In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having a prepared heart to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. He acknowledges that while some young people may be ready and open to believe in Jesus, others may not yet understand that they are lost and in need of salvation. The preacher explains that there are three key things that must be understood and accepted in order to be saved. He also highlights the parable of the sower, illustrating how different types of hearts can either receive or reject the gospel message. Ultimately, the preacher emphasizes the need for a prepared heart to bear lasting fruit in one's faith.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. We thank you, Father, that you have made a way possible that our sins can actually, in reality, be covered by the blood, that our sins can be taken away, and we can live our everyday life in freedom, in victory from sin. Oh, joy! Father, we worship you. Thank you, Father, for meeting with us here tonight. Your Word says that where to yours we are gathered in your name, there you are in the midst. And we know that you inhabit the praises of your people, and tonight we have been praising you, Father, because of the blood of Jesus. It is not because of what we have done, but what Jesus Christ has done for us. Now, Father, would you take these feeble lips and anoint them with thy Holy Spirit tonight? Would you take my heart, Father, and fill it to overflowing? Would you let the rivers of living water flow through this vessel tonight, O God, so that Jesus Christ may be glorified, that your name may be exalted and glorified? This is our prayer, Father. We do love you and bless you. In Jesus Christ's name. Amen. I count it a privilege to be able to share tonight, to preach God's Word to so many godly young people, to a crowd such as this. And I am very grateful for what God has been doing this week in the hearts of many of the youth. I know that some of you have gotten born again this week. I know that some of you have gotten your lives cleaned up. What rejoicing that brings to our hearts, because we know that God is holy, and He wants us to be holy also. And He has made provisions for us to be holy. I would like to tonight share a message by God's grace on the assurance of salvation. Just a simple gospel message. One of the burdens on my heart in times past and in years past in these Bible schools has been that there are usually some in a crowd like this, young people, who are still struggling in their hearts. They are still wrestling, and some of them are wrestling and struggling for different reasons. If I could, by God's grace, somehow tonight, preach God's Word so as to help those of you who are in that place to find a place of rest, then God would be glorified. God would be glorified by my body and by my life tonight. That's my heart's desire and prayer. I also realize that sometimes when there is a week of intense teaching and Bible study and preaching, that some of you, sometimes there are some who have been clear and have had a full assurance of their salvation. They come to a week like this, and they get under some hot preaching once again, and there gets to be some soul-searching done in their lives, and they again begin to wrestle and struggle, and they wonder, Am I really born again? And why is it such an important thing to be born again? I believe that most of us know the Word of God in John chapter 3, where Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, said that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, I knew that Scripture as a small young boy, and I heard it many times preached, but I, for many, many years, did not know what it meant. Then wouldn't it be a sad thing if I would have continued to go on in my life, never really understanding what it meant to be born again? I know that there are people today who are drawing near to their old age, and they're coming near to those doors of death, and they do not yet understand what it means to be born again. Wouldn't it be a sad, sad day for them to wake up on the other side of death, once that death angel has come, and has come in his quiet way, and has taken that life away? Wouldn't it be a sad thing for that person to wake up on the other side of death and to realize that he had missed it, realize that he was now headed for an eternity of fire and burning brimstone and darkness and torment forever and ever? Wouldn't that be a sad day for that man? But you know, there are many people like that. The Bible says that many are called, but few are chosen. Are you some of that few? I used to console myself to think that we the people that are very plain, that we were the few people and that all those out there would be lost. I thought we were the few ones who would be saved, but I came to realize one day that that was not true. I found out that unless you are born again by the Spirit of the living God, through his word, by faith in him, that you are still lost and separated from God. And any man who is still in a lost condition, the moment he dies, he has crossed that line and will spend eternity either in heaven or in hell. That is very clear. Those who are not born again in the Spirit of God, they will spend eternity without God because they cannot enter the kingdom of God unless they become born again by the Spirit of the living God. So we understand that it is very, very important that we become born again. I think there are some Christian people who have been going to church all their lives and they believe that they are born again, but they are not because they have not been taught a clear, with a clear understanding of what it means to be born again. And I want to encourage you here tonight that if you are here and you do not have a clear assurance of salvation in your heart and you do not know for sure if you are born again, I encourage you to listen carefully. By God's grace, I will show you how that you can be born again of God's Spirit tonight. There are people who respond to the call of salvation. They respond to the altar. They go back in these rooms to pray, but they do not get saved. Thank God that many of them do. Let me share with you something that I see happen in our congregation sometimes. I believe this can happen very easily. An 8-year-old junior goes to a revival meeting or comes to Bible school evenings, and he hears the preaching. And he sees, and then when the altar call is made and there are people responding to the altar call, he is watching, you know, he is looking, he is learning, and he is looking at what is happening. And then he sees them all go out the sides and he sees them, they went back there to pray. And maybe he asks his dad, dad, what are they doing? And dad might say, they are responding to God calling on their hearts, and they are convicted of sin, and they are going to go back there and pray, and maybe they will get saved. And after a while, some come through the doors and there is a group around them, and they start singing and rejoicing that yes, this one got saved. In this little 8-year-old junior's mind, he is thinking, what is he seeing? He sees them come to the altar, and he is going to go back there to pray, and he is going to come out rejoicing. And so as he grows older, what is he going to do? What is he going to think? These things should not happen, but they do happen. I asked one this week how he got saved. He said, I responded to an altar call, and I prayed a prayer. Is that what the Bible says? The Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life. It does not say that whosoever responds to an altar call and prays a prayer shall be saved. That is not what it says. And so sometimes I am afraid that we, even as counselors, ministers and evangelists, we tend to even misdirect those sincere seeking souls into thinking that an altar call and a prayer will help them to be saved. And so what happens, some of these young people, and I know this is happening, some of these young people, they respond to an altar call, and they go back there to pray, and they unload some of their guilty sins, they confess some of their sins, because that is what they have been taught to do. You confess your sins, and they confess their sins, and they do what the counselor or the one praying with them tells them to do, and they say, I will pray this prayer, and maybe they pray a prayer, and then they do feel better because they have confessed their sins, and so they get up, and they smile, smile, and they come out, and everyone sings for them, and hallelujah, amen, yeah, Junior got born again. And about a week or two later it just kind of all falls off. He tries real hard for a couple of weeks, and it just kind of fizzles out. What has happened? If that is your experience, if that is your testimony, I have news for you. I have good news for you. The gospel of Jesus Christ, it does save souls. But what is happening? What is happening? This is a mistake that I think many have made. I have made it. But you know, God's grace is so big, so wide, so deep, so long, and so vast, if His grace covers, yea, our sincere mistakes, He covers, and the people still get saved, and they still get born again, hallelujah, even if we don't do it all right. Let me tell you a story. A Bible student came, concerned and confused about her salvation. She says, she was confused because she was wondering, did I do it right? Was I really sincere? Did I really accept Jesus into my heart? So she was a little confused. You know, preaching is hot, and there is confusion in the heart. Am I? Am I not? She finally decided to come, just in case she had not done it right, and would ask me to see what I would say. She had been sincere when she had made a commitment. She had been sincere when she had responded. She had seen that she was a lost sinner, and the evangelist who worked with her told her that there is nothing she can do to save herself. It is not of works that any man should boast. It is a gift of God. And we all believe that, we know that, but then we tell them, well now you do something, you need to do. And so we tell them, well now you need to ask Jesus to come into your heart. And we tell them, well now you need to accept Him as your Savior. And what happens at that point is we turn their focus to what needs to happen in here, instead of what needs to happen what has happened up there. Very critical. And so what happens is, even though she had gotten saved, I believe she did, because the focus was put on her, the question was, did I really do it right or not? But let me share this with you, that if you turn your eyes upon Jesus, looking unto Him, the author and the finisher of our faith, and you look at Him and what He has done for you, and you keep your eyes on Him, you get away from what you have, because you can't do anything. You can just trust. The Bible is so clear. Only believe. What does it say? He has given His Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now how does someone come to truly believe that? Is it right to take someone, you and I know very clearly that, or I suppose you do, maybe you don't, but working with missions, if we go into the darkened villages of northern Ghana, in West Africa there, where the gospel has not been named, and they have never heard of the saving name, the power of Jesus Christ, they don't even know about Jesus. For you and I, or for someone to go in there and preach Jesus Christ to them, will not work. Why not? It is because their hearts are not prepared to receive the gospel, and the gospel is the good news of the Savior of Jesus Christ coming to save sinners. That is what the gospel is. But if we take even young people, some of you young people, your hearts, I believe, are open and prepared, and you are ready to receive Christ as your Savior, you are ready to believe, you are ready to take your all and cast yourself at His feet and believe on Him. But then there are others of you who may not be prepared to receive the gospel. You may not understand that you are lost yet. There are three things that need to be understood in order for someone to become clearly born again and saved. Whether you are sitting here tonight, or whether you are sitting in a darkened village in heathen Africa, there are basically three things that you must understand and get down into your hearts, or you cannot be saved. What are those three things? I was so excited about the message on Monday night even though I didn't hear it. I heard about it. Because the first thing that must be understood in order for you to get truly born again and saved is you must have an understanding of God and of who God is. How many of you got a glimpse of who God is on Monday night? Amen? So that groundwork is laid. So now you see that God is holy and He is pure and He is righteous and if anyone would come into His presence, he also must be pure and holy and righteous as He is. You will not be able to go into heaven unless you have taken care of your sin. You cannot. And so the first thing is that you must teach who God is. And if you are teaching a heathen African or a Christianized American, you must teach who God is. And the second thing that must be understood is that you must understand who you are. And by that I mean you must come to realize deep in your heart that you are a lost sinner. You might know it up here that you are a lost sinner, but if you don't understand it in your heart that you are a lost sinner and that you cannot help yourself and that you cannot do anything to save yourself apart from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't even be saved unless you first realize that you are a lost sinner. Let me illustrate a little bit on the board about what a lost sinner is. And I've done this before and some of you may have heard me preach it before, but I want to say tonight, if I go and plant a seed in the ground, I can be 100% certain what kind of fruit it's going to bring. Is that right? If I put corn seeds in the ground, I am 100% sure that corn will grow. Is that right? Let's suppose that I would plant some beans and can anything but beans grow out of those seeds. Are you sure? Let's suppose you have an apple tree. Can you pick oranges from an apple tree? Why not? Because the seed that is put is so ordained by God in Genesis that it says that when God made the trees and the herbs and things, he made them to bear fruit. And the seed is within those fruit and that seed will, when it comes down into the ground, that seed will again bear the same kind of tree that it came from. You understand that, amen? Why is it then that it is so hard for us to understand that we are sinners? We know that God in the beginning created heaven and earth. We know that God made a beautiful garden there and he put man in there. He created man and breathed into him his spirit and man became a living soul. And then he brought, he took man and he took a rib out of his side and made a woman. So he put these two people into the garden. And they were perfect, they were pure, they were holy. They did not have any children before they fell into sin. Did you know that? If Adam and Eve would have had children before they fell into sin, those children would have been pure and holy and sinless. But they did not have children before that, that I can read of. They fell into sin and because of their sin they were separated from God. And they became known as sinners. Now, when Adam and Eve had children, were their children sinners or were their children holy? Sinners. Their children were sinners. Alright? When Cain took a wife and he, and they had children, were their children sinners or were their children holy? Sinners. They were sinners. Do you understand that? Now, God, Jesus many times illustrated mankind as trees. So we will just draw a little tree up here. Sorry my mark is not very bright. That's better. Can you see that? On this tree we have lots of fruit. Some of you have seen this illustration before. And what happens is because the seed of this tree, if this were an apple seed, then we know that this tree would be bearing oranges. Is that right? That's wrong. The tree would bear apples. Why would the tree bear apples? Reproduction of itself. Okay. Now, let's suppose that this tree, let's suppose that the seed down here at the bottom would be sin. What is the fruit of the tree? Sin. Sin plural. The root of, you know that one seed brings many, many seeds out. Is that right? And so because the root of the human nature of mankind is sin, which is passed down from Adam the whole way down to you and me today, we are born in sin. And the fruit of our sinful life is sins. Many of them. Is that right? I said that the second thing to understand, that you must understand, is you must understand that you are a sinner. In Romans 3, chapter 3, it says that there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, none that doeth good. And so forth. And we understand that. One of the difficulties that we face today is we face the same ones, the same difficulties that Jesus faced. There were lots of church people in Jesus' days. The church people, they depended on their church or on their creed or on their background. They depended on their heritage. They depended on the church they were a part of. This is what Jesus dealt with also. Most, it is human nature to trust in something other than Jesus Christ. It is human nature to trust in something they can see and something tangible. And so, Satan has deceived mankind into thinking that if they do certain things or do certain things, a certain number of them, or don't do certain things, that then they can be saved. I know very well what I was taught. I was taught that if I would just, if I would be baptized and be a good member of the church and keep the ordinance of the church, that then I would, when I die, I would go to heaven. For myself, I couldn't understand why God said, you must be born again and not allow it to be clear if you know if you are or not. I used to ponder that. Why did God say you must be if He doesn't let us know if we are or not? I didn't think it was fair. I thought surely if God would say that something you must be doing, that it must happen to you, then you surely, He surely should have let us know if we can or not. Of course, I was taught that you can't know you're saved, but I found out that that was the wrong teaching. In 1 John, it says that these things have I written. Actually, this book, did you know it was written? The book of 1 John specifically was written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Actually, you mean this says that I can know that I have eternal life. Yes, the Bible says it very clearly, that you can know you have eternal life, and I believe that most of you believe that, but not all of you have that, if I may say that. So the first thing to understand is who God is, that God is holy and righteous, and He demands righteousness. The second thing to understand is that we are all sinners. What tends to happen, it is so difficult for us to recognize that we are sinners. It is difficult for us to understand that. Somehow we believe that the seed which I came from is pretty good. Amen? And we tend to think that if we do the right things, then I'm a pretty good person. And we tend to think that if I'm a church member, if I get baptized and I go to a communion table, that's the way to go, and that somehow that's going to get me in. Well, I have news for you, that's a lie from Satan. That is not true. The Bible says, whosoever believeth shall have life. Whosoever has the Son has life. It doesn't say whosoever goes to communion, it doesn't say whosoever gets baptized, it doesn't say whosoever goes to the altar and goes back and says the prayer will be saved. No, it says that God gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth should not perish. It is only when we understand the first two that we are ready for the gospel, and that is the third one. The third thing that we must understand is that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind. But if we're not prepared to hear, if we do not realize who God is, and we just kind of have a little vague idea that He's some guy up there in the sky somewhere, that's not a proper understanding. And so when we, if we take someone who is not properly prepared to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, the saving power, which is, what is the gospel? The gospel is the power of salvation unto them that believe. But woe unto us if we take someone and we, before their heart is prepared. Let's look a little bit at the parable of the sower in Matthew chapter 13. And let's look at this in light of hearts, of the preparation of the heart for the gospel. I believe that most of us know the parable very well. But let's read it in chapter 13 of verse 3. And He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. And now we know that the word of God is like the seed. And so when we go sowing the seed, when we preach the word of God, we preach it to many different kinds of hearts. Some hearts are open and they're prepared. Some hearts are still full of sin. They're stony, they're hard, and they're not prepared for the gospel of this day. And when the seed comes in there and takes root, it might even spring up, but it gets choked out. There's some hearts there that have thorns in them. There's lots of different things in there. There's actually four kinds of hearts depicted in here. But the thing I want to bring out to you is that if the heart is not prepared, then it will not bring forth lasting fruit. Let's read it. Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. That's a picture of some people who come and make a profession of faith. One of the difficulties I see happen sometimes is that when, let's go back to this junior again, who now is twelve or thirteen years old, and he comes to this meeting. He has seen the altar calls. He's seen what happens. He knows to go back there to pray. Well now, he comes up and he wants to get saved also. He responds to the altar call. God is working on his heart. He's got some sins to confess. So he goes and he goes back and prays. And he comes back out and he thinks, well this must be what they talk about. This must be what they call born again. How do we know whether, you know, he's only going by what he has seen happen. And if he has not really experienced it in his heart, he really wants to be saved, really wants to be born again. But if it doesn't really happen in his heart, then there tends to be deception there. And even unknown to him he just thinks, well this, oh, this is what they talk about. Okay, yeah, I guess I'm born again. Okay, yeah, praise the Lord. But they wrestle, they struggle, and they wrestle, and they just, oh, they just don't know. Am I saved? Am I lost? And they go and they re-commit their lives. Or there's some who, there's a popular teaching that you need to get them saved when they're four, five, and six, and so forth. And I just say that those kind will probably struggle with assurance of salvation. Why? It is because they do not have an understanding about who God is. They don't have a clear understanding about who they are as sinners. They don't have an understanding of who Jesus is. But unless we have a clear understanding of who I am first, we, Jesus did not come to save the righteous, he came to save the lost. He came to save the sinners. He did not come to, come necessarily to save us from heaven, or save us from hell, or take us to heaven. That's not what he came for. He came to save us from our sins. And so we must recognize that I am a sinner, and I have the fruit of my life is sins. Now let me ask you this, if I'm a sinner, unsaved, unregenerated, have not been born again, can I have good fruit? Are you sure? You weren't very loud that time. You're sure? Are you sure? I mean, you know it to be true, but, well, I don't know. I've done a lot of good works before I was saved, didn't I? You mean all the things I've done before I was saved are counted as sins against me? It's like those who came to Jesus, said Lord, Lord, have we not done, have we not preached, have we not cast out devils in the name, have we not done this? And the Lord said, depart from me. I never knew you. The problem was they were depending on what they had been doing. Let's read on in this parable. Some fell among thorns, the thorns sprung up and choked them. Other fell in a good way and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who that hears to hear, let him hear. I'm so glad that there's some hearts here that are open. Those hearts have been plowed upon and their hearts are prepared for the gospel for Jesus Christ. You can take, you can take someone whose heart has been prepared for the gospel and you can point them to Jesus Christ and they can be saved immediately. Amen? One of the, part of the work of a counselor is to determine where the person is at. And if they're not open and ready to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they need to take them and prepare their hearts. It might not be able to be done on one night. But basically what needs to happen is that, how do we come to faith? What is faith? Let's look a little bit at what faith is. How does faith come? The Bible says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is not just some empty, blind thing that I'm supposed to have. Let me give you an example. A story was told of a foolish queen. This is just a story. She would practice believing in possible things. And so she tells this one girl, she says, I'm 101 years old in five days. And the girl says, I don't believe it. Oh, she said, just try real hard to believe it. Close your eyes and just believe with all your might. Believe that I'm a hundred years old in five days. Well, the girl laughed and said, no, I can't believe that. And the queen kind of looked at her and said, when I was your age, I practiced believing in possible things many times. In fact, before breakfast, I'd have six impossible things believed. Is that what we talk about when we talk about believing? No. Our faith, our believing in what, in Jesus Christ, is not based on just some empty, vain thing trying to believe. Try real hard to believe this. No, no, no, no, no. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Let me give an example. When, when the Ethiopian eunuch was riding his chariot out there in that desert, and the angel spoke to Philip and said, go join thyself and go down there to that place at the gates of the desert. And he went down there. When he was down there, he saw this chariot, he saw this man riding by, and he heard him reading from the book of Isaiah. And the spirit said unto Philip, go and join thyself to him. So Philip walks, runs up to him, and I can just about see him running beside that chariot, you know, and going down through the desert there. And Philip said, understandest thou what thou readest? And the man said, how can I understand except some man teach me? And Philip went up in the chariot there, and he began at the same place that he was reading, which was Isaiah 53, and he preached unto him Jesus. Now, Philip asked him if he understands what he's reading. The man, he knew about God. And I believe that the man had seen himself as a needy soul, but he didn't know about Jesus. And so when Philip perceived where this man was at in his walk with God, when Philip perceived that this man was right for to receive the gospel, he preached unto him Jesus. You see, the man was ready to receive Jesus. And when Philip preached unto him, then he received Jesus Christ readily. So much so that he said, well, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip simply said, if thou believest with thine whole heart, thou mayest. And they stopped there, and they both went down into the water, and he baptized him. And so what I'm saying is that we must discern where the people are at. I think of Paul. When he was in jail, there were him and Silas in Acts chapter 16, I believe it is. They were in jail that night, and there was a certain earthquake. They were there singing and praising God, singing in stocks, in innermost part. But God came, the angel of the Lord came down and brought an earthquake. And how that, when that happened, that all the doors were open, and the jailer waking up, seeing all the doors were open, he was afraid for his life, because if you were a jailer or a soldier and you lost one prisoner, you'd pay your life with it. And so he was about to take his sword and kill himself when Paul said, do thyself no harm. And he brought a light and came out, and this man, this jailer, fell on his knees in front of Paul and said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Just as simple as that. So I'm just, I wanted to be clear that tonight if you're struggling with assurance of salvation, you don't need to anymore. There are some reasons, sometimes there are reasons for struggling. I'll go over them real quickly here. If you're here tonight and you do not have assurance of salvation, first of all let's determine what is assurance of salvation. Assurance of salvation is simply the very confident, assured knowledge and understanding that I have salvation, that I have been saved. What does it mean to be saved? I've been preaching about that. To be saved means to be taken from being a sinner to being a saint, to having your sins washed away. There are some people who, I mean there are so many different ways that people get saved and I rejoice in it and I'm very glad for that and God saves people in spite of who we are and of our mistakes. But what does it mean to be saved? To be saved means to be not lost. But you cannot be saved unless you first see that you are lost and separated from God. But we saw, we see that we are sinners, is that right? If we are sinners, are sinners lost? Sinners are lost. Sinners will die and go to an eternal lake of fire. And that is very clear. God has made that clear in His word. Jesus spoke about hell many times. He warned about that place of darkness and fire and damnation. Unless we are somehow changed, we will also go to that place of fire for eternity. That's an awful thought, isn't it? Unless we are changed, you might be here tonight and have never yielded, have never believed. And you might be at that place where you say, what must I do to be saved? Well, I can tell you, you don't have to come to the altar. You don't have to go back there and pray a prayer. No, you can be saved right there where you are at right now. Amen? How? How could I be saved right now? It is when you recognize who God is, He is holy and righteous, and you truly recognize who you are, that you are lost and without hope, and you recognize who Jesus Christ is, that He is the Savior of mankind. He is the Savior. Oh, He is the one who saves. And when someone truly recognizes their lost condition and the conviction of their guilt and their sin lies upon them, they can just simply look at the Savior and believe on Him and be saved. I think of in Numbers where Moses lifted up the serpent and everybody who would come and just look at that serpent would be healed. Everyone. They were not healed when they came and just prayed a prayer. They were healed when they looked. Amen? If you look in John, we can again go back to John chapter 3 and look at that thing and just draw an analogy from that. And it says in John chapter 3 verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. And so, what is the answer for man's sin? The answer for man's sin is the Savior on the cross. And when you come and you simply, by having knowledge and understanding of who God is and who you are and who Jesus Christ is, you can just believe on Him. And so, in dealing with a young man this week who was wrestling and struggling with assurance of salvation, he was telling me what he had done, how he had responded and how he had prayed, and it didn't last. He was wondering, what did I do wrong? And I just pointed to him. Believe on Him. Just believe. And instead of taking him and showing him, well now you need to accept Jesus, now you need to do this, and I know that we need to accept Christ, there's a terminology that we use, but instead of turning the people's focus inward on themselves, as to what needs to happen in here, or what needs to be done in here, the focus needs to be turned to Jesus. It needs to be to look at Him. And it's when we look at Him and believe on Him. That's faith, through faith. Faith comes by the Word of God. Faith comes when you understand who God is. Faith comes by the teaching and preaching of God's Word continually. Faith comes when you realize that God is holy. Faith comes as you hear the stories of God's people in the Old Testament. And faith begins to build in your heart, as you see how God made a way for the Hebrew children to offer sacrifices, and there was blood that was needed there. And faith comes when you just hear the teaching of God's Word. And faith comes when you begin to hear the law being preached. Jesus, when the rich young ruler came to Him, do you know what Jesus told Him? This rich young ruler was a man who was not prepared for the Gospel. You can probably still see the bills sticking out of his pockets. He was a rich young man. How did Jesus know he was a rich young man? How did the writer know that? I don't know, but it says He was a rich young ruler. He was very wealthy. And He said, Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? His content was doing. What must I do? And Jesus told Him what He needs to do. Keep the commandments. Oh, He said, I've kept them. Which ones? I shall not steal, I shall not kill, bear false witness, covet and so forth. All the young men said, I've kept all those. But Jesus gave Him, because He was not ready to receive salvation, Jesus gave Him something to do. And said, go and sell all that you have, which is actually the first commandment, because these riches were first in His life. He needed to go sell that thing and come and follow Me, He said. He said, go and sell what you have, give to the poor. And that's the second commandment. Love thy neighbor as thyself. And so He was supposed to do the first two commandments. Those two commandments, He was breaking all the time. He didn't even realize it. But you see, Jesus used that Word of God there and the Law to show Him His need and His sin. I don't know if that young man ever got saved or not. But he left very sorrowful, because he was very rich. But Jesus saw the condition of his heart and He knew what that young man needed to do in order to get saved. And He laid it out right before him. And we do that sometimes. We might tell you, in the Council, we might say, we might tell you, you need to go back and fast and pray. You need to go and seek God. You need to get rid of your rock music. You need to get rid of this or that. You need to break your heart over your proud arrogancy. You need to break your heart over your, you need to repent of your rebellion. The problem is, I can't see I'm a rebel. I just like having fun. What about your music? What about the bondages of music in your life? It's just the fruit. It's just the fruit of what's down in here. Amen? Maybe you've never been saved. Maybe you have. Maybe you think you've been saved, but you never really were. I don't know. The Holy Spirit will teach you. He will show you if you open your heart. There are some who have been saved, but today they're struggling with assurance of salvation because of sin. You may be here tonight. You might have gotten saved a year ago. You might have gotten saved two or three years ago, or maybe yesterday or so forth, probably maybe a month ago. If you got saved yesterday, I hope you don't have any sin in your life anymore. If you got truly saved yesterday, you're not struggling with assurance of salvation. Amen? But you might have gotten saved a year ago, but today you're struggling with assurance of salvation. It might be because of your sin. You may have gotten into some sin. You may have allowed Satan to just trick you and to walk into darkness and the things of the world. And if you go out in the world and just live for yourself, I can assure you, your assurance of salvation just kind of fade away because the further out you go into the world, the less assurance you will have of being walking with God. And so that's one reason you might be struggling with assurance. You might be saved here tonight but just sitting there confused. You might just sit and be confused because of some hot preaching. And I don't want anyone who is truly saved and is born again to continue in confusion. But I want to encourage you if you're here tonight and you're wrestling with assurance of salvation, don't look at what you have done. Don't look at how you did it. But I tell you, just look to Him. Just look to Him. Look at what He has done. Well, this one young girl who had come and she was wondering if she had done it correctly or not, I could just simply tell her, you didn't do it correctly. It's not whether or not you did it right. It's not whether or not you prayed the prayer right. It's not whether or not you were really sincere. That's not the case. The issue really is, did Jesus do it right? Did Jesus do it correctly? You see, salvation, the work of redemption is totally separate from you and I. It is completely finished. I cannot add anything to God's plan of redemption. I cannot do anything that will make it better. Salvation was totally finished and paid for when Jesus Christ suffered and died and shed His blood on the cross of Calvary and they buried Him and He rose again. I tell you, the work of redemption was finished. Let me show you something in Isaiah. Isaiah 53. Did Jesus do it right? Did He do it correctly? I want to assure you that He did. Verse 11 of Isaiah 53. Let's read verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him to grief when thou shalt make His stone offering for sin. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. This is a prophecy of Jesus Christ dying for mankind on the cross and this is how it says that the Lord, meaning God the Father, it pleased God the Father to bruise His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, on the cross for sinners. That's what it's talking about. And it says, He shall see of the travail of His soul. God is going to be watching and when Jesus Christ hung on that cross, the Father was looking down upon Him, His Son down there, and He saw Him in travail as no man had ever traveled before over the sin of the world. And He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. Jesus Christ, He did it correctly. He did it right. And it was so perfect and so right that God in heaven, looking down upon it, was totally satisfied. He said, when Jesus said, It is finished, in a sense He won the victory. And God was totally satisfied. He was so satisfied over what Jesus Christ had finished, over the completion of that work of redemption there, that He said. And now the Scripture comes true. Whosoever, doesn't matter who it is, just simply will believe in Him, shall have eternal life. So you see, it doesn't depend whether or not you have done it right or not. It doesn't depend whether you even prayed a prayer or not. It depends whether or not you believed on Him. And I want to encourage you tonight, if you're here and you're resting with assurance of salvation, just look at Him. Just take a look. And just believe. You can believe on the basis of the Word of God. God's Word is pure. It is holy. It is true. Yes, God has created us. God made man, and man fell into sin. But God has made a way for us to come back. And that way is through Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus said, I am the way. And so when we, through faith, can just lay aside, we're just recognizing who God is, recognizing that I am a sinner. Oh, I'm a wretch. And then I can look unto God, and I can look unto Jesus, and believe on Him. Believe that His death, believe that His blood will cleanse me from my sin. Believe that His death took away my sin. You see, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, the Word of God was there before that, and God has said to them, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. And so we see very clearly that sin brings death. When Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. They died later on, physically. But sin brings death, and sin still brings death today. Sin still brings spiritual death today. So if you are, if you have been born in the Spirit of God, and you're a spiritual person, and you involve yourself and indulge in sin, it will bring death to your soul. Let me share a little bit about what can happen at salvation. We have here now this picture of this tree. The seed down here is sin. The fruits up here are sins. They may be rebellion. It may be stealing. It may be cheating. It might be lying. It might be adultery, fornication. It might be murder or hatred. It might just be simply unforgiveness. It might be all kinds of immorality, incest, bestiality, masturbation, all those type of things that go with the lust of mankind. But that is the fruit of what's down here. You are not a sinner because you have sins. Is that understood? This does not cause this down here. You were born a sinner and are continually a sinner, and this is the fruit of a sinner. Now, God in His mercy has given us Jesus Christ to save us from our sin. Like it says in Matthew, they shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. What does it mean to be saved? It simply means to go from a place of being separated from God, where you are headed down the wrong road, the broad way. You are headed down that way. You are in a lost condition. You are helpless and hopeless and cannot help yourself. And then you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now, we are not of them that are a perdition, but we are of them that believe unto the saving of the soul. We are of them that believe unto the saving of the soul. Yes, we are continually being saved even today, and we shall be saved on the day of judgment or on the day that Jesus Christ comes. So there is a salvation to be had now, and we are continually being saved, and there is a salvation at the end, which means we will be taken from this place into glory. So is that clear? Those who endure unto the end, they shall be saved out of the end. But how can you endure if you haven't even been saved? You must begin your life here. You must begin your true life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son has not life. Alright, what happens here? John the Baptist says, lay the axe to the root of the tree. But there are many of us who just kind of pick off the fruit up here. We have made that trip to the prayer room, and we have confessed our sins, right? I have confessed this one, and I have prayed about this one, and I ask God to forgive me for that one. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, I know what is going to happen tomorrow. How many of you have done that? You have gone to bed at night. You were guilty. You knew you had sinned, and you got on your knees and your face, and you even wept and cried and said, God, forgive me. I did it again today. But the next day, you went out, and you did it again. Right? That is not the Christian life. Jesus came to save us from sin. He came to save us from this type of stuff. In 1 Peter, we read that we are saved. Let's turn to that. 1 Peter. Not a corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed by the word of God which lives and abides forever. Not by, let me read that. 1 Peter, let's read verse 18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, you could not be redeemed, your redemption did not come through using gold or silver to buy your redemption, or from your vain conversation received by traditions from the fathers. You did not get redeemed by the vain or empty conversation, the way of life that you received by tradition from your elders. That word, conversation, means a way of life. You did not get redeemed by the way that you live. You have not gotten saved. You cannot be saved by a certain way of lifestyle. You cannot be saved by doing what your parents, by adopting the lifestyle your parents or church people have adopted. That does not save you. It might be a nice way to live, but it doesn't save you. You are not redeemed by those things. And I might say you're not redeemed by becoming a church member. You're not redeemed by baptism. You're not redeemed by communion. Listen carefully. Or do you hear me today? There may be people here. You might be a grandfather or a grandmother today, but let me tell you, you will not be redeemed by the things that you do. You will not be redeemed by being a church member or any of those things. Let's read on. But with the precious blood of Christ. That is how we are redeemed. As of a lamb without blemish, without spot. Looking up at verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Now here we have a corruptible seed. This seed has been corrupted. This seed is wicked. This seed is evil. This seed is dirty and unclean. This is a seed of sin, a corruptible seed. Now the Bible says that we are being born again, not of a corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible seed by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. This seed will not live and abide forever. The flesh will not live and abide forever. Remember, this is, this is, this is me. This is a body. This is, he likened us to trees and that's just an example. But the seed within us is sin and that seed will not abide forever. But the word of God, it lives and it abides forever. And unless you have a different seed or have received a new seed, which is the incorruptible seed of Christ, unless you receive that seed into your heart and life, you still are lost and without Christ today. Now what happens? It says that we are being born again. We have been born again, not of a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible seed by the word of God, which lives and abides forever. That is a testimony of Peter. He is saying, this is how I have been born again. How does that happen? When you recognize that you are a sinner, when you recognize that you are totally 100% pure sinner, when you recognize that there is nothing good within you, when you recognize there is nothing good you can do, I'm sure, I hope you girls know, wearing modest clothes and a head covering does not save you. Wearing modest clothes and a head covering does not save you. Wearing black shoes and black pants or gray pants doesn't save you, young men. But when we repent of what we are, when we acknowledge what we are, when we truly in our heart realize what we are, if I, I can even know it up here and I can pray the prayers, but unless I realize it in my heart that I am a lost sinner, I cannot be saved. But all the blessing, the opportunity that you have to hear the word of God preached, and I know there are some of you here tonight that conviction is heavy upon you. It's just coming down, you're just getting convicted and you're miserable as can be. What do you need to do? You need to fall on your face and just break and acknowledge to God, I am a sinner. It's that simple. It's that simple. If you see that you're a sinner, you can just with the mouth make confession, God be merciful to me, I'm a sinner. And then God, when you truly repent in your heart and you acknowledge that you're a sinner, I think of the man who went to the temple to pray. The Pharisee was there and the publican, the Pharisee, he prayed and said, oh God, thank you for, that I'm not like other men. I tie and I fast and I do all these things. I'm just so glad I'm not like this sinner over here. He was expressing to God what all he does. He dresses right, he does right, he ties and all those things. He was still just as lost as could be, but then this publican who's a despised man, he wouldn't even lift his face up to God, he just bowed his breast and said, oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That is what needs to happen. Then God puts a new seed into your heart, that incorruptible seed by the word of God. Now, if that has truly happened, this seed is the living word of God. This seed is the very nature of Jesus Christ. And when the very nature and life of Jesus Christ comes into your heart and life, I tell you, you'll be a new person. Just like it says there in Ezekiel, he says, I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statue. I tell you, you won't have to try to be a Christian anymore. You won't have to try anymore. You will be one. You see, my son, my son doesn't need to try to be an Esh. He is one. He is one. And if you are born a Christian, if you are born into the family of God, you will not need to try to be a Christian anymore. You will be one. And I tell you, you will also act like one. Amen? Because the seed has been totally changed in your heart. You've been transformed. You've been taken from darkness to light. This is what the new birth is all about. Being born again, not of a corruptible seed. Now, let me ask you a question. What is the fruit of this seed? Holiness. Okay. So we have love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, faith, temperance, right? That is the fruit of spiritual life. That is the fruit of the Spirit of God. And when the Spirit, the Holy Ghost comes and dwells in your heart through faith, that will be the fruit of your life. Amen? Now, let me ask you this question. Is it possible for this tree to bear anything but good fruit? Come on. Then explain to me how come you still sin? You cease to abide in Christ? I don't want to confuse anyone, but you did agree that what the seed is thereof, it will be the fruit thereof, right? That's a principle. What happens is that this seed here has been abolished or put out of commission. Put out of gear. It's dormant. The seed of sin is now dormant, supposedly. Dead unto sin, right? Dead unto this seed, alive unto this one. If you choose to allow this seed to again raise its head up, you will certainly bear forth some fruit of it, because you are still in the flesh. But God's will is that we be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so when you choose to walk in the flesh, you will reap the benefits of the flesh. But if you walk in the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting. I wonder if that has ever happened to you. Have you ever had your heart totally changed? Have you ever had the new birth? Maybe you just thought you did. But I want to share tonight that if you are struggling with assurance of salvation tonight, don't look at what you need to do or what you have done. I don't care what phase you're in. If you're saved tonight and you have assurance of salvation, keep looking to Jesus. If you've never been saved and you know you're a lost sinner, you look to Jesus. He's the Savior, and He does save people. Oh, how beautiful it is when Christ comes into the heart and life of mankind. Like I said earlier, you don't have to respond to the altar to get saved. But some of you are too proud to come up here and acknowledge that you need help. So you wrestle with responding to the altar call. The altar call won't save you. Going back and praying won't save you. But looking to Jesus will. Believing on Him it will save you. And I know that sometimes it's good to have someone to pray with who can help you, show you, take you further, take you deeper. If you desire that tonight, if you desire someone to pray with you, if you desire someone to come and share with you very clearly and help you find your way through your many struggles, if you desire that, you just make your way up here. Just come. Just kneel down here. Just as a sign of humble submitting yourself to God of humility, just humbling yourself and saying, I have a need. It's me, oh Lord, it's me. I need prayer tonight. I need someone to help me find my way. Yes, I've got lots of struggles. I don't want to go home without getting it all right. That's where you're at. Make that need known by coming up here. And we'll send someone with you to pray for you. Can we stand and have a song? Can we sing that only trust him? It is not what man does. It is what Jesus has done. Looking unto him for our salvation. What page is that? Only trust him? 506? 906. Trusting in his word. He will save you. Jesus said his precious blood brings blessings to his home. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you. Let's bow our heads to pray, our Father and our God. You demand righteousness. We have none. We have none of ourselves. But we come tonight looking unto Jesus, the author and the finish of our faith. I pray, Father, for those who are yet wrestling, those who are yet struggling. Lord, would you draw them as you said you would. But if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself. Father, would you draw them? Help them, Lord, to remember. Eternity will soon be here. It will be heaven or it will be hell. Either I'm born again or I'm not born again. Either I'm lost or I'm saved. Lord, would you help each one to realize fully his position before you? Would you graciously show each one and then help them to just bow their hearts and look to Jesus? That's my prayer, Father. I pray, Lord, that there be many here tonight who could yet find someone to go and pray and just confess with their mouth and acknowledge with their heart the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, Father, I pray that you would change them, truly change them. Be glorified in all that is said and done. Receive all the glory, Father, in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Let's just sing that first verse again. You're still wrestling and struggling. I just, what an awful thing it would be to spend your life thinking you're saved, yet deep in your heart knowing that something's not right. If you know something's not right in your heart, get it right. Make it right. Let's sing that first verse again. A merry soul by sin oppressed, dead, bursting with the Lord. He will save you. He will save you. He will save you.