(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Hey man, all right, Acts chapter 16. Like I said during the announcements, we're starting a brand new series tonight, right? We're going to go through a lot of the doctrines that we believe, and so we're going to start with the subject of salvation, salvation. So the first part of the series is what Shield of Faith Baptist Church believes about salvation. I've got five statements for you this evening that I hope will be a blessing to you, you know. I'm going to read for you a verse. But I'm going to read for you out of Philippians chapter three, which says, finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me, indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. So even though the salvation to us that, you know, you guys have been coming to church for a while, you, you, you know, you, you know, the doctrine, a lot of you went out soul winning today. You've, you know, you obviously are familiar with it and stuff. You know, don't, don't, don't think, don't sit there and think, oh, there's nothing that I'm going to really learn out of the sermon because you never know it might, you know, at the worst case, it's safe for you to hear these things. For me as a preacher, you know, it's, I, you know, take the same stance that Paul has, you know, it's not grievous for me to write these things. You know, I don't look at this subject and say, wow, I've preached about salvation all the time. Heck we did it, you know, two, three times last week, you know, I was soul winning. It's not grievous to me and it shouldn't be grievous to any of us. And as Paul said, it is safe. So you're there in Acts chapter 16, look down at verse number 25, we're going to talk about the Philippian jailer here for a moment. So Acts 16, 25 says, and at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. So remember Paul, you know, Paul and Silas, these guys are locked up, right? And instead of moping and pouting and being all sad, they're actually praising God, you know, and talking about the things of God. And you can tell by the context of this verse, now look at verse 26, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison waking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. And then look at this verse 29, then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? You got to kind of ask yourself what caused him to have this fear? What caused him to start trembling and to ask this question, you know, and the answers found in verse 25 and said at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. So we don't know everything that they were singing or saying or praising, but obviously they were probably talking about how they were thankful for their salvation, thankful that they're not going to go to hell. Obviously whatever it was that they were singing and talking about in the jail cell, there was enough to get this, the Philippian jailer scared, you know, and, and that's, that's, that's a good thing. There's a point when you can run across somebody that has this attitude, Hey, what must I do to be saved? Those are the best salvations. I remember one time we had the soul winning marathon in Portland, Oregon, pastor Anderson came to Portland and it was before all these, you know, churches started and we were out knocking doors, kind of discouraged, you know, we're in kind of a richer type neighborhood, really big houses. And we finally, you know, got somebody saved at the door. I was like, man, this is great. And then I looked behind me and Jessica and the girls on the street and this lady drives right up in her car. And this is no joke. And she's like, what are you guys doing? And Jessica's like, we're, we're out preaching the gospel. She's like, what are you doing? I'm like, we're out preaching the gospel. You're not Jehovah's witness. We're like, no. She's like, you're not Mormons. We're like, no. And she's like, wow. Well, you know, I'm curious, what do I have to do not to go to hell? I've always wondered that question, but I don't have the right answer. You know? And she got saved. It was, it was great. You know, she had this attitude, you know, she came driving up to us with fear and trembling, you know, and it was hilarious because I was like, do you know anybody else who would be receptive to this? And she's like, Oh, my husband will be, and he will listen to you. And you know, she gave us his phone, her phone number, and she was like, he will listen to this message and he will get saved. You know, I called that guy, that guy was scared out of his mind. It never worked out, the scheduling, because we had to go back, I had to go to work the next day, but, or I think that's what it was. I never got to preach the gospel to him, which was sad, but yeah, he was like, yeah, yeah, my wife told me I have to listen to you and stuff. We gave them some several resources, you know, the, after the tribulation, new world order Bible versions, you know, it was great. I wish we could have gone back. She watched it and got saved, but she definitely did. You know, she was ready. She was just like the Philippian jailer, you know, but this guy, he comes out and he says, Hey, what must I do to be saved? Right. He's asking what are the requirements not to go to hell and look at the answer here. Look at verse 31. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved in thy house. Meaning everyone in the house must believe the same thing, right? It's not enough just for the dad or just for the mom or one person in the house believe in everybody else gets saved by default. That's not what he's saying there. And we'll go, we'll get into that in a second. But I want you to notice here that he says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and now shall be saved. Now, if works or living a good life or repenting of your sins or anything else was required, don't you think that Paul should have mentioned that here? Cause the guy's asking me or he's asking, you know, Hey, tell me everything I need to know so that I don't go to hell. What must I do to be saved? And Paul simply says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, he put your trust on him, right? You know, it's like you guys are sitting in these chairs here. I don't see anybody sitting in a chair here and holding on to the guy next to him in case the chair falls or fails. That makes sense. It is a complete trust. That's what we believe. You believe on him. You put your trust on him, right? It's not enough just to, just to accept, okay, I believe that some guy named Jesus lived and he was, he was God. You know that that's not salvation. It says, believe on him, meaning you put your faith, your total faith and trust on him and look at verse 32 and they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house verse 33 and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized. He and all his straight way and when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced believing in God with all his house. So there you see the simple answer. The one time in the Bible that the questions asked, what must I do to be saved? And very clearly Paul says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. In the house that we see though, the rest of the members of his household, they all believe the same thing. They all get saved. They all get baptized and they rejoice believing in God. You know, I want to be a church that is very clear on salvation and what we believe. You know, I can think back to all the different churches I've gone to over the years where they would be real wishy-washy about salvation. You know, you ask them, do you believe you have to repent of your sins to be saved? And they'll say something like, well, you know, it's really the other side of the coin, you know, and they give you this kind of political politician type answer and it's because they don't believe either way, right? Most of the time it's because either they are saved and they're just compromising or it's because they're not saved and they don't want to offend other church members that believe and work salvation. We don't want to be like that, right? Let's just be like the Bible. Hey, what must I do to be saved? The answer is very simple. It's very clear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. So the first statement that I want to give you tonight is this. We believe that salvation is a free gift by grace through faith. You guys can turn to first Corinthians chapter 15 and I'm going to read a few verses for you. So number one, statement number one, we believe that salvation is a free gift by grace through faith. Romans 6 23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So a lot of you probably use that in your soul winning presentation. Pretty much all of you probably do, right? It says for the wages of sin is death and we're all sinners. We all know that and it says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we can see there that salvation is a free gift. Now you all know this, right? If you have to do something for a gift, it's not a gift, right? So if you have to get baptized, repent of your sins, live a good life or whatever, then guess what? That's not a free gift. That's that's you having to work for your salvation. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So again, we believe that salvation is a free gift by grace through faith. And that's why when we read in act 16 and the Philippian jailer says, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. He's getting that free gift at that time. And so more about this gift here. First Corinthians 15, look at verse number one, first Corinthians chapter 15, verse one says moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which also ye received and wherein you stand by which also ye are saved, right? By which you are saved. You're saved by the gospel. Now look at the rest of the verse. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. That's kind of like what I was talking about with the believe on, right? There are people that believe in the possibility of Jesus Christ, right? They believe, believe. Yeah, I believe Jesus exists. I believe as the son of God, but they don't really believe that he is God. They don't believe he's the third member of the Trinity. They don't believe any of that, right? And that's believing in vain there. But he says in verse three, for I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the scriptures, that is what you must believe to be saved, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Very simple. So statement number one, we believe that salvation is a free gift from God by grace through faith. One thing you'll notice is the Calvinists like to leave out that faith part. They like to just talk about grace. That's above that's their buzzword. That's what they, that's what they feed off of, right? So you gotta be careful when you're at the door and you're talking with somebody and they're kind of riding that line and you're not sure, it seems like they might be saved. They might not be. And they just keep talking about grace, you know, I know I'm saved by grace. You know, it's all by grace. It's all by grace. What do you mean by that? By grace through faith. A lot of times if you add that word faith in there, you can start seeing the wheels in their head kind of spinning, you know, they're starting to spiral out of control because they like the word sovereign instead of grace. If it was up to them, they would change the Bible and say, we're saved by grace through God's sovereign love or some, you know, some junk like that. So statement number two is we believe that once you are saved, you are always saved. Once you're saved, you're always saved. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. You don't have to turn there. I'll just read it for you. In fact, you guys can go to Romans chapter 10, go to Romans chapter 10. So statement number two is we believe that once you were saved, you were always saved. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13 says, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So the Bible says that after a person hears the word of God, they decided in their heart to believe it. They call upon the name of the Lord. It says that they are saved, right? And so the question that people will often ask right here is, well, how long are they saved? How long are they sealed? And the answer is found in Ephesians chapter four, verse 30, which says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Now keep your place there in Romans chapter 10, we're gonna come back to it and go to John chapter 10. So I like to use this out solely if somebody is struggling with the concept of once saved, always saved, right? I think this does a very great job, these two verses here, maybe you'd like to highlight them in your Bible or write them down, just know where to go. If somebody is really struggling with this, you know, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter one, that people after they get saved, right, they are sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. You know, that is very important. And then in Ephesians chapter four, verse 30, it says, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. So you're not sealed until the next time you sin or until you backslide or until you get out of church. The Bible says you were sealed unto the day of redemption. So the question is, has the day of redemption happened yet? And the answer is no. So therefore you are sealed, you are always saved. I heard this idiot named Tim Conway, I think he's a Calvinist bozo, you know, ESV lover, you know, scholarship only guy, some preacher, popular on YouTube, he's got a lot of followers, got a lot of visitors. He was going over these verses and he was like, you know, seals were made to be opened, they were made to be broken. So if you're not living holy and you're not living righteously, you know, God could, you know, open that seal and dump you out of his envelope. You know, he said something to that effect and that's just retarded. You know, and that's what I was talking about this morning, you know, we need to have that shield of faith, right? See, that guy doesn't have faith in God's word, Tim Conway, he's a loser. He's a piece of garbage, piece of trash that would teach that kind of garbage, right? Look, just believe what the Bible says. You're sealed until the day of redemption. Once you were saved, you were always saved. So you're there in John chapter 10, look at verse 28, real simple here. John chapter 10, verse 28. This is what Jesus had to say about eternal security. John chapter 10, verse 28, and I give unto them eternal life, right? Remember what the word eternal means? It means to never die. That's what it means to never die, eternal life. And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father, which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. So like, look, it's a done deal. You read these four verses of somebody and explain it clearly, you know, they should be able to understand that. Now, go back to Romans chapter 10, I'm going to read for you out of first John chapter five, because eternal security is very important. I mean, I'm going to eventually preach a whole sermon on that topic. I think I already have here. I think I already have done that here, but go to Romans chapter 10. I'm going to read for you out of first John chapter five, verse 10, which says, he that believeth on the son of God has a witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave him a son. So the Bible is very clear here that you have got to believe the record. Now we were asking people this yesterday if they knew what the record was and there's all different kinds of answers, right? Some people will say, well, yeah, you just got to believe, you know, you know, one thing or another, you got to believe in the word of God and stuff. But more specifically, what is he saying here? What is the record that John's talking about here? And it's found in verse 11, which says, and this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Meaning if you do not believe in the record that God gave of a son, you are not saved and you are calling God a liar. So when you run into a Christian or any person that does not believe that you have to understand, they are not saved. And that is the hang up. That is the thing that you have to get over with them, which is eternal security. You have got to believe in that record in order to be saved. So you're there in Romans chapter 10, look at verse number nine. So point number one or statement number one was we believe that salvation is a free gift from God by grace through faith. Statement number two is we believe that once you're saved, you're always saved. Now statement number three is that we believe you have to ask for the gift. Oftentimes the subject comes up where people say, well, what if I just believe, but I don't ever call upon the name of the Lord. I don't ever ask. Well then you're not saved. Cause look at Romans 10 nine says that if thou shall confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And it doesn't have to be some magical prayer, right? It's not the prayer that saves you. It's the faith in your heart. I mean, even a thief on the cross, you know, said, remember, you know, remember when I, when thou comest into thy kingdom, you know, Hey, that was a confession with his mouth. He obviously believed in Jesus Christ at that time and he got saved and he went to heaven right now. Look at verse 10 for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness and with a mouth confession is made unto salvation. So we do have to ask for the gift. Now let me turn, let me turn to there. My printer did not quite get the last verse there. So look at verse number 13, Romans 10, 13 real important for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, right? So whosoever. And what does that mean? You know, to call upon the name of Lord, it means to call out and ask, right? Ask from your heart. That's what the whole point of this is, is to ask from the heart. If you keep your place there, I'm just going to read for you out of John chapter four, verse 10, which says, Jesus answered and said unto her, now this is when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knowest, or I'm sorry, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it was that sayeth to thee, give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him. And he would have given thee living water. So let's say you guys are out soul winning, right? And you get to the end of the gospel. Somebody says they believe this, you know, like, okay, well, you know, can I help you form a prayer, you know, and call out to God and ask him to save you. And they say, no, I really don't feel comfortable doing that. Can you just pray? And I'll just say it in my heart. You know, they might actually get saved at that point, but don't count that salvation. Okay. Don't count it unless they verbally call out to the Lord, because you really don't know. You can't see inside their minds. We can't see inside their hearts. Sometimes people will do that just because they just want to be polite and they just want you to go away. So we need to be sensitive to that thing because Jesus says, Hey, if thou knewest the gift of God, that you would ask for it. That's what he told the Samaritan woman, right? That In-N-Out Burger in California, in Sacramento, when it rains, they have these signs out, right? And it says, free hot cocoa, just come in and ask. So free hot cocoa for the kids, just come in and ask. Well, I've gone through that drive through several times and my kids never got free cocoa. You know why? Because we didn't ask for it. It's that simple, right? We didn't ask for it. You know, I think there was a couple of times where we were like, Hey, can we have the hot cocoa? And they're like, sure, here you go. Right? It's free. It's available to you. It's free. Come and get it if you want it. Right? But if you don't ask for it, you're not going to get it. And that's the same with salvation. You've got to ask for it. That's why in Romans chapter 10, verse 10, it says, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So statement number three is we believe you need to ask for the gift. Statement number four, and I'm going through these somewhat quickly because statement number five is kind of long. So statement number four, we believe you need the word of God for salvation. So you're there in Romans chapter 10, look at verse 17, Romans chapter 10, verse 17, real popular verse here. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God yesterday. I think it was a brother David talked to this Nazarene guy and he was like, well, how do you know you're saved? And he says, Oh, well, you know, faith cometh. Is that, was it you that was talking to him? Yeah. He said, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And he was kind of like, did I pass the test? Did I get it right? You know, it was funny. You know, he was right. He'd heard the scriptures, but we, I obviously he didn't really believe that, but that's what the Bible says here, right? Statement number four, we believe you need the word of God for salvation. I can't tell you how many times Baptist churches, liberal churches I've been into where they just, salvation's just like this thing that just somehow happens to people. Like they just walked into church and decide, you know, I'm, I just rolled out of bed one day and I'm just going to get, you know, I just got saved, you know? And so that's why you have all these, these churches out there pass out these ridiculous tracks that, you know, just are wishy-washy on salvation, or, or you'll have a, you'll have them go out and they'll just share your testimony with people. And so you have somebody run up to you and say, Hey, look, I'm going to tell you all the great things that God's done in my life, you know, he did all this stuff and they think that somehow by that testimony, you're going to be like, Oh wow, I want that same thing. I'm going to get saved. But the Bible is very clear then. So faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Turn to first Tim, or I'm sorry, turn to second Timothy chapter three, second Timothy chapter three. We already read this first. So while you're turning into second Timothy three, I'm going to read for you again, Ephesians one 13, which says, and we already read this today, but I'm reading it again. It says in whom you also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. So again, we see that after you hear the word, you have got to hear the Bible preach. You have to hear God's word preached and decide to believe it. And there's a lot of scriptures on this. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it because this is a whole sermon in and of itself, but it's very important to teach about salvation. We believe that for salvation, you have got to have the word of God, the right word of God. So second Timothy chapter three, look at verse 15. It says in that from a child thou has known the Holy scriptures, which are able to make the wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Now you've got to remember that Paul's talking to Timothy here and the scriptures that he's talking about at that time are probably just all the books of the Old Testament. You know, probably all the, you know, in the, the Old Testament can make you wise unto salvation. We're going to talk about that here in the next point, but notice what he says here. And that from a child, he's like, Hey Timothy, even from a kid, from when you were little, he says thou has known the Holy scriptures, which are able to make the wise and the salvation because God's word has power. God's word is how people get saved without it. They're not going to get saved. You know, I can't tell you how many times, even in our types of churches where I've seen people get up in front of someone's door and just ramble on and not read any Bible verses, not expound them to people and just try to coach them through a prayer. And it's like, okay, look as a silent partner, you know, I like to stay silent. I think when you're the silent partner, you need to just be quiet and be praying for the situation until you're called up, you know, and then once your partner says, Hey, can you help me out here? Then you take over, right? We want things to be done decently and in order, but you know, if somebody's doing that, you know, you should stop them, right? Because someone's soul is hanging in the balance there. If somebody is doing a bad job at giving the gospel, we need to be able to stop them, right? Because the soul is on the line there and it's worth it, right? People need to hear the word of God preached. They need this expounded onto them. You know, you can't just go up and read somebody a verse and not explain it and expect them to get saved. You have to actually preach the word. First Peter chapter one, verse 23 says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So we'll ask this question, okay, can I get saved out of the NIV? Can I get saved out of the ESV? Can I get saved out of these false Bible versions? Now I haven't looked up the Romans road or all the verses on salvation and all these gospels, but if they didn't corrupt that verse, I guess, you know, sure. If you're saved and you go up to somebody and you know, you read those verses and they're not corrupt and you preach them the gospel, sure, they could get saved, but you have to understand is that's not the NIV that's getting them saved. If that's the case. Does that make sense? That's not the ESV. I mean, you could open up a comic book and write down the Bible verses, you know, and then flip to the different pages in the comic book and then read the Bible verses in there and preach them. And you know, it's not the comic book to get what a God I'm saved. It's the word of God. And obviously that's ridiculous. I'm just trying to put this into perspective because first Peter chapter one verse 23 says being born again, not of corruptible seed, right? Not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible and we know the King James Bible has not been corrupted by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So if in order for somebody to get saved, they need to be saved by the seed that has not been corrupted. And I'll tell you the NIV and all these other Bible versions are corrupt, right? I'm just saying hypothetically, if there's verses in there that aren't changed and somebody believes, and then sure they'd get saved, but that's not the NIV that got them saved. That would have been the word of God. And again, I'm not saying that's the case. I spent a long time since I've looked up those verses in the modern versions, but nonetheless, you need the word of God to be saved. Here's one of my favorite verses, Hebrews chapter four, verse 12 says for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. So what is that talking about? That's talking about the word of God. This book right here, when it's preached, it will cut a person literally in half. It will separate your old man from your new man. And then it says, and the joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The word of God is powerful and it is instrumental for salvation. And again, this is a topic for another day, but I just wanted to make the point that you need the word of God. We have to use the word of God at the door when we're preaching the gospel to people use it, explain it clearly, because that's how people get saved. That's how they're born again. So statement number five, this is going to be the longest one here. Statement number five, we believe old Testament salvation is the same as new Testament salvation. The only difference being in regards to the name of God's son. So turn to Ephesians chapter two. Yeah, go to Ephesians chapter two. There's a lot of people, especially dispensationalists will want to talk about all these different gospels, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel of, of heaven, the gospel of, you know, Paul and all these different gospels and say that people were saved by mixing faith and works in the old Testament. And that's not true. That's not true at all. So we're going to start from the beginning here, right? What is the formula for being saved? And we've already talked about this, but I really want this distinct to sink in Ephesians chapter two, look at verse eight for by grace, are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God very clearly stating you are saved by faith, not by your works. Look at verse nine, not of works, lest any man should boast. And he says, by grace, what grace means free grace means unmerited favor, right? God looks down and he says, okay, you guys are all sinners. You cannot make it to heaven by yourselves. I'm going to forgive you if you will ask in Romans 10, nine, we already read this, but I'm going to read it again. That if thou shall confess with thy mouth, Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised them from the dead, thou shall be saved. So very clearly the formula for being saved, right? We see that in the new Testament, it is by grace through faith and calling upon the name of the Lord. I'm going to read these for you again, Romans 10, 10 for with a heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10, 11 for the scripture sayeth, whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. Again, why does Paul say that? Romans 10, 11 says for the scripture sayeth whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. He's referring to an old Testament scripture there and that's important for you to understand. He's saying, Hey, even the old Testament says whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Isaiah 28, 16 is one of the verses he's referring to. You don't have to turn there. I'm just going to read it for you. It says, therefore, thus sayeth the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. What does that mean? He shall not make haste. Well, in Romans 10, 11, it says for whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed, right? So when reading this verse here, you got to kind of wonder, okay, so if I believe in God in the old Testament, the Bible says I will not make haste. So the opposite of that is if I don't believe on God, I will make haste. What does that mean? Go down quick into the pit because in Romans 10, 11, it says that you will not be ashamed in the Bible. The Bible says in several spots that people that are in hell are ashamed. We read that this morning in Isaiah 66, the last, the last verse of Isaiah says that they will eventually become an, a boring unto all flesh, right? A shame, just a shameful, a shameful sight. First Peter two six says the word confounded. It quotes the same verse and he uses the word confounded. So you've seen that, right? When, when people don't believe in the gospel and you knock on their door and you know, are you a hundred percent sure you're on the way to heaven? You know, like, ah, I don't know. Well, what do you think it takes to get to heaven? And they just start running around in their mind, right? They're making haste. That's what they're doing. They're, they're showing you, Hey, they're confounded. I'm confounded. I have no idea. I'm ashamed and I'm just scatterbrained. That's what the Bible is saying here for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. But the important thing is that the old Testament says the same thing as the new Testament, which you read in Romans chapter 10 verse 11 is exactly what you're going to read in Isaiah chapter 28 verse 16. It's the same thing. Romans 10, 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. Verse 13 again, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I know I'm reading this a lot, but it's very important to see that you are saved by grace through faith and calling upon the name of the Lord. So that's the formula that we get out of the new Testament and dispensational says, well, they'll say, okay, we agree with the new Testament part, but in the old Testament, we don't believe that. We don't agree with that. We'll turn to Psalms, go to Psalms chapter 86, and we'll see if that's true. Psalms chapter 86, it's very clear. I mean, as you're reading Romans chapter 10 and as you're reading the whole new Testament, you're going to see as it is written for the scripture saith, so it is written all these different phrases like that, always referring to the old Testament about salvation is because it's the same thing in the old Testament as it is in the new Testament, only they didn't have as much revelation back then. You got to understand that, right? Abraham and Moses, they didn't know about Jesus Christ. They didn't have the new Testament revelation. So if you're there in Psalm chapter 86, look at verse number five, right? We're going to take a look here at the same formula, but in the old Testament, Psalm chapter 86 verse five, it says for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon me. Let's read that again. Now look for this formula. Remember grace through faith and calling upon the name of the Lord, right? This is an old Testament verse for thou Lord art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon me. So there you're going to see those elements, right? You see grace, you see faith, and you're going to see calling upon the name of the Lord. Now go back a few, quite a few chapters. Go back to Psalms 32, Psalm chapter 32. And after this, we're going to, I'm going to have you guys go to John chapter one, but go to Psalm chapter 32, I'm going to have you flipping all over your Bibles. Get some blisters, get some calluses on those fingers. Psalm 32, look at verse two, it says, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile, in whose spirit there is no guile. So what is he saying here? Hey, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Keep that in your mind because you're going to see those words again when we read Romans chapter four, he says, blessed is the man. Why, why would it say that here in the Old Testament if salvation was a combination of works and faith, why would he say that? Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. Actually don't turn to John chapter one yet. Go to John chapter three. I'm going to read for you out of John chapter one about this word guile. So what did we just read? We just read that blessed as a person who God doesn't impute sins unto, right? Old Testament verse and in whose spirit there is no guile. Well, in John chapter one, verse 47, it says, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and saith unto him, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. So Jesus is using the same words that are in Psalms 32 to Nathaniel says, Hey, behold an Israelite indeed whom is no guile. So Jesus is saying, Hey, here's Nathaniel. Here's a guy who has no guile. Now do you think that Nathaniel was without sin? Do you think he just lived a perfect life where he didn't sin at all? That's not true. Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse 20, Old Testament verse says, for there is not a just man upon the earth that do with good and sinneth not again, another Old Testament verse saying the same thing that I've been saying all day. It's not by works, right? Why would Solomon say that? Why would he say that if salvation in the Old Testament was a combination of faith and works, he says, for there is not a just man upon earth, meaning there are just people people that you and I would look at and say, Hey, there's a good dude. There's a good person. There's a just guy. There's somebody who's living right. But Solomon said, for there's not a just man upon earth that do with good and sinneth not. Somebody needs to tell that to Ray Comfort and all his cronies, you know? And that's what Jesus looked at, right? Jesus looked at Nathaniel and he was looking at the inward man at that moment and said, Hey, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Why? Because he was saved. Do you think Jesus chose, um, obviously one was the devil, right? But all the disciples, they were saved. You know, he didn't just choose 12 people that were unsaved or they got saved and had to get re-saved after he died. And Jesus said that in John chapter one to Nathaniel, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. That was before the cross. You see? So the dispensationalists will say, well, after the cross, you know, then, then salvation changed and everybody had to get re-saved. Well, why would Jesus say, Hey, there's a man with no guile. There's a guy who's perfect. There's a guy who's righteous. Why would he say that if it was a combination? I mean, think about this. What did Jesus say? Did you have to be born again? Right? So you're there in John chapter three, in John chapter three, let me turn there myself. Actually. Yeah. Go to, go to John chapter three. We look at a, we're going to look at verse number one here in a second. So as I'm, as I'm preaching this, you know, these verses just come to mind and I'm like, Ooh, I got to read this. I got to read that. I got to read this for these guys. So I got these little notes here, but so before I read that, let me just read for you. Proverbs 20 verse nine, which says, who can say I have made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin old Testament verse. If it was a requirement in the old Testament that you had to be perfect, that you had to be without sin and belief, nobody would have gone to heaven there. Nobody would have gone to heaven. Nobody would have been able to be saved. This is an important verse that I like to use on these Ray comfort types when you knock on their doors, because even in the old Testament says, who can say I have made my heart clean. I am pure for my sin. So when you run into somebody and they say, we, I believe you have to turn from your sins. Like we talked to a guy from central Valley Baptist church in Meridian yesterday. And you know, he's, he's telling us that he saved and all that and kind of gave a, you know, the, the typical middle of the road answer didn't really want to talk. You know, we look up his church doctrine and right on there under salvation, right? What they believe, it says, we believe, you know, that once you're saved, you, you know, that you get a new desire. And I believe that, you know, if you get saved Romans chapter seven, you're going to have that inward man. He's going to desire good works, right? But then it says like, you have to repent and turn from your sins to be saved. It's like, well, wait a minute. How does that make sense? The Bible says, who can say I've made my heart clean. I am pure from my sin. It's a rhetorical question. So who in the world can say that? Nobody can say that. Repenting of your sins doesn't make sense. It is completely the opposite of what the Bible teaches. People were not saved in the old Testament by a combination of works and faith. And here's more proof. So you're there in John chapter three, look at verse one, we'll just start reading here in verse one. It says, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. And no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Now look at what Jesus says. Verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So right off the bat, Jesus is very clear with him, jumps right to the, he just cuts right to the chase here. He says, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That's talking about the physical birth and the spiritual birth, right? That's you know, the Mormons will try to twist this on you and say, see, you have to be baptized in water and in the spirit, you know, it's not true. He's talking, he's comparing physical birth to spiritual birth. Look at verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. He says, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. I was talking with Jessica today and she was, you know, just talking about how she, when she was 11 years old, she got to see her baby brother be born and I said, so is he still being born today? And she just laughed, you know, I was like, what are you talking about? You know, and because when you're born, right, you come down the birth canal and you're born, right? Usually I understand that the labor process, you know, can take a while, but the actual birth, I mean, you just get born, it happens, right? Once you're born, you're here, you know, congratulations. What's the same thing with a spiritual birth, right? You hear the word of God, you believe it, you call upon the name of the Lord, you're born again. That's it. It's a done deal. It's not this ongoing thing. You see, the problem with these repenting your sins idiots is that if somebody believes that they have to repent of their sins and believe on God, well, then they can't know that they're born again because you wouldn't know if you did enough, if you repented enough until you got to the end of your life, right? Talk about a lifelong birth, right? Could you imagine if Jessica's mom was still pregnant with her brother Timothy to this day? How old is he? 20, 25? Something like that? No, she can't talk. She's suffering not a woman to speak at church. All right. I'm trying to set her up here, but she didn't fall for it. She knows better. All right. All right. But anyways, you get what I'm trying to say, right? Being born is not in an instant, whether it's physical or spiritual. I'm going to get you one of these days. She's like, I'm a lot smarter than you. So look at verse eight here because Jesus explains this further. It says, the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the spirit. So he uses wind there, right? So when you hear the wind coming, you know, it's just bam, it just comes, right? And you can't tell where it's going. It's here one second gone the next. You know, it goes according to its circuits, which you read in the Bible. That's what he's saying there that, you know, as wind comes and it goes, you know, it's, it's there in an instant and it's gone in an instant. So is everyone that's born in the spirit. And I could prove that further. Look at verse nine, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? That's just blows my mind. You know, now look at verse 10, Jesus answered and said unto him, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things, right? There's so much you can learn from this story right here. Look at Jesus. What he says, art thou a master of Israel? Aren't you a Bible teacher? Aren't you a preacher? Hey, aren't you somebody that teaches the word of God and you don't know these things now insert yourself into the story here. This is before the cross that he's talking to an old Testament character. Basically. He's like, look, you've grown up knowing the Bible. You've been preaching, you've been teaching. You're a master. You're a, you're a teacher in Israel and you don't know these things. He's saying, you don't know that salvation is in an instant that you have to be born again. That it happens quickly. It's not a process. I mean, Nicodemus is just completely confused here, right? But Jesus is setting him straight. And so that should prove further that people in the old Testament were not saved by mixing faith and works. That is a lie from hell. All right. Last place. Second to last place. I'm happy. Turn Romans chapter four. We're going to go over some more proof. I'm going to put this down because one is one of my pet peeves, dispensationalism. You know, I hate Calvinism. I hate them all. Calvinism is definitely more dangerous than dispensationalism because at least, you know, I know people that are dispensational that are saved. And even though they bug me, you know, I know dispensational that are not saved, but nonetheless, you know, this is a, this is a dangerous heresy. You know, the Bible says, if any man preach another gospel, let them be accursed. You know, and, and, and this is a dangerous thing. So one thing that you're going to notice about these guys, these dispensationalists is they have no problem yoking up with other preachers, other pastors that are hardcore work salvationists. And it's because they've let this doctrine, this false doctrine of faith plus works in the old Testament, they've let that, you know, just slide them to where, where it's not as important to them. Right. They don't see the sense of urgency. They don't see the danger in that. They don't have a, you know, a great, I don't know what you want to call it, but they don't have a, they don't have that zeal to fight repenting your sins because they believe, well, people in the old Testament were saved that way. Jews are saved that way. You know? So Romans chapter four, I'm going to give you some more proof here. We're going to look at this Romans four, look at verse number one, verse number one. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father as pertaining to the flesh has found for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not before God. Right. So he's saying, Hey, look, you know, Abraham did a lot of good things. You know, there would be, you know, examples in, in, in, in, in faith that, you know, you read about that and in Hebrews chapter 11, right, the great faith chapter, you know, we can learn from that. And he says, for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not before God. So he could glory in front of us. Right. He could say, Hey, look, look at the faith that I had. You know, I offered my son. I was about to completely give my one and only son up because God told me, you know, praise God. He's, he stopped that. But you know, he, he does have some, you know, things to glory of. Now look at verse three, for what sayeth the scripture Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now if you remember in Romans chapter three, verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. Right. But you have to be righteous to get to heaven. So we're going to see how you get that. And it's in this chapter now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. So again, like I was saying this morning, right? People that believe they have to work their way to heaven, you know, you got to have that sense of urgency. You got to have the right answers. You need to have this chapter marked and ready to turn to you, right? Because if they die, they're going to spend eternity trying to pay this debt off in hell. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Look at verse five. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. That's important, right? Romans three, 10. None of us are righteous. Romans four, five. Our faith is counted for righteousness. God imputes that righteousness unto you and he doesn't impute your sins once you get saved. Verse six. Now this is where it gets, this is where, where the proof really comes in. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. He's, what's he talking about there? He's expounding Psalm chapter 32, which we already read. What did it say? Blessed is the man to whom God does not impute sin unto you. I'm paraphrasing, but that's what it's saying, right? Now let me ask you this. It says, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Why would Paul tell the Romans that? Why would Paul refer to an Old Testament character regarding salvation if they were saved a different way? It doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't do that. Right? He's saying, look, even as David, basically what he's saying, even as it is in the Old Testament, just how they got saved by grace through faith and calling upon the name of the Lord, you know, so are we the same way. Look at verse seven, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered, completely covered, right, gone as far as the east is from the west. Verse eight, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. We read that Psalm in Psalm chapter 32. Look at the next verse, Romans four, nine, cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also, for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? So he's thinking, okay, how was it settled, right? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? And then he says, I love this next part, not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. What you need to understand, Abraham, you know, a lot of people say, oh, Abraham was the first Jew. Okay. Well then he was the first Christian. Obviously the first Hebrew, right? He was the first Hebrew guy, the first Hebrew man. Well, guess what? The first Hebrew man was a Syrian. The first Jew was a Gentile. The first Christian was Gentile. And that's like with all of us, right? When you get saved, before you got saved, you were a Gentile, you know, according to the Bible. You get saved, you're a Jew according to Romans chapter two, but I don't want to go off on that rapid trail. Look at verse 11, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe. Now, why would he be the father of all them that believe if in the old Testament they got saved by mixing faith and works just doesn't make sense. Though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also. Verse 12 and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. So he had that faith being uncircumcised and that's again, circumcision, that another sermon. Look at verse 13, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect. Sometimes you can use this verse here. You know, if you don't mind highlighting in your Bible or writing this down, being able to put this into your mind here, when someone is stuck on faith and works, right? You're at the door, you know, they think it's both and you're just, you know, you're going over everything with them. Sometimes this verse will work. I've used it before and it's worked. I've also used it where it hasn't, but it's important to explain this to him. Romans 4, 14 for they which are of the law be heirs, right? So if the people that are following the law are heirs to eternal life, he's saying, faith is made void. So if you, what you got to tell somebody is, okay, so you're trusting in your works to get you heaven. They'll say a lot of times like, yeah, faith, cause faith and works without, you know, faith without works is dead. That's typically what they're going to say, say, well, your faith is void right here. Right now you're not saved because you're also trusting your works. Cause a lot of people say, well, I just do both. I just trust both just, just to cover all the bases. Well, the problem with that is in this verse here for if they, which are the law be heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of none effect. So you need to explain to them, Hey, you're trusting in your works and faith. So therefore your faith is made void. God doesn't count it. You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, right? That's what act 16 31 says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Putting all your face on it, all your faith on him. You can't believe 99% on Jesus Christ and 1% on yourself, right? You don't, nobody sits in this chair. Like I said, then holds on for dear life. That's not, that's not going to cut it. And that's a picture of what somebody would be doing in this verse. So just keep this in the back of your mind. It's the perfect verse. I think to show people that are trying to mix both or that are hung up. Now look at verse 15 because the law work at the wrath for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end. The promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only, which is of the law, but to all, or I'm sorry, but to that also, which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. So the difference that you're going to see here between the old Testament and the new Testament really is the name. Remember they didn't know the name Jesus in the old Testament. You don't, uh, let's see, you guys turned to Acts chapter four and I'm going to read to you two old Testament scriptures. We're almost done, almost done. So like I said, the difference, right? Cause there is a difference. There is a slight difference and it's in the name. For example, in Genesis chapter four verse 26 it says into Seth to him also there was born a son and he called his name Enos. Then begin men to call upon the name of the Lord. Okay. Now Exodus chapter six verse three said, this is where God's saying to Moses says, and I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. So Abraham didn't call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, he called upon God almighty, right? Moses had more revelation and it's explained here in this verse through the name Jehovah. Right? And so that's what God's telling him. Right? So there's more revelation as we go throughout the history of the Bible. So you're there in Acts chapter four, look at verse 10 because we're going to talk about the new Testament. So in the old Testament, they were saved by calling upon the God almighty upon Jehovah, you know, upon, upon the Lord God almighty, you know, it's got a lot of different names in the old Testament. You know, we don't have time to get into that, but look at Acts chapter four verse 10, be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole. Verse 11, this is the stone which was set out not of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Now verse 12, there is, it says, neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. New Testament, very clear. There is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. It's Jesus Christ. That is how we're saved. Don't fall for this Hebrew roots garbage where these people will come up and say, if you called upon the name of the Lord Jesus, you're not saved. You have to call upon his Hebrew name. Now I get it. People in Israel today, they, they have that name, Yeshua or Yeshua, I'm, you know, I don't speak Hebrew. I'm not sure. Other languages, you know, they have a different sounding name than Jesus. Like in Spanish, I think it's Jesus, right? You know, that that's okay. That's their language, right? But what the Bible says for us here in English, there's none other name under heaven whereby we must be saved, but the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So in the Old Testament, they called upon God almighty and the New Testament, we call upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only difference. The Old Testament, they were not saved by mixing faith and works like the dispensationalist Gene Kim and Robert breaker are going to tell you that is the ally out of the pit of hell. It's not true. And we're almost done here. Turn to first Peter chapter three, first Peter chapter three, first Peter chapter three, look at verse 15. We're almost done. You say, why teach all this stuff? Why go over all this stuff? I realized we might've gotten a little deep into that last part there and it's because it's important. You know, you need to be able to have the right answers for people at the door. And I look at first Peter three, look at verse 15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and in fear or in fear, right? So he says, be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. You know, when you guys are going out and knocking on doors and soul winning, you're going to have people asking you questions. You're going to have people asking you, Hey, what is the reason of this hope? You know, and it may be various questions. They might be hung up. Well, if they were saved in the old Testament by faith and works, like my dispensational teacher taught, then how do we know for sure that we're not saved in the new Testament the same way? Because faith without works is dead. Well, for one, you can say, well, yeah, you just said it. Faith can exist without works. It's just dead, right? My car without a battery is dead. It's still a car. It's not profitable unto me though. But anyways, you know, that's, that's besides the point. The point is here, the reason why I wanted to teach these five points, what we believe is because we need to understand these things, right? You need to have answers ready for people to ask because you having the right answer could mean the difference between somebody believing the gospel and somebody rejecting it. And so with that in mind, I just want to encourage everybody, hopefully something I said was edifying and new, maybe. You know, if you didn't know that about old Testament and new Testament, hopefully now that that's settled, you know, if we got some more verses, maybe highlighted, ready to use in your arsenal, you know, and we ought to be ready to give an answer to everybody that asks us. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this church. I just pray you bless the fellowship, Lord. I pray you bless us during the week. Please keep us safe as we all go home and I pray you bless the Wednesday prayer meeting and Bible study and thank you Lord for allowing us to have salvation for a free gift, Lord. Please give us this great zeal to go out and reach this community for you in Jesus name. I pray. Amen.