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