so simple it's so straightforward and came hither for that intent that he might bind or bring them bound of the chief priests so who is it that the Apostle Paul wants to get it's the people who really believed in Christ well how do I know which ones really believed it's the ones that called it's the ones that called upon his name those are the ones that actually got saved well but I think that you know I can prove you wrong look at the next chapter pastor Shelley because you know what Peter was preaching and people just got saved just as soon as they believed it soon as they heard it they just believe they're saved okay well let's test your theory Acts chapter 10 verse 43 to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins while Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word see proof positive all you have to do is just I mean they were just hearing it and just in their seat they just believed it and then they were just saved but wait a minute how did he know that they were saved because they'll say that they didn't have to say anything to be saved they said nothing oh so you're looking at a bunch you just preach into a group and they're just like oh he got saved oh he got saved no no no that's not what happened what does it say in the next verse it says and they have the circumcision which believe were astonished as many as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles also has poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost for they heard them speak now let me explain something if you're hearing someone speaking they're talking and if they're talking they're saying stuff and you know how you say stuff with your mouth and you know where salvation comes from now speaking what what kind of bizarre nonsense oh well this proves that they didn't call a name and Lord to be saved the only reason you even know they were saved because they were praising God with their mouth and confessing Christ with their mouth that's stupid that confirms everything that I'm saying but think about this these people the moment they got saved the moment they got saved did they not have the Holy Ghost is that not the right interpretation of this the moment they believe they were filled with the Holy Ghost go back to chapter 9 look at verse 17 and I asked when his way and entered in the house and putting his hands on him said brother Saul the Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and notice this and be filled with all the ghosts wait a minute if he already got saved why does he need the Holy Ghost I thought it acts have number tennis do they believe they had the Holy Ghost so why has Paul been lacking for these three days oh well you need the right people to give you the Holy Ghost Oh cuz Jesus can't give it to you I mean think about their logic Jesus got him saved but didn't give him the Holy Ghost so then he had to wait for Peter well how did Peter get the Holy Ghost Jesus breathed on him the Holy Ghost I mean so so if you're gonna tell me that the Apostle Paul wasn't saved why didn't he have the Holy Ghost why do you have to wait for Ananias to show up to give him the Holy Ghost it's because he wasn't saved yet and it's because he had to call the name of the Lord and that's when he got filled with the Holy Ghost and that's when he got back why didn't he get baptized yet either if he's already saved here's another thing which person in Jesus Christ ministry got saved and went from being able to see to blind or was it that every single person that got saved went from being blind to seeing instantly what's the more common example let's see zero on this side every other time on the other side now let's think about what happened with Paul when Paul encountered Jesus did he go from blind to sight or sight to blind he went from seeing to not being able to see and then as soon as Ananias comes in there and lays hands on him and he calls the name of the Lord now he can see and what is the picture of salvation is it going from blind to seeing clearly hey when I was unsaved I didn't understand anything it was like I was blind and then the light of the gospel came unto me and then everything made sense and I could finally see it's like every picture of the Bible is destroyed by believing that the Apostle Paul got saved and blinded simultaneous what was the point of that hey I really want you to get saved but just just because it I just wanna blind you anyways though this is an extra punishment for getting saved I'll be weird you know he's getting blinded because it's kind of like when we go out so winning what's the first step we do hey you're a sinner deserving hell right buddy we kind of put them in their place first and get them in a mode and get them in a get them in a place and now get saved and now then once they get in that place so it's like God's putting the Apostle Paul in his place to set him up for the real site and helping him realize you're you've been blinded buddy you are blind you everything you believe is wrong now of course someone like norm you might say oh no no he got saved you know by Jesus because Galatians 1 I'm not going to go there and prove that but you know if you look at their encounter and I wanted to go to one other place here let's go back to acts 22 I think acts 22 I can't remember which verse I think it maybe it's acts 26 I don't know let me let me think about this for a second yes that's what I want acts 26 let's let's read verse 14 and when we were all fallen to the earth I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue Saul Saul why persecute is thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and I said who art thou Lord and he said I am Jesus whom thou persecute us but rise and stand upon my feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee so number one he appeared unto him to give him one aspect he needs to be in a pot if he's gonna be an apostle he hasn't seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ so he's giving him that initial encounter then he's gonna go on this journey of being blind he's gonna get saved and baptized filled with the Holy Ghost but notice what Jesus very clearly says he says in verse 16 and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee so he's saying hey I'm gonna come back in the future and then I'm gonna show you even more thing I'm gonna explain more thing doesn't it make sense to let's get Paul let's go let's let Paul get saved and then now that he's saved and as the Holy Ghost inside of him then Jesus can come back and show him and teach him all kinds of things in the Bible and what the Bible says in Galatians chapter 1 is he's like hey I wasn't taught this by man I was taught by revelation of Jesus Christ he's not explaining that he got saved in this moment what he's saying is the things that he preached and all the great revelations he had were hand given to him by Jesus just showing up and appearing to him and giving him all kinds of special knowledge but that doesn't mean it was at that point it was after he got saved too yeah he got the initial encounter and then this guy just blinded him but what happens later he ends up getting saved and think about this he says I've appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which now see now this first encounter who did Jesus make Paul a minister and a witness to no one he just told him to go and wait meaning that when he's saying this encounter he's not saying like just this moment he's saying like in general the whole purpose of me showing up was this kickstart this process but obviously there's more things that need to happen in order for this to be fulfilled and so that's why he's saying he's gonna get saved and then once he gets saved then God's gonna do what then he starts sending him out and having a minister and doing all those different works but it wasn't until he gets saved and all the other events that that starts happening go if you would to another place in Scripture go back to Acts chapter 2 now I want to go to back to Acts chapter 2 now what's interesting is when I read in my Bible which I have a reference Bible in Acts 22 verse 16 which was the fact that it says in the washaway thy sins calling on the name of the Lord in my Bible you know what it says right next to that acts 238 now here's the thing that I want you to understand I did not write or publish this book Stephen Anderson pastor Stephen Anderson did not write or publish this book someone else did okay some people say this the new I have be invented the doctrine of calling on the new Lord to be saved you're an idiot you are an idiot the new I have be did not produce this Bible okay someone else and someone else decided that acts 22 16 is the same as acts 238 because they put a reference there you could I can show you in my Bible if you want to look at it okay now I like this I think this is great why because it's the same thing look at acts 238 then Peter said on them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost isn't that exactly what Ananias told the Apostle Paul he's saying be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord what is Peter saying repent now what does repent mean believe in Christ because if you read Acts chapter number two what was the whole point of it you crucified him you didn't believe in him you with wicked hands have crucified and slain him and they're like what shall we do repent meaning what believe in the guy that you just crucified believe in the Messiah and then of course why not give I mean of course being baptized is the great step to do to signify that you trusted in Christ and of course that's what gives you the forgiveness of sins of believing it says and every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Lord goes you don't have to be baptized to be saved and of course I had some guy screaming this at me while so any today his brother Joe that started him off you know but I mean there's this guy we were sowing and like he gets out of his apartment and he's just screaming like you have to repent to be baptized to be saved why don't you believe the verse won't you believe the Bible it's like I do idiot and then he's like John 3 16 says you have to believe and be baptized to be saved and brother Joe's like no and I'm like that's mark 16 and he's just like well you don't believe the Bible you don't have a reasonable conversation no you're not reasonable and I said you're in the cult of the Church of Christ and he's like how do you know I go to that church because I because we run into people all the time we already know what y'all believe we know what everybody believes we know the Catholics believe we know the church Christ and we also know this none of y'all believe the Bible and none of y'all are reasonable okay y'all are in cults but yeah I can go to mark 16 and it says he that believe it and is baptized shall be saved amen that is what the Bible says and that's true but you know what the Bible did not say whosoever believes in their baptism is going to be saved you know the Bible doesn't say what must I do to be saved be baptized if someone believes in Christ they're saved what if what is this believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you know eat a sandwich and you'll be saved that's true but of course you know it's not saying eat a sandwich because that's pointless being baptized is an important step and your Christian walk and in your what you should be doing and of course when the Bible think about this where is that verse found mark chapter number 16 what is mark chapter number 16 it's the end of a gospel and here's the thing did Jesus only want people to get saved no you want people to get saved baptized and follow all of the commandments that's why at the end of Matthew it says all of that so you know the the gospel of mark is not explaining you the nuances of salvation it's explaining what you should just do Peter is not explaining the nuances of the gospel in acts 238 he's just they just said what should we do well you know what if someone said hey pastor Shelley what do you think I should do in my life I'm an unsaved guy we should believe on Christ and then you should get baptized and then you should join our church and then you should start reading the Bible why would I not say that and if you do that you know you're gonna be saved and go to heaven now what if they said this well do I have to do all of that to be saved I would say no but there was nothing wrong with me including all of that because they're just generally asking me what I should do and of course Peter is not going to say hey believe on Christ and then just go home and do nothing no get baptized don't change your life yes serve God with your life but think about the context of this passage go back to verse number 15 for these are not drunken as he suppose seeing it is but the third hour of the day so they hearing everybody speak in other tongues the preaching the gospel and everybody's speaking in other tongues and it's this crazy event something they've never seen before and and the people that don't believe they're like oh they must be drunk and he says they're not drunk verse 16 but this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel so he's saying scriptures being fulfilled right now right now people preaching and repenting and getting saved is being fulfilled right now and Joel's gonna explain to you what that is okay let's let Joel explain it to us and it's going to pass the last day say it God I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and on my handmaidens I'll pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath blood and fire and vapor of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before that great and notable day of the Lord come and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved notice what the Bible is saying hey all these people that got saved today you know what the Bible explains that ask calling on the name of the Lord when it says hey they repented and they got their salvation it was because they called on the name of the Lord let's let you say oh I don't remember them praying or asking for salvation yeah well let's let Joel tell you what they did Joel just told you exactly how everybody got saved in Acts chapter number two they called on the name of the Lord and people say I don't go out and pray with people well I guess you don't believe the book of Joel I guess you don't believe acts 2 I guess you don't believe Romans 10 I guess you don't believe any of the Bible because every time I see Jesus pies getting people safe they're confessing in with their mouths I mean the guy what you know if your doctrine was true then why is it that just randomly Jesus didn't just look at one of the thieves on the cross and just say today that shall be with me in paradise why was it the guy that said Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom why didn't Jesus turn him say you total work salvation as you how dare you ask me you know what do you are you part of the new IFB do you listen to pastor Steven Anderson do you listen to steadfast Baptist Church no no he said hey today thou shalt be with me in paradise why because that's how you believe on Christ you call on him you know why is it so important that in Proverbs chapter 1 those who call are not answered because they didn't call at the right time but it wasn't because they were calling oh well they must live in work salvation no they call too late because Christ is knocking at the door Christ is inviting Christ's Word is being preached everywhere and it's an invitation that whosoever will may come he's just pleading for people please just ask me to save you and I'll save you he's looking at people like Peter are drowning in the sea and he's ready to rescue them but he's just waiting for them to say Lord save me these idiots what oh just just believe it yeah if you believed it then you would ask go to 1st Corinthians chapter number one go to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 there's so much verses that we could look to I mean Jesus clearly says in John chapter number four to the woman at the well if thou knewest who is the spoke of thee and the gift that he had you would have asked he would have given thee oh well if you ask it's not a gift well then why did Christ say he was gonna give it to her that's a stupid asking as makes it not a gift that means you could never ask for a gift that would make the whole charade about you know Santa Claus even worse because you go and give them your list your list of demands apparently not of gifts hey Santa I already worked really hard for this I asked you for it what that's so silly that's so foolish that's not working and look even if in some way you could define that as work it doesn't matter to me because the Bible made it clear that salvation is not of works you know obviously in their English language you have to understand that English words have multiple definitions you know in some languages it's kind of the almost feels like the opposite and I'm not saying that it is entirely but you know when I compare a Spanish vocabulary list to an English it's different in my mind in this way it seems like in Spanish you have ten words that mean the same thing and in English you have one word that means ten things and so it's it's like it's really hard and in fact the word set s-e-t is the most versatile word in the English language I believe it has approximately you can look this up was approximately four hundred and twelve or four hundred thirteen possible definitions or context in which the word set could be used so which language do you think would be easy for someone to twist your words or twist the context of what you're saying English and of course that's what the devil has done is he's taken words like believe faith works grace all these words wine and he because they have all kinds of different definitions he's made a lot of false doctrines that's why context is very important in English because you have so many words in English that have so many definitions that you have to let the Bible tell you what it's really saying and people could twist your words so easily in English and they love to do it but you know what the Bible is very consistent it's very clear calling on the name of the Lord is how you believe in Christ and 1st Corinthians 1 confirms that look at verse 2 under the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours you know how he defines people that are saved the people that call the name of Lord you know I didn't even show you every time the Bible bring this up isn't it's in Genesis it's all throughout the Old Testament it's all through the New Testament it's everywhere it's the clear reading of the text and you know what people people listen to me people that do not believe you have to call on the name of the Lord are not welcome to do so any with us they should be rebuked sharply and I want to hear about it and really this only comes from YouTube and bozo internet land people that don't really go so winning and of course they just you know why they want this is because they just want to have like a hundred thousand views on their YouTube video and say look how many people I got saved but you and I know they didn't get anybody saved but they just want to pat themselves on the back and they just want to be like soul winnings pointless why am I going around because think about it if I don't have to help someone pray then we don't really have to go so winning we could just let's just google ads let's just maximize their YouTube views just maximize everything they just get all the information out there you know if track save we don't have to go let's just send out a track if hey just Martin Luther gets savory in the Bible mail everybody a Bible hey if all you have to do is just say Christ is Lord and you're saved well then all then all we need to do is just convince the atheist that Jesus is real you know it's all these stupid lazy it's like people working hard to be lazy it's stupid it's like just do the real work just go up to a person and love them and say hey believe on Christ call on his name and you know this vocabulary should just become the standard for us that would you explain salvation you say this hey Romans 10 9 is explaining how you believe in Christ it's how you believe in Jesus calling on the name of the Lord is how you believe in him it's not an extra step it's not a different step there's no new thing it's how you believe it's explaining it let's close in prayer Thank You Heavenly Father so much for our church thank you so much for so many dedicated soul winners and people that care about the lost I pray that we wouldn't get infected with all kinds of weird heresy and junk or just a spirit of laziness and pride and just the works of the flesh that draw out weird heresies to try and discourage us from actually preaching the truth preaching the gospel I pray that we filled with boldness would be filled with knowledge and the truth that we would have confidence to go help others to call in the name of the Lord to put their faith in Jesus Christ and I pray that you would just help our church to be unified and rally together and the in the good fight of faith in Jesus name we pray amen song number 102 song number 102 he hideth my soul that's song number 102 he hideth my soul song number 102 Oh wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord a wonderful Savior to me he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry thirsty land he hideeth my life in the depths of his love and covers me there with his hand and covers me there with his hand a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord he taken his burdens away he holdeth me up and I shall not be moved he gaveth me strength as my day he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry thirsty land he hideth my life in the depths of Islam and covers me there with his head and covers me there with his hand with numberless blessings each moment he crowns and filled with his fullness divine I sing in my rapture Oh glory to God for such a Redeemer as mine he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry thirsty land he hideeth my life in the depths of Islam and covers me there with his hand and covers me there with his hand in clothing his brightness transported our eyes to meet him in clouds of the sky his perfect salvation is wonderful love how shot with the millions on high he hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry thirsty land he hideth my life in the depths of Islam and covers me there with his hand and covers me there with his hand God bless you are dismissed this evening