======================================================================== WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO BE SAVED by Tim Conway ======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ And I want you to biblically try to discern this, try to answer this. It says, Hi Pastor Tim, I'm seeking the Lord for salvation. So that's something that I commonly encounter. I'm constantly encountering young people who are indicating that they're seeking the Lord, they're wanting to be saved. Now, I guess what tends to characterize the people, it seems like there's a struggle. It seems like there's a real wrestling. They want to be saved, but they're not being saved. And it seems like there's confusion on the part of the young people. And like I say, probably for the better part of the last 15 years, just as the popularity of I'll Be Honest increased, people were seeking to utilize I'll Be Honest and getting our church contact information and my personal information. And especially before I turned over a lot of the communication to James Jennings, I was being inundated by people that just seemed to be in these situations where sometimes it was the unpardonable sin, but oftentimes it was this. It's people who say they want to be saved. That's what they say. And listen, I want to put that out there because one of the things that I've been just emphasizing over the last few weeks is we have to be careful that we don't overly take sinners at their word. And what I mean by that is we want to be careful that we don't fall into these ruts where we're blaming God for not saving somebody, because the Bible always puts the fault on the individual. Now, that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help the individual. We shouldn't try to bring truth to bear on their situation and try to help them. And that's what I want to do. I'm answering this tonight for the sake of the person that's writing it, but I just think that it's going to be very helpful to us as well. But just because people say that they're seeking salvation doesn't necessarily mean that they are. Now, that doesn't mean they're not seeking something, but sometimes what they're seeking is actually short of what the Bible offers as salvation. Sometimes when they say they're seeking the Lord, well, they're actually wanting something from the Lord that may be different from really being saved the way that Christ saves. So hear this out, because we want to be discerning. If we really want to help people, we have to listen. We have to listen carefully. And if we're going to be discerning, we need to know our Bibles, and we need to be able to... So we need to be reading our Bibles all the time. We need to be familiar with our Bibles. We need to have a feel for what they teach. So here's the question. I'm seeking the Lord for salvation. I know that I can't be saved by my own works. And I find that I'm trying to be saved by my works. And that's good. That's honest. I know that I can't be saved by my own works, and I find that I'm trying to be saved by my works. I am now focusing on being saved by Jesus. Now see, even that can be a work. I mean, the difference between faith and a work can be nuanced. We can often use the same terminology for what a person's doing when they're trying to be saved by their own works, and we can use this exact same terminology and say, what do you mean? Well, I mean just this. I am now focusing on being saved by Jesus. Well, yes, biblically, we want to be saved by Jesus. But when the person says, I'm now focusing on being saved by Jesus, that, I mean, if we look at it, it can be a person that's likewise trusting their own efforts. They're really thinking, okay, I've got to change my tactic here. When the real issue is what has to happen is there has to be a very root change in who and what we trust. And this is the very core of repentance. It's a change of mind about where my hope is, a change of mind about where my salvation actually is to be found. But anyway, we're going to progress here. I'm trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus. That's what a question. I'm trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus. Well, let's stop right there. If you had somebody come to you and their question is not, how can I be saved? Because if they said, how can I be saved from my sin? I feel the weight of my sin. How can I be saved? You might say, trust Jesus. You might say that. But what if they said, I don't know what that means. I mean, I'm trying to figure out how to trust Jesus. Show me how to trust Jesus. What are you going to say? What do you do with that? Because these are the kinds of questions I'm often getting hit with. And pastorally, you want to try to, I mean, you want to address these things with truth. Does the Bible even deal with that? Does the Bible tell us how to trust? Or does it just tell us to trust? I mean, what do you think is happening in the scriptures that help the sinner to trust Christ? How do you respond to a guy that says, I'm trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus? Does it follow the same type of reasoning or situation with the rich young ruler? Well, explain what you mean. So the rich young ruler came to Jesus and started laying down, laying all that, everything that he has done. And Jesus said, you have to sell everything to the poor and follow me. So it was a call for him to lose the thing that he must want and then follow his own steps. This is a call to believe and trusting in him. Ah, so one of the ways of figuring out how to trust in Jesus might be to abandon the other things that we trust. You see when, let's just, let me continue here. Maybe, maybe it's good for me to kind of give you the overall thrust here. Let's get, let's get the big picture and then we'll backtrack. He says, I'm trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus. I've written some questions and answers in my meditation, but I've stumbled upon a question that I don't have an answer to and wanted to see if you can guide me. Question one, how can I place my faith in Christ? Answer, by believing that he died on the cross for my sins. Romans 5.8, but God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Question two, how do I know I'm saved? Answer, Romans 10.13, for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Colossians 2.13, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. And then he says this, the issue is that I have no evidence of salvation, no works. So how can I take hold of believing Colossians 2.13 if it's not true of my life? That brought me to this next question and answer. Question three, how can I believe that I'm saved if there's no evidence of salvation? Answer, you cannot believe you are saved if there is no evidence of salvation. Matthew 7.16a and 18, you will know them by their fruits. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. I guess my question is, the fourth question, can I believe Colossians 2.13? Let me open up to Colossians 2.13 and I'm going to read this here. Colossians 2.13 says, and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses. And he says, my question is, can I believe Colossians 2.13? I feel like if I believe and meditate on it, but see no works, I am not truly believing, but only believing in vain or believing a lie. On the other hand, Acts 6.31 says, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. So I feel like on the other hand, if I don't believe in and meditate on it, I cannot be saved because then I'm not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you help clear up the confusion? Any thoughts? Anybody have any thoughts about that? I mean, if you were being asked these questions, anything come to your mind, anything resonate, don't be afraid. I would just say like, I'd like to know what his relationship with sin is and what does he think about sin, his own sin, just to get a bit more of an understanding of where he's at. I mean, because right now, like we know that there's a sin of unbelief, but then it's like, what else is there? Do you know what I mean? I mean, that's just a little thought because, you know, when someone comes to Christ, their relationship with Christ changes their relationship with sin. And that is one of the big things. You don't have the individual to dig deeper. All you can do is deal with what they submitted. And so through the years, as I've sought to answer questions, you know, you recognize that you're having to basically take what's given to you and you're trying to get a feel for where the person's coming from or where some of their thinking might be wrong, or even where some of their assumptions are wrong. Because I often get people who will say, well, I know this. And you look at it and you say, well, that's not even true. I mean, you recognize that some of their first assumptions can be wrong. Now, here's the thing. I think that this is key. And I've been trying to say this the last couple weeks. Maybe having a real life example is going to help you see this all the more. Let me ask you something. Is it necessary for saving faith to believe Colossians 2.13? Now listen to this. And you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses. Here's the thing. This guy, he's throwing out like Romans 5.8, God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Let me ask you this. Is the gospel message such that we should be asking people to believe that which might not even be true? You see, he's on to that. He says this, I feel like if I believe and meditate on Colossians 2.13, but see no works, I'm not truly believing, but only believing in vain or believing a lie. Yes, that's true. Listen, the Bible does not ever tell us that we need to believe that Jesus died for me. Now I recognize that when you get to the epistles, Paul can say, I believe that He loved me. I believe that He died for me. But you see, he's talking about himself as a Christian. This isn't what you tell a person who's coming in. You don't tell a lost person, well, you need to believe Christ died for you, or you need to believe God loves you, or you need to believe basically the promises that are held out to the truly saved. What you don't want to press people to do is believe that which may or may not be true. You don't want to tell them, well, you need to believe your sins are forgiven, or you need to believe that some specific subjective thing is real about yourself. That's not what the gospel ever does. You will not find that the gospels present that to us. Now listen, what I did was just over the last two days, I read Matthew and I read John, and I was specifically looking for every passage that basically I felt like gives the sinner some kind of specific instruction as to what to do or what to believe. Now I recognize the whole of the gospels are to be believed. I recognize that. But you see, it's very interesting to me that the thrust of the gospels is what Christ did and who Christ is. That's key. That's key. You recognize what we're really asking people to believe, to be saved, is not something about themselves that might or might not be true. That's never what we're asking people to believe, to be saved. You see, he asked the question, how can I believe that I'm saved if there's no evidence of salvation? But you see what he's done? He's taken saving faith and he's equated it to assurance. You see what I'm saying here? He's saying, I want to believe that I'm saved. Well, believing that you're saved, that is not saving faith. Believing I'm saved is assurance. And assurance doesn't save. The object of our faith saves. And it's when that object of our faith is being clung to by our faith. And that's objective. It's outside of ourselves. And so if I'm still not being clear, let's just see this. I want to go through Matthew and I want to go through John because that's what I've done over the last 48 hours. And I just want you to see this collection of verses. I put green asterisks in my Bible by every verse that I felt like gave some kind of helpful instruction to a sinner. And again, I don't want to detract from the whole gospel of Matthew and the whole gospel of John because what is happening is verse after verse is giving us this reality, this truth about Christ that is really the heart and soul of what we're supposed to believe. But what I want you to see is this. Believing is not believing that Christ died for me. Believing is seeing that Christ died and will save those who come to Him to be saved. You see that there's a difference there. It's not believing specifically that, well, He loves me and He's forgiven my sins. No, the truth is that if I go to Christ, I will find that He will shed His love upon me. If I go to Christ, I will find that there's forgiveness of sin there. But what my faith needs to lock onto is that this is the Christ. This is the Messiah who will love me. If I come to Him, He won't cast me out and He will love me. This is the Christ and if I come to Him, He will wash away all my sin. But see, I'm not believing that ahead of time. It's not like I have to somehow convince myself that that's already true. What I have to convince myself of is that this is the Christ who will indeed love me and forgive my sins if I come to Him. And I need to recognize who and what this Christ is like. Now, just some verses. Go to Matthew. We're going to do a quick survey of Matthew and John. And I just want us to grasp a flavor of how the scriptures speak to a guy like this or to all of us or to anybody that might be struggling with, how do I be saved? Look, I don't want to downplay this because I know this can torment people. I see this. I hear it in the way people plead for answers. They're tormented by these things and often it's a deception. They've embraced some kind of lie. They've embraced some kind of error. But the best way to have the error swept away is for us to just get lots of truth. So, Matthew chapter 3. You've got your Bibles there. Just be ready to turn pages with me. Matthew 3 and verse 2. This is John the Baptist. When he came preaching, he said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, again, I'm going to pull out verses here about what the lost are told to do or believe or verses that lend themselves to what we're supposed to believe. But you see, repent, again, is that reality of an afterthought. It's to think again. It's to change your mind. Now, how do I change my mind? What is it I'm supposed to change my mind about? Okay, well, let's keep going. Go to chapter 4 and verse 17. Jesus comes saying the same thing. Now, what I'm getting at here is Jesus doesn't launch us into Colossians or Romans or 1 Corinthians or any of the epistles that are specifically speaking to those who are already Christians. Listen, there are things that are true of those who are already Christians, but are not true of people that aren't saved yet. And so you can't expect a lost person to believe what is only true of a Christian. That is to ask them to believe something that might or might not be true. And we never want to ask them to believe that. You see, repent, well, that means that in every situation, lost people need to change the way they think. They need to change what they trust. This is the heart and soul of the matter. You need to change where your confidence is. And you know how John said, don't say to yourself, you're sons of Abraham, don't you dare say that. You see, that's what they needed to rethink. Don't come along and just think you... And Jesus is coming and saying the same thing. And remember, they went to the house of Israel. They weren't running off to the Gentiles. And repent means you need to rethink. You need to change your minds because the Jews were very much minded that, you know what, we're in. We've got most favored nation status, like we were talking about on Sunday. They thought, they said, Abraham's our father. You know how they talk. Moses, we know. This guy, we don't know. They put their confidence in Moses. They put their... Jesus is saying, you better rethink this. And see, that's all objective reality. You need to think what's true, no matter if you have the love of God or not. You need to... There are truths that our faith needs to latch on to that are true no matter what's true about us. And what's true is this. It doesn't matter what family, it doesn't matter what lineage, it doesn't matter the stock of people I come from. Okay, we're going to keep going here. Look with me at Matthew 7, verse 13. Now, we dealt with this in the Sermon on the Mount not too long ago. Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. Those who enter by it are many. Gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Now, see, what this guy that's written to me is trying to do is he's trying to believe he's on the narrow way. You see the kind of thing he's trying to do? He's trying to believe that he's already in a right situation. He wants to already believe that Christ died on the cross for his sins. He wants to already believe that God demonstrates his love toward him in that while he was yet a sinner, Christ died for him. He wants to believe that he's saved already. He wants to believe that he's made alive already. He wants to believe that he has forgiveness for all of his transgressions already. You see, those are the kind of verses that he's throwing out, that he's saying, hey, I'm trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus. And what he's doing is he's launching all the way ahead, and he's taking promises that are given just to Christians, and he's trying to make them his own. That's not how a person gets saved. It's not by trying to believe that something is true of you that may not be true of you, or that probably isn't true of you at that point in time. But you see, if you try to believe that you're on the narrow way, that's not saving faith. That's not the issue here, folks. The issue is this. Enter by the narrow gate. Well, see, that's a good objective truth. Truth is, if you enter at the narrow way, the end of that is life. That's an objective truth outside of ourselves. And what is it that the change of mind brings, the whole repentance, is that, hey, you see, you're recognizing things about Jesus. Wow. This is the Messiah. This is God's chosen Savior. This is the one that can help deliver me from my sins. I'm going to follow Him. And if the way of following Him is in that way there that's narrow, I'm going to follow Him. And see, the appeal is go in there. Go in that way. And you know what? If you believe that Jesus is altogether the answer to your problems, then you're going to follow Him wherever He takes you, including in that hard, narrow way. But folks, the issue is this. Do we need the Jesus of Scripture? That's a fundamental question. Do I need Him? You see, a lot of times people follow this. This young man is asking, how can I place my faith in Christ? Answer, by believing that He died on the cross for my sins. You see the kind of questions he's asking? He's asking questions like, how can I believe that I have life and that my sins are forgiven? You see, he's starting at the wrong place. The truth is this. Does Jesus offer me something that I need? Am I convinced that I have a need? You know, that's what Jesus said, right? Jesus said, those who are sick need a doctor. You know, one of the problems is, you got a lot of people that aren't sick. And so they're trying to play all sorts of acrobatics with believing, you know, they're trying to get themselves where they can believe a certain... Folks, do we have a need? And have we seen that Jesus is the one who can answer that need? And if I see that, then I'm going to follow Him on a hard road. I'm going to follow Him in this narrow way. I'm going to follow Him wherever He calls me to go. Now, let's keep going here. Look at Matthew 9, verse 9. Matthew 9, verse 9. As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, follow Me. And he rose and followed Him. Now, you know what's so interesting? That is that... I mean, repent, and then what's expected? Follow Me. And that gets said to people everywhere. That gets said repeatedly, follow Me. Now think about this. Think about this. Okay, you're a young man, and you're there saying, I'm trying to figure out how to trust Jesus. Well, wait. If somebody says, follow Me, doesn't that put it all on the table right there as to whether I trust Him or not? Now listen, you have to listen to me. You know what so many people want to do? I'll tell you, I'm afraid what this guy wants, and I'm afraid what a lot of people are looking for is this. They are trying to get themselves to believe a certain truth, like Colossians 2.13, to believe that they've been made alive. When the truth is, they probably have not been made alive yet. They're trying to believe their sins are forgiven. When the truth is, their sins are not forgiven yet. You see, He recognized it. He's trying to believe in vain or believe a lie, and it's in vain to believe a lie. And He's trying to believe something that, you know what, He has no idea if it's true or not. Does He have any idea whether His sins are forgiven or not? No, but that's what He's trying to believe. In fact, it's very likely, based on everything He's saying, that His sins are not forgiven yet. So you see what He's trying to do? He's trying to believe His sins are forgiven when His sins aren't forgiven. That's not the issue, folks. The issue is this. Jesus says, follow Me. And that hits every one of us, including Him. You see what the question is? I'm afraid what happens is somebody's trying to believe, I need to believe that Jesus died for me. I need to believe that my sins are forgiven. And you know what they're waiting for? They're waiting to feel something. They're waiting to all of a sudden have this experience and say, wow, now I'm saved. Like some jolt of energy or some adrenaline rush or something experiential that they feel. That is never the case, folks. That will lead a person to hell. That is a deception. Here's the issue. When Jesus says, follow Me, that's what He said, 9-9. Jesus passed on from there. He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, follow Me. Now, I'll guarantee that was not in a vacuum. You say, what do you mean? Matthew was a tax collector. You know what that meant? He was coming in contact with people all the time. Where was he a tax collector? Right there at the same time and place when Jesus was healing multitudes, casting out demons. Stories are going everywhere. He's raising the dead. This guy can feed 5,000 men plus women and children with just a few lows and stories are going everywhere about this guy. This didn't happen in a vacuum. And what happened was this. When Jesus said, follow Me, what's got to happen for somebody to make that decision? And listen, it's no different with us. Even though Jesus doesn't physically... See, we might like that to happen. Somebody might say, well, I wish Jesus would do that to me. I wish He'd come to my door physically and ask me to follow Him, and then I would. Oh, but it's no different. Why? Because it's the same Christ. You see, all we do is witness to people of the same Christ that we're hearing about in Scripture. And Jesus said that if you would have life, you've got to die to yourself. You've got to carry your cross. You've got to follow Him. Folks, the path of life for everybody, even today, is following Christ. The issue is what happens in your thinking apparatus. And this is where repentance takes place. And this is where faith takes place. It's a mental reality. We grapple with these things here. You see, what I believe is not separated from knowledge. To know something. I come to know facts about this Christ. And so when He calls me to follow Him, follow Him where? Well, in that day, you may say, well, that was easy. He just, He left His tax station there, and He followed Jesus physically. Easy enough. It's not so easy for us, we think. Well, I don't think that it was so easy for Him. You say, what do I mean? Well, look, the rich young ruler didn't walk away from his wealth when Jesus said, follow me. The fact is that it was the same for Matthew as it is for us. You know what Jesus is calling us to do when He calls us to follow Him? I mean, we really have to think about that. What does that mean? You see, the first step is not to try to go into this state of euphoria before you believe that you're saved. It's not, oh, I've got to try to believe that I'm a child of God. Well, what's that? You're trying to believe something that isn't even true. I'm trying to believe all the promises that apply to God's children apply to me. What's that? That's never the object of our faith. You see, faith is this. Faith is, Jesus calls me to follow. What does that mean? He said, unless you forsake all that you have, you can't be my disciple. He said, I'm going to not bring peace. I bring a sword into the family. If you love mother or father more than me, you're not worthy of me. He said, you need to die for my sake and the gospel's sake. You know He said that? You know He said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say? You know what He expects? You know what He expects. We just went through the Sermon on the Mount. He gets to the end and He says, the wise man builds his house on the rock. That rock is building on me and my word. It means that you're going to do what I say. You see, that's following Christ. Following Christ is we learn of Him. Learn of me. We learn of Him. We imitate Him. We follow Him. We sacrifice all for Him. He is Lord. We hear His word. Isn't that what God said? Or isn't that what happened up on the Mount of Transfiguration? That voice came out of there and said, this is my son. And that voice said, you need to hear Him. Listen, the issue is this. Am I all in to follow this Christ? And two things really are going to dictate that. Do you have any need of it? I mean, do you need Him? Are you sick and need this doctor? And two, can you, I mean, do you, after all you know about Him, are you ready to trust Him? You see, this is the whole issue. Which is easier to say, your sins be forgiven you or rise up and walk, but that you might know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. He says, rise up and walk. You see what the issue is? Are you able to trust Him? Can you commit yourself to this Christ who raised the dead? I mean, after all that He did and all the credentials that He has, are you ready to trust Him with your life? And you know what? If the answer to that is yes, you see what the issue is? It's all got to do with believing what is true outside of yourself, whether you believe or not. You see, Christ, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. You recognize that. He alone is the one who's able to save. There are no others. And so when He says, follow me, you know what was happening up here in Matthew's head? You know what was happening. The balances came out. Christ in one side and everything else, Matthew wanting to live life His way, Matthew wanting His money, Matthew wanting His freedom, Matthew doing things the way He'd always done, Matthew loving His sin, Matthew loving all of His fellow tax collectors and prostitutes and the whole riffraff of the notorious sinners that He hung around with. Was He going to give it all up? That's what follow me means. It means, Matthew, do I have the solution for everything that you long for right now? Is there something in all that you've heard about me? Do you need me? Matthew, do you need me? You see, that's the object of faith. If we're going to try to teach somebody how to be trusting Christ, if somebody is trying to figure out how to trust Christ, the issue is, what are you trusting Christ for? You see, I can tell you this, that people come to Christ when they see that they've got some kind of disease they can't heal. They've got an emptiness they can't fill. They've got sin that is going to swallow them up in hell and they can't save themselves. They need help. That's the issue. You know what? The question is this, is Christ sufficient to help you? Do you have a need that you even need help from? See, I'm afraid a lot of times. People are just afraid of hell and they're afraid of hell, but they don't really have a need. Well, they don't like this hell thing, but they don't. So the whole time they're trying to construct their own salvation. They're trying to make themselves believe. They're trying to make themselves repent. Well, repent, I'm cleaning up my life and I'm trying to, I know certain things, but I don't think that's the issue. Let's go further here. Matthew 9, 28, when Jesus entered the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them, do you believe that I'm able to do this? They said to him, yes, Lord. And what is there about this? Notice the verse before this, as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, have mercy on us, son of David. Well, see that right there, they had a need and they believed that Christ could answer the need. That's the question. That's the big question. It's not, how do I know I'm saved? If you know you're saved, that's assurance. Assurance doesn't save anybody. It's believing in Christ that saves. You see, the issue is this. Do I believe that Jesus can give me sight? These blind men believed that. Whatever they'd heard about Christ, they believed this was the miracle worker. They believed that this was the one. They didn't have hope in getting their sight anywhere else, but they had hope in him. He could give them what they needed. And what did they do? They cried aloud. That's calling on the Lord. They cried aloud. Why did they cry aloud? Because they weren't blind. Why does anybody need Christ? Because they've got a need. I mean, that's the very point. You see, I'm afraid that there are people who are saying, well, I'm seeking the Lord for salvation, but they don't have any need. They don't have any desperation. There's nothing in them that they feel like Jesus is an answer for. You see, you got to, I mean, look, the issue is this. Do you have a need? Does anybody have a need? And then when you look at Jesus, are you convinced he can answer my need? And you know what? If you're convinced of it, that's faith. That's faith. And you will get not give him any rest until he answers that need. And that's what these guys did. Do you believe that I'm able to do this? And they said to him, yes, Lord. And he did it. You see, they didn't believe that they, here's the thing. They didn't believe that they could already see. That's what this young man's trying to do. He's trying to believe that he already has everything that pertains to a Christian before he even has it. That's not saving faith, folks. Believing that you believe or believing that you're saved, that's not saving faith. Saving faith, the object of saving faith is Christ. And it's looking at him and it's saying, you know what? I can't see. I'm blind. I want to see. And based on everything that I've heard, he's given sight to other people. I've heard it. He's healed. He's raised the dead. I need this guy. I need him. He can help me. You see, that's faith. Let's keep going here. Go over to chapter 10, verse 7. Now, Jesus is sending out his 12 and he tells them, don't go any place other than to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And notice verse 7, and proclaim as you go, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You see, what we're saying to somebody is something that's true, whether they believe it or not, whether they're a Christian or not. The truth is the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The truth is that salvation is being offered. You see, that's what the truth is. The truth isn't, you don't want people to believe they're saved already or you're trying to believe something like that. You want them to believe that God's kingdom has come, that God's kingdom is there, that God's kingdom is to be entered. And that's a reality. We've got to enter it. And that's a reality, irregardless of what we believe or don't believe, whether we're a Christian or not a Christian. You see, what we're called to believe are objective realities outside of ourselves. Go to Matthew chapter 10, verse 38. It says, whoever does not take his cross, and think about a cross. We all know it, right? What's a cross? If I'm supposed to take my cross, what is that? The life of trials and suffering, the life of following Christ. Well, the cross is an instrument of death. Bottom line. Anybody who took their, I mean, basically, if you could go back 2000 years ago, anybody carrying their cross was headed where? I mean, when Jesus was carrying his cross, where was he headed? To the wedding? To death. Yeah. Somebody carrying their cross is headed to death. So here's the thing. Whoever does not, now notice what Jesus says. He doesn't say, I want you to believe you're carrying your cross. You see, that would be the kind of thing that this guy is trying to believe. He's trying to believe something that may or may not be true. He doesn't say, believe that you're carrying your cross. He doesn't say, believe you're following me. He doesn't say, believe you're worthy of me. He doesn't say, believe that you found life. That's not what he says. He basically lays this proposition on the table. That's true whether we embrace it or not. Whoever does not take his cross, that's an instrument of death. What does that mean? Folks, what that means is very simple. It means you die to the life you were wanting to live. You die to living for yourself. You die to you being Lord. You die to doing things my way. You die to everything that you, all your plans, all that your expectation, your hopes, everything that you, and you're letting go of that. See, this is repentance. Our old way of thinking was, I got to do it my way. I got to figure this out. If something's going to happen in my life, I got to make it happen. I got to pursue my goals. I got to pursue my enjoyments. I got to pursue my comforts, my securities. I'm going to pursue the dream life, the British dream. I want all this. You see, it's abandoning that. When you carry your cross, it means I'm dying to me. I'm dying to what I want. I'm dying to living life the way that I have. And you follow Him. Because where were we following before? We weren't following Him. We were following the course of the world. We were following the Prince of the Power of the Air. That's who we were following. And following the world, well, we know where that goes. Worldliness. You know, we all had our own thing. We all prided, you know, some might have prided themselves in that they were a chef, and some prided themselves in they could ride a horse, and some prided themselves in they looked good, and they went to the gym, and some people pride theirselves in their hair, and some people in their intellect, and some people in their computer skills. And you know what? We all had our thing. We're going our way. And Jesus says, follow me. Whoa. Because if I'm going to follow Him, guess where I'm not going to follow? Anything and everything else. You see, if I'm going to follow Jesus, that's very singular. That doesn't allow for room. That's a very narrow way. Remember, you enter in at this narrow gate. This is very narrow, folks. There's not a lot of leniency here. There's one way, and it's to go the way He went. And why would anybody do that? Well, because you can put your weight on Jesus. You see, you've got a lot of people waiting to be saved. They're waiting for God to zap them. They're waiting for God to give them an emotion, give them an experience. They're waiting for that. That's not what this is all about. The Bible just doesn't even speak that way. The Bible basically says this. If you see that in Jesus, that you're convinced, yeah, yeah, He's the resurrection and the life. He's the way, the life, and the truth. Yep, He is. He's the one that can take care of my sins. He's the one that can save me from the power of the devil. He's the one that can get me to the Father. He's the one that can show me how to live right. He's the one who has the truth. He came to bear witness to the truth. I believe it. Well, then you know what? You follow Him. You don't wait to feel something. You don't wait to be zapped. You don't sit and try to believe some Scripture verse that's meant for Christians and try to believe it hard enough that somehow if you can just believe it hard enough that all of a sudden, wham, you're going to be in. That's not it. That's not it, folks. The it is this. It's am I ready to follow Christ and die to what I want and what I love and what I live for and I'm going to follow Him. That means I'm going to trust Him and I'm going to start doing what He says because that's what He said. He said, you prove to be my disciples if my word abides in you. That's what Jesus said. And He said, if you won't take up your cross and follow me, you're not worthy of me. He said, that's what we need to ask. Are we ready to follow Him? That's the real question. And you know, if you say, no, I'm not ready to follow Him, you're just like the rich young ruler. You turn and walk away. Because what happened to the rich young ruler? Well, he waited out. He said, you know what? I want what I want. Look, surrendering to Jesus, He's good. He bestows His riches upon all who call. But that doesn't mean that He always gives us our way. In fact, oftentimes He doesn't give us our way. He may give you a spouse. He may not. He may give you certain amounts of money. He may give you poverty. He may give you good health. He may give you sickness. You see, following Him, there's no guarantees. He may give you death. I mean, your life may be very short. He never guaranteed long lives following Him. But what He did guarantee is He will save you to the uttermost. What He did guarantee, He'll never leave you or forsake you. See, these are truths that are true no matter what's true of us. Yet if you trust Him, He will in no wise cast you out. If you trust Him, these are realities. It says, whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So this is it. You see, every one of us that are true Christians here on this screen, we came to a place, not where we just wait till we got zapped with some feeling. Not where we just waited for some experience and some overwhelming joy. Or not trying to just force ourselves to believe a truth that only applies to Christians. That's not what happened. What has always happened is that we've come to a place where we call upon the Lord for help. Because we see in Him an answer to a need that we have. And we're ready to follow Him where He takes us. Because we trust Him. We hear His word. We trust Him. We're going to follow Him. If you go over to chapter 11, we've looked at this various times. Chapter 11, verse 20, where He began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done because they did not repent. Again, you see, the issue is this. When Jesus does all of His mighty works, you know why those are recorded for us? Think with me here. We have four Gospels. We don't get a fourfold repetition in our Bibles anywhere else. This is the only place where the same events are repeated for us four times. That emphasis is overwhelming. It ought to scream at us that the most important thing in all of our Bibles is found in the four Gospels. There's nothing more important than this. And what really composes these four Gospels? I'll tell you, it's Jesus' miracles and Jesus going to the cross. That's what these books are weighed with. And so here it is. Listen, what's true of them is true of us. We see His mighty works. We see them by faith. We see them on the pages of a book. But it's really no different. Jesus did the mighty works. And whether we see them firsthand or whether we don't, we have to ask ourselves this question. When Jesus turned water into wine, does that matter to me? I mean, does that cause, you know what that does to me? That makes me realize Jesus may take me down hard paths. But if He's the kind of Savior that would turn water into wine in a way, then you know what? He cares about doing good to me. He cares about me being full of joy. He cares. I mean, He means to give me paradise in the end. He is not a cruel taskmaster. He turns water into wine as His first miracle. Does it matter to you that He raises the dead? He can raise me to life. He can give me life. He can give me life more abundant. And if life, if eternal life is really rooted in knowing the one true God and knowing Christ, and He can give me more of that. Do I want that? I want that. I want to be, I want to know God more. I want revel, I want the manifestations. Do I believe that if He is able to raise the dead, He can raise me to life. He can give me life and give, I do believe that. If He can forgive, forgive. If He can heal the palsied man and say, which is easier to say your sins be forgiven, but that you might know. Do I need a Savior that can forgive sins? Yes. I need that. I need that desperately. A Christ who can give sight to the blind. If He can give sight to a blind man, He can open my eyes to see truths. Even today, this very day when I'm reading Matthew and I'm reading John and I'm trying to see things. Do I need a Savior that can give me sight to see? I need that. He can heal the sick. Do I have a leprosy that I need to be cured from? Yes. Are the things wrong with me? Are the things broken with me? Are the things out of alignment with me? Are the things that need to be straightened? Things that need to be fixed? Things that need to be cured? Things that need to be helped? Absolutely. And you see, if you feel needs like this, if you have a need, well then you look at Him doing all these miracles and you recognize, hey, all those people He did miracles for, even if it was you were that bride at the wedding and you ran out of wine. And it's like, this is no good. The family's going to think I'm a bunch of cheapskate here and I can't even do a wedding right. I mean, what's my bride's parents going to think? They're going to think that I can't even take care of my new wife. I can't even provide wine at the wedding. I mean, even for a need like that, Jesus is ready to say, fill the water jugs, boys. I mean, you see what Jesus is saying to people? It's like, I do all these miracles and it doesn't change your mind? You see, this is the focused point of faith. This is what we really need to be honed in on. Let's go further. Chapter 11, verse 28. He says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But you see, He's not telling us to believe that we've already come to it. He's not telling us to believe that we have rest when we don't. You see what He's saying to us? He's telling us, believe this. Believe that if you come to me, I'll give you rest. Believe that I'm the rest giver. You see, and that's true whether you rest in Him or not. It's true whether you believe in Him or not. He is the rest giver. That's the promise. You see, again, the truth that we're supposed to believe is a truth that's outside of us. He's not telling us to already believe these things. He's saying, look, do you need rest? Have you labored with your own self-righteousness? Have you labored under the weight of sin? Have you labored under the terrors of hell? Have you labored? Whatever. He's the rest giver. You know why somebody will go to Him? You see what He says? Come unto me. Come to me. Well, who's going to come? Well, He calls us. It's just like He said to Matthew, come, follow me. Is there something in you? Do you have a need? I mean, see, this is the point. If I'm going to try to help a guy to not be saved by works, but figure out how to trust Jesus, well, the point is this. Do you have a need? Do you have an unrest in your soul that you want rest from? Are you laboring in some way? Well, I think He's laboring. I think He's laboring to try to, oh no, go to Jesus for rest. You see, if you're so convinced that you have to keep working, you have to make yourself believe that something is true of you that's only true of Christians, that's missing the mark. The issue is this. Am I exhausted in all of my efforts and I just need somebody to come in and help me and do it for me and put me at rest trying to do all this? But you go to Matthew chapter 12, I can see we're not even going to come close to getting to John, but Matthew 12, 41, the men of Nineveh, Jesus said, are going to rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonah and behold something greater than Jonah is here. But what I'm really emphasizing is throughout Matthew's gospel, repentance, just that change of mind and it's got to do, and I recognize the of Christ were not known to Jonah and to Nineveh, but that's the basis of our faith now is based on what's revealed. You go to Matthew 13, verse 15, Jesus says this people's heart has grown dull with their eyes they can barely, or with their ears they can barely hear, their eyes they've closed lest they should see. See what? Obviously see the miracle worker, see that they need Christ, see that He is the answer for life, He's the answer for salvation, He's the answer for hope, He's the answer for getting God, lest they should see that. And if they see it, what happens? Well, they understand and they turn, they turn from where? From not following Jesus to following Jesus, they turn to Him, they come to Him and what will happen? He'll heal them. You believe that? You see, if anybody is lost and they believe that, I mean you look at that and you say, I believe it, I believe that if I turn to Jesus, He's going to heal me. Why? Because He says so. And so there it is, rich young ruler, Matthew the tax collector. One of them turned from their money, their tax collecting and followed Him, and one didn't. What's the difference? One needed Him, one didn't need Him. One's in heaven now, one's not in heaven now. You believe it? I mean, see, that's faith. Faith isn't, oh, I just have to believe that I'm saved. Oh, I just have to believe that Jesus died for my sins. I just have to believe that I'm saved. No, it's not that. It's what do you think of Christ? Do you need Him? I think you got a lot of people, they don't need Him. They're trying, they've got their needle and thread out and they're trying to construct their own salvation. Oh, I need to believe that, I need to believe that I'm, I've been raised to life. I need to believe that Jesus died for me and loves me and forgave my sins. No, that's not the issue. That's trying to put your faith in the wrong place. Now look, we have assurance of those things after the fact, and the Spirit gives assurance of those things. The Spirit's only going to do that where our eyes see, ah, Jesus answers. Jesus answers my need. What's the need here? Healing. He says, I'm going to heal them. You know what? If you don't need healing, you don't go to the doctor. Do you have an illness? A lot of people don't. That's why they don't go to it. Oh, they talk about being saved. They talk about being, seeking the Lord for salvation, but they don't need Him. They're really not sick. You see, if we look at ourselves and we recognize, I need to be healed. Well, then you go. If you, listen, the two things again, you go if you believe you're sick and you believe that Jesus is a physician that can heal you. You may believe you're sick, but if you don't believe Jesus has the answer, you don't go to Him. You may say Jesus is the Savior. Jesus can heal. I see other people are Christians. I see He's done it. But if you don't have a need, if you don't need Him, then you're not going to go to it. If you go to chapter 14 verses 35 and 36, it says when the men of that place recognized Him, see, that's the thing. You got to recognize Him. You realize who He is. Ah, this is the one that can heal me. This is the one that can fix me. This is the one I'm going to follow. And this is the one who takes people to eternal life. I want that. I need that. You see, if you recognize Him, the people of that place recognized Him. Well, you don't go bring all your sick people out to somebody that you don't recognize. You bring your illnesses, you bring your sick people to one you recognize has the ability to heal the sick. And notice verse 36, they implored Him that they might only touch the fringe of His garment, and as many as touched were made well. You see, you've got to believe. It's just like Jesus said, it's just going to be like the serpent in the wilderness that Moses lifted up. Those people that looked, they lived. It's the same way. Jesus, these people needed Him. If I can just touch the hem of His garment, if I can just touch the fringe, if I can just touch it, I'll be made well. You know what, when somebody believes that, why did they do it? They had a need. What caused them to just try to get there to touch Him? Well, they recognized He's got the answer. You see, this is always the same, folks. You keep, as I'm going through Matthew, it's just you see this everywhere. This is the thrust. Look at Matthew 15, 25. This is the Syrophoenician woman. And Jesus said in verse 24, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But you see what's, you see what's going on inside this woman? Lord, help me. Where does that come from? Somebody that needs help. And somebody that believes that the Lord is the one that can help. You see, it's the same two things again. Lord, help. That is the most concise way to capture the two things I'm trying to stress. Just comes at the Gospel over and over. I need help. And there's only one person who can do it is the Lord. And that's why she doesn't even hardly hear Him when He says, I'm not sent to anybody but to the lost house of Israel. She doesn't even hear it. It's like that's not going to hinder her. Why? She's got a need. I need help. I need help. You want to figure out how to trust the Lord. I mean, do you need help? And are you convinced from all that He did and all who He is and what the Scriptures say about Him that He's the one that can help you? Because I'll tell you this, this Syrophoenician woman, she was absolutely convinced of that. She needed Him. She didn't need His disciples. She didn't need these apostles. Lord, tell her to go away. She didn't need them. She needed Him. And it didn't matter that He said you're a dog. It's not even fit for me to give the child food to the dogs. She's like, okay, Lord, I'm a dog, but I still need Your help. I need the dogs to get the crumbs. I need You, Lord. I need You. I mean, even if it's crumbs that You give me, I need what You can give. You see, that's a person, they're not going to go anywhere. Go across the page, Matthew 16, verse 16. And you remember Simon Peter, who do you say that I am? You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. You see, that's true whether we believe or not. It didn't take Peter believing that to make it so. We're believing truths that are real. And that's, I guess that's a question that we have to ask. Do we really believe that He's the Christ? He's the anointed. He's the chosen one. He's the one that God has set His seal on. This is the Son of God. He is God Himself. He is the one that God sent from heaven. I mean, do you believe that? Folks, if you do, that changes everything. I mean, if you really believe that, you'll throw your whole weight on Him. Folks, you will go where He leads. You will do what He says. Why? Because He's trustworthy. He's the one God sent. He's the truth. I mean, if we want to know the truth, we just listen to Him. What are the paths of righteousness? We listen to Him. What are the paths that lead to life? We listen to Him. What are the paths that are good and pleasing to God? We listen to Him. I mean, there's no question that we can't find the treasures. He is the source of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They're all found in Him. He is wisdom. He is our redemption. He is our hope. There is no other. Do we believe that He is the one, the anointed, the long-looked-for Messiah who would save His people from all their enemies? You see, does that answer any need for it? Again, it's just we have to have truth that is external to us, that we look at Him and we say, yes, yes, yes. I mean, what we need to know about ourselves is we have a need. What we need to know about Him is that He altogether answers that need. He is the only one that can help. Go over to Matthew 19. I've been talking about this already, so we probably don't need to spend any too much time here, but Matthew 19, verse 21. You see, if somebody comes and they say, hey, I'm trying to figure out how to trust in Jesus. Well, the issue comes down to do you or don't you? I mean, it really comes down to this. What are the demands of Jesus? What are His demands? He demands all of us. I mean, any one of us individually, He demands your all. Total submission. That's what He demands. All of you, your heart, your soul, your life, your all. That's what He demands. And that's what He demanded of this rich young ruler. He is Lord. He said, you need to take that money that you have and you need to liquidate it and give to the poor. You see, His Lordship. Do you believe that Jesus is Lord? This is life. And if you do, you follow Him. That's what He said. He said, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess, give to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, and you come follow me. It's the same thing all over. It's what He keeps saying to everybody. Follow me, follow me. Enter into this narrow gate and walk this very constricted path that's walking in my footsteps. You're going to follow me. And folks, He's not telling anybody, oh, go home and passively sit down and try to make yourself believe something and just wait for God to give you a feeling. That's never it. The issue is this. Do you know the claims of Christ? He wants you to die to self and He wants you to heed His word. And so if you say, I want that, I do want that. Don't wait beyond that. If you want that, what do you do? Well, He said, follow me. So what should you do? I hope it makes sense. You should follow Him. You say, well, how do I do that? See, that's the real question. The real question is, how do I follow Christ? Well, you listen to Him and do what He says. If He says, don't even look at a woman, gouge out that eye, well, you know what? Remember, blessed are the poor in spirit. So you recognize. You're coming to Him because you need Him. Poor, Lord, I can't do this, but you call me to live a pure life. Confess and ask for help. He says not to be angry unrighteously with people. If you're an angry person, you take it to Him, confess it. He's faithful and just to forgive your sins. And you ask Him for help, not to be angry, but rather to love. You see, it's not just the negation of the bad thing. You want to fill it with the good, like we talked about on Sunday. Lord, how can I love people? Does the Lord want you to pour out your life for the widow, for the orphan, for the needy, for the homeless, for the sick? Yes. Does He want you to pour out your life for the sake of the gospel? Yes. That's what He says. Does He want you to lose your life? Yes. Does He want you not to live for mom and dad and son and daughter and even be willing to forsake houses or lands at times? Yes. Does He call us to a radical lifestyle? Yes. Does He call us to a radical righteousness? Yes. Does He call us to have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees? Yes. But if you say, you know what? He answers to my deepest needs. I'm going to follow Him. Oh, when I fail, I'm going to call upon Him all over again and bring my sickness to Him, that He heal me, that He help me. I'm going to constantly be asking Him for help. I'm going to constantly be bringing my sin to Him and asking Him to forgive and asking Him to heal, asking Him to give me a righteousness, to help me desire the right things and to live the right way. And then I'm going to strive to live it. If He tells me to love other people in a certain way, I'm going to strive to love them that way. If He tells me to pray a certain way and fast a certain way, then I'm going to strive to do that. And I'm not going to do it in my own strength. I'm going to be looking to Him all the time. Lord, help me, Lord, help me. And you're going to be praying and you're going to be praying and you're going to be asking for His help. You see, listen, He's not telling any of you to wait, to be passive, to lay down, to go to bed until God does something. That's not it. It's like Jesus put all His credentials on the table in these Gospels. And He says, do you need me? And if you're like the Syrophoenician woman, Lord, help me. I don't know if it's that way with you all, but that's how I live my life. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. I'm going to preach. Lord, help me. I got a Bible study. Lord, help me. And I got to figure out how to do this wedding in the States. Lord, help me. I got this fellowship conference coming up. Lord, help me. I got to figure out how to pastor all the lives of the people. Lord, help me. How to be the kind of leader and to lead in the right directions. Lord, help me. I've got a wife. Lord, help me. I've got children. Lord, help me. I'm trying to maintain my own spiritual walk and closeness. Lord, help me. I'm going to get together with the guys on FBC to pray. Lord, help me. I don't know if you live in that place, but I'm constantly there. That's it. You go to Matthew 20 verse 30. Again, you've got two blind men sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David. I mean, that's it. Do we need? The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, Lord, have mercy on us. Do you need mercy? I need mercy. I can't speak for any of you. I need mercy. I need grace to help in time of need. I'm a needy person. I need help. And so I need the Lord. And if you need Him, you know what? Cry out to Him and have mercy on Him. You keep going here. We're almost to the end. Matthew 22 verse 3, he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. And you see, that's the issue. We've looked at the parallel passage to this over in Luke, so we don't need to spend time there, but it says, go to the main roads. And then down in verse 9, 22, 9, invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. You see, we're inviting people that if there's something in Christ that they find desirable, they are altogether able to come. The only reason people won't come is because there's nothing in Christ that they need. And so that pretty much captures. And what I was doing was like I say, I was specifically looking for. Other than Jesus doing his miracles, I was looking to what were the appeals made to people. You see, the vast majority of the book is Jesus teaching and Jesus doing miracles. And his teaching is how a Christian is supposed to live. His teaching is like the Sermon on the Mount. It's how to fulfill the righteousness that God's looking for. He's basically calling us to live a certain standard. But his appeals, what I was looking for is the people who were crying out to him, the people who were coming to him, the people who he was telling them something about how to initiate their being right with God. And those were the verses. And the message is very clear. That if you're going to figure out how to trust Christ, well, do you need him? Do you need his help? Is there anything wrong? And are you convinced that he's the answer for it? And you can boil it down to those two words, Lord, help. And you know what? He says, follow me. OK, that's what he's going to say. Undoubtedly, Levi, Matthew, he was feeling in his heart. I need his help. He said, follow me. He said, that's all I got to hear. I need his help. He's calling me to follow him. I'm following him. And if you desire to follow him, follow him. What does that mean? Grab your Bible and whatever he calls you to do, look to him to supply the grace to live it out and strive to do it. That's following him. Folks, it really comes down to that. Follow him. If you want your own way, you won't follow him. You love following the course of the world, you'll continue to follow. You like following the prince of the power of the air, the way that you've been watched, then you'll keep going that way. But if you need Christ. He says, follow me. If you're going to follow him, you want to see how he lived and seek to live the same. You want to listen to what he tells you to do and do it. But you're not living this life in your own strength. You live in it because he's going to help you live it. When he says, I'll never leave you or forsake you, what he's promising is I'm going to help you live this life. Without me, you can do nothing. That's what he says. You've got to abide in him. That's where you're going to find all your strength to live this life. But if this appeals to you, follow him. That's what he says. And anything other than that is a deception. Running and trying to place your faith in Christ and figure out whether you believe or not. Trying to figure out whether you're saved or not. Trying to figure out whether he loves you or not. Trying to figure out whether he died for your sins or not. Trying to figure out whether you're forgiven or not. That is not it, folks. That's not the focal point of our faith. All those things are is assurance that God will give you. The Spirit assures people. But he only assures people whose confidence is in Christ. I've got to get to him. I've got to touch the hem of his garment because he's the only one that can help. Anyway, maybe next week we'll look at John in the same light. Because John is unique in just how often it talks about believing. I think it would be good if we looked at all the things that are really key to believe about Christ. It's amazing how often Jesus said he called people to believe that he was the one who God sent. And believe that he was the one who spoke the words of God. It's very interesting in John. But again, it just focuses on who Christ is. Yeah, it can be very easy for people to want to be the objects of pity. Rather than, you know, if somebody can present themselves as though, oh, well, I want to be saved. If it was in my power, I would be saved. As though it's God who's preventing them from being saved. See, now they're the victim. And they're the object of pity. Where if they're not being a Christian is entirely due to a refusal on their own part. Jesus says, follow me. And they're just saying, no, I'm not going to. Well, see, now they're not the object of pity anymore. They're the object of blame. Now it's their sin. Now it's their fault. Now it's their crime. It's their wickedness that keeps them. But listen, it ought to be freeing. I'm not trying to condemn by saying that. It ought to be freeing for somebody to realize, what? If I want to follow Christ, I can? Yes. Yes, you can. Come at once. It's that easy? Well, listen, it's that free? Of course. He didn't come to teach us how to save ourselves. He came to save us. And in His path is salvation. And if we'll follow Him, we'll find He'll take us right to life eternal. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/ajfUXbBraBk.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/tim-conway/what-do-i-need-to-do-to-be-saved/ ========================================================================