So the title of the message is Simple Faith in Christ. Matthew chapter 11, verse number 28, the Bible says, come, that's the first word we're gonna look at. It's simply asking lost people to come to Christ. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest under your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I understand we all take Sunday instead of Saturday. We meet on the first day of the week now, traditionally as Christians. That doesn't mean we can't meet on any other day. We have a midweek service. And so I understand you work six, you rest one. I get that, you all get that. When you come to Christ, you find rest for your soul every day. Every day. Just ask people, it's simple faith in Christ. Just come, just come to Christ. Hebrews 7.25, wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God. by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Revelation 22, 17, we've gone over this. And the spirit of the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that a thirsteth, come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. We see something else to just very simply ask a lost person. Will you take the water of life for you? Come on, come, take. John 7 verse 37, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. The old saying is, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Which I would say, no, but you can certainly put some salt in its oats. And that'll make the horse thirsty. And when he's thirsty, he'll come and he'll taste that water. I think it's up to us as Christians. This lost and dying world isn't thirsty for Christ. So we are the salt of the earth. We need to go and put some salt in their oats so they would get thirsty for spiritual things. Thirsty for the things of God. Simple faith in Christ. Just come. Just take Matthew 26. Watch what it says. It's so simple as well. Matthew 26 verse number 39. Let's see. Sorry, I think I. Give me a second here. OK. Yeah verse number 39 and he went a little farther and further and fell on his face and prayed saying this is Jesus saying oh my father if it be possible Let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not as I will but as thou will a hundred percent obedient to the father as Thou will there's a cup That he asked the father in a pass But it isn't going to pass Go to Hebrews 2 C Hebrews 2 Christ died for our sins with Christ Obedient to the Father in all things There we go Hebrews second chapter Hebrews chapter 2 verse number 9 Watch this, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor watch this that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man That cup didn't pass He drank your sin. He drank my sin He tasted death for you and for me, for this lost and dying world. That's why it's a rejoiceful verse, Psalm 34, eight. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Ask them to come, ask them to take, ask them to taste and see that the Lord is good, because he tasted death. for every man. I'm telling you, salvation is simple. And these simple words, come, take, taste, are all right there. Get Numbers 21 and John 3. Numbers 21 and John 3. You've all connected the dots on this one many a times if you've been saved any length of time. Numbers chapter 21, verse number eight, And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Go to John chapter three, All you have to do is look and live. That's all you need to do, look and live. Let the lost person know, just look. John 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 ever, but have eternal life. And that we know John 3, 16, 17, and 18, but look And live. Come. Taste. Take. Look. Look. Good Isaiah. Good Isaiah. We'll go to the 31st chapter, Isaiah chapter 31. Isaiah 31 verse 1, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help. That's a bad idea. And stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many. And horsemen because they are very strong. Isn't it easy to trust in your stuff, in your riches, in the might of your military because you've got more horses and chariots than the next nation? Isn't it easy as a nation to just trust in our military might? And it'll save us militarily, it'll save us in our land. Watch what the Bible says to the nation. At the end of the verse, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord. It's so easy to put your faith and trust in chariots and horses And not the Lord it's exactly what the nation did go to chapter 42 if I say And It seems as if our nation is in the same boat We are looking to everything But Jesus Christ is our only hope We've become blind as a nation. Isaiah 42 verse 18. Hear ye deaf and look ye blind that ye may see. But do you see the word look again? Isaiah 31, they look not unto the Holy One. And Isaiah 42 says, look, you're blind. It's a simple word. Just ask people, come on, look. Just look to Jesus Christ. Look and live. chapter 45 of Isaiah. Isaiah 45 verse 22. Here it is again. This is so, so simple. Look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else. That's a powerful Old Testament passage that any nation can get some really rich truth We need to look to God. And the only hope for our nation is that it would turn to Jesus Christ. And I am, I'm not trying to, I know they do the revival meetings and you know, it's the, it's three days where we're going to go and get rallied up and I'm all for that. I'm not against that. All I'm saying is, what happens when those three days are over? Believe revival can break out in our nation Especially as persecution and we're starting to see the seeds start to sprout now. I Don't think we're in the seedling phase. That's my opinion. I think we're in the it's sprouting. We're seeing it. Come on Wouldn't it be great to live or in our lifetime see a powerful great awakening when people just start looking to God and looking to Jesus Christ. I'm telling you, that's why we preach the gospel. It can break out. But only if people start looking to God, not looking to, well, we can go around the room and fill in the blanks on all the stuff we see people looking to. All the stuff they put their faith and trust in. So look, taste, come, take, Let's go back to the Old Testament. Let's look at something else. Seek. We should seek the Lord. Let's go back to Leviticus. Leviticus chapter number 19. Leviticus 19 and we'll get the 31st verse. Verse 30 says you shall keep my Sabbath and reverence my sanctuary, I am the Lord. Verse 31, regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards. God had to warn his people to seek him and not seek after wizards and familiar spirits. That's a male witch. To be defiled by them, I am the Lord your God. It's beyond me why any Christian mom or dad would want to dress their child up as a wizard or as a witch on October 31st God told the nation You have not regarded me Because you're not seeking me and instead you're seeking after these spirits That aren't of my spirit and you're seeking after wizards God had a rebuke him Go over to the book of Numbers. Numbers chapter 15. Numbers chapter number, is that right? Numbers 15, I think I lost the verse. Seek not after your own heart. I think I might've lost the verse, if any of you see it, but. Is it 39? Ah, yes. Yes. Yes. Okay numbers chapter 15 verse number 39. I probably typed uh too fast and I went 15 9 and forgot the 3 but anyway, you don't care about that Let's get to the verse and it shall be unto you for a fringe that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the lord and do them And the last part of the verse what I wanted to key in on and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes after which you used to go a-whoring. That's powerful. Verse 40, that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto your God. We need to ask people very simply, what are you seeking after? We need to compel them to seek after the Lord as we run these Old Testament passages. We see they were seeking after something. Whether it was an unfamiliar spirit or a wizard, or their own hearts. This humanistic philosophy that says, just follow your heart, that will lead you and I into places that we ought not go. We should be following and seeking the Lord to direct and guide. And how do we know? Well, if you're doing something that God says not to do, then that's your heart deceiving you. And try to get keyed into God's word. But simply ask the lost person, seek the Lord, seek him. Psalm 105 says, seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face forevermore. Let's go over to the New Testament and let's get Acts chapter seven, Acts chapter number seven. Remember, the Bible says there is none that understand it. There is none that seek it after God. Now, isn't that a pretty good question? How can somebody seek after God if the Bible tells us that nobody seeks after God? I mean, we just saw in the New Testament God saying, look, you guys are seeking after your own heart, unfamiliar spirits and wizards. And then we read in Romans that there's none that seeketh after God. So how does that work? You're going to ask somebody to do something that they can't do? Well, that would seem unfair. Let's read Acts chapter seven. When they heard these things, verse, Accept yourself verse 51 you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did we look at that. So do the How are you going to resist Unless there's a force pressing upon you Who are they resisting? The Holy Ghost. You see that? You do always resist the Holy Ghost. Who is seeking you? The Holy Ghost. Who is a lost person resisting? The Holy Ghost. It starts with God. It doesn't start with man trying to seek after God because in that context, you're not gonna seek God. But there's some resistance going on from the heart of man against the Spirit of God. That would tell me that the Holy Spirit is actively involved. And when we witness to somebody, that Holy Spirit should be actively involved. It's indwelled in you. What's God's will for his created people? that they'd be saved, that they'd call on Him. Now they might resist it. They might resist it. And they might be stiffened. But you and I ought to compel them. Come on. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Luke chapter 19. We all know this one. Luke chapter 19. Verse number 10. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. That's Jesus speaking and he came to seek. The Holy Spirit is being resisted because the Holy Spirit is seeking. Man left to himself will not seek God. But this thing doesn't originate with man, it originates with God. He came to seek and save that which is lost. The Holy Spirit is working. And without the Holy Spirit, without Christ coming to seek and to save that which was lost, nobody would get saved. That's why Christ came. So now we can respond to that truth because Christ came to seek us. This isn't a man-centered, man's gonna save himself by seeking after God, we're gonna violate Romans, where it says there's none that seeketh after God. That's talking about the heart of man, and he won't. But when God steps in, now man can respond to that seeking. And so we need to tell them, hey, look, seek God. He came. He's seeking you, and he wants you to be saved. Let's see. Let's get Isaiah and the book of Job, chapter number 22. This word shows up once. And then only a couple other times in a different form. But get Isaiah 53 and Job 22. Isaiah 53 and Job 22. In Job chapter 22, let's do that first. It would be Illipaz or Illiphaz, if you say it that way. If anybody's up for some new names for their kids, I don't know how far that'll, take you, but in verse number one, we see Eliphaz, and he's supposed to be one of Job's friends. I don't know what his nickname would be. Come here, Eliphaz. But look at verse number 21. Watch what it says here. Acquaint, that's the first, the only time we see that word show up in our Bible. Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace, thereby good shall come unto thee. Now, Eliphaz, Job's so-called friend, He didn't think that Job was acquainted with God, that's why he said that. We use the term, go ahead and fellowship as long as you want, go ahead and get acquainted with one another. We say those, we use that word in a social setting. Most people need to get acquainted with God, get acquainted with spiritual things. So simply ask them, get acquainted with God. Isaiah chapter 53, let's go there. We see this use of the word used more often in Isaiah chapter 53, very familiar verse three. He is despised and rejected of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That's a great verse to take up to. We hid where our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. The Lord Jesus Christ became acquainted with grief for you and for me. and let that lost person know he became acquainted with grief for you. Will you acquaint yourself with God? Get acquainted with him. Simple words we see in the Bible. Call, we all know that. Whosoever, Romans 10, 13, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 221, it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ask them to call upon the Lord. It's on them. It's not on us. And I understand you want to help guide someone in a prayer. So I'm not trying to come across as... I want to be careful how I say this. Man so wants to play a part that sometimes, and I'm guilty of it as well in the past, and Lord helpin' me, I'm not gonna be guilty of it now and in the future, but man so wants to do something that he feels like if he got a guy to repeat some words or to say a prayer, answer yes to six questions, that somehow he felt like, then I got him saved. And I'm trying to be careful because it's not like we don't want to botch the whole thing. We want the person to be saved. We just have to be careful that we're not doing it and we're not thinking that we are the savior. Well, I'm here, Lord. And finally, somebody now can do your work. No. Thank you, Lord, that you're using us. To preach your word, and we pray that your Holy Spirit would work and now Simply say the lost person you can call upon the Lord Well, how do I do that? Well, here's what happened what I get saved. Here's what the Bible says I Said well, I never prayed before I never called upon the Lord you can call on them right now If there was a fire in your house, would you know what to do? You call for help You can't tell me if the Holy Spirit of God is not working in somebody's life They would know what to say. Lord, save me. Lord, I know I'm a sinner. It isn't these magic words and now I did something. Look at me, God. It's asking them to simply call, simply come, simply taste, simply get acquainted. And that's the simplicity of salvation. Also receive, but as many as received him to them gave you power. to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Ask them to receive Christ. Get Acts chapter 26. Remember, we looked at Romans 8, we looked at that last week, I believe, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Ask someone to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. We also wrestle with the verse in 1 Corinthians 2, but the natural man receiveth not the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So it goes back to the same thing. Why in the world would you talk to a lost person if they're a natural man and they can't receive the things of God? Well, isn't that a waste of time? I'm telling you the Spirit of God has to work in their life or they won't receive it Remember in John 3 Nicodemus had such a hard time with something so simple The light goes on Holy Spirit takes over and You ask somebody to receive Christ, they can receive that adoption. They can receive that adoption. There's a few things on this earth that are pretty magnificent as far as humanity goes. One of them, I believe, is adoption. sign up for, caring for, and calling your own someone that's not your blood own. You have your own child. Praise God. And you know, there's parents that can't have children. And then there's parents that know that there's children that need parents and they bring them in and care for them. And most of what goes on in adoption today Because the child was unwanted. Imagine living your life unwanted. Spouse don't want you. No friends want you. Nobody wants you. As a child, nobody wants you. Somebody comes along and says, I want you. I want to call you my own. You are my child. And God looks down and says, I want to adopt you. Your life's a mess. You're a handful. You're a pain in the rear most of the time. You're a sinner. But I want to receive you in the spirit of adoption. It's a beautiful thing, salvation. People would just receive Christ. Acts 26. In verse number 18, it says, to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan and the God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Ask them to receive Christ. Ask them to receive forgiveness of sins. Tell them they can receive the spirit of adoption. and God wants to be your father. My dad was this, my dad was that. Not your heavenly father. And you need to be sensitive to the rejection of God as their father because so many young people now have experienced nothing but horror when it comes to their father. Is my heavenly father gonna punch me in the mouth like my drunk father did down here? Is my heavenly father going to be around when I need them, when my earthly father left me? Do you know how many people long for their earthly father to be around or to be different? And now we're going to go to Tech campus and we're going to talk to a young person about, well, you can receive the spirit of adoption. You can have a heavenly father. Can you see why there would be some resistance? We need to be sensitive to that because we don't know, and we don't need to know, nor will we ever know what people have gone through. But our testimony about our Heavenly Father will play a key role in helping them sort all that out. Their Heavenly Father will never be deaf. and will never forsake. Lost people need to know that, and they can receive forgiveness of sins. Romans 13, Romans chapter 13. Unfortunately, verse number two, whosoever therefore resisteth, Romans 13, Verse 2 the power resisted the ordinance of God They that resist shall receive you themselves damnation I'm not about you, but I'd rather them receive forgiveness of sins like acts 26 rather than damnation Talk about Sunday school hells real place. Look we've got a responsibility. We've got a debt to our community The people that God puts in our lives help them to receive just receive Christ receive forgiveness of sin We do not want anyone receiving damnation. Go back to Psalms chapter 51. Let's try to get three passages of scripture. We can go through these. Psalm 51. 1 Corinthians chapter six. So Psalm 51, 1 Corinthians six. and then Revelation chapter one. Jude and Revelation, okay. We are all there. Let's do Psalm 51 first. Verse one, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. And here's the word, verse two, wash. or if you're from down south, wash. I don't know where the extra R comes in, but it's there once you cross the border or something. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Salvation is simple. Just tell a lost person, you need to be washed. Will you be washed today? Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. First Corinthians chapter number six. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 11. Let's back up to verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteousness, that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves, mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you're washed. You're sanctified, but you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. Simply tell the lost person, you know, you can be washed. You know what I once was. And then just pick one out of this list. That's what I was. And I was washed by Jesus Christ. I was justified by Jesus Christ. And a lot of times lost people think that you're telling them something because you're trying to be better than them. And you're not, it's just that they're not picking up what you're putting down. And you got to kind of help them get a little glimpse into your life. And you can do that by taking them to this passage and saying, look, I was washed because the Bible says and such were some of you and I know I've committed a couple of these sins or one of these sins and If you don't know which one to pick just say you're an idolater because you put something first before God at one point in your life and Here's what it was. Here's what was first of my life. Mr. Lost person Can you tell him whether it was religion or good works or this way everybody had something? But Jesus Christ washed and plead with them to be washed Last one, Revelation 5. Revelation 1, verse 5. Revelation 1, verse 5, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and the first forgotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth, Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins In his own blood and hath made us kings and priests Unto god his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever Amen, you don't have to go through a priest to have your sins washed It's right through the blood of jesus christ And will you be washed today? Just ask him that be washed be washed All right, three more Let's get James chapter number four James chapter Number four As we're going over to James There's a reason why the younger has trouble submitting to the elders. In 1 Peter 2, there's a reason why people have trouble submitting to kings and governors and then the ordinance of men. And then in Colossians 3, there's a reason why wives have trouble submitting to their own husbands. I did a mock wedding once. It wasn't a real wedding. They had already got married legally and officially. but they never had a ceremony because of the COVID. So they asked me if I wanted to do it. I said, well, no, California, I'm sure. Typically, people in the church, but if you want to stand in, I figure might as well get the practice. So I did. And I, so I got to the part in the vows where it says, um, you promised to send to the bride, you promised to love and submit and, uh, There was a pause and an answer back. And I said, you promised to love and submit. And so she repeated back, to love and to love. And so after it was all done, what I thought about saying was, you may now kiss the unsubmissive bride. But I didn't think that would go over well for anybody. But afterwards, you know, we're talking, she came up, I said, well, I still got you because afterwards you, I said, do you promise to obey and reference? And there's some submission involved in obeying and references. She goes, ah, you, but look, there's a reason why wives have trouble submitting and we have trouble submitting to ordinances. And the reason is the reason is found in James chapter number four. And in verse number seven, the Bible says, submit yourselves therefore to God. And because people just won't submit to God, you think they're gonna submit to a spiritual leader or a national leader or their husband? It's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen. Why? Because they won't submit to God. So what you need to ask the lost person, will you submit to God? Will you? Submit to God. That's ultimately what it comes down to. Are we going to submit to God and his authority, his word? And if we don't, we might have a facade of submission toward other things, but it's going to be cloaked with our own humanistic agenda. It's never gonna be as righteous and as pure as it could be. And after all, what wife really wants to submit to her husband? I mean, think about that. That's a tough thing. We're all in some way, shape or form, knuckleheads. That's a tough thing. One of the things you'll notice is when it talks about in first Peter, the younger submitting, It says, under the mighty hand of God. God's involved with that, and that's what makes it work. When it's talking about submitting to kings and governors and ordinance of men, you know what it says? For the Lord's sake, the Lord is involved in that. And when it talks about wives submitting their husband, it talks about, as it is fit in the Lord, the Lord is involved in that. And that is the only way that makes it easy, easier. It isn't easy submitting to people. Do you see why it's so hard for lost people to submit to God? Because they've been taught their whole life, live for you, live for yourself, make your own accomplishments. Ladies, by the way, you could do anything a man can do. So you thumb your nose and you just go out and you make yourself something. Now, that's tough. It's really tough for people to be able to submit to God when they've been told their whole life you submit to nobody. You're the man or you're the woman. A lot of witnessing is trying to help people see this thing from a different perspective. You tell them to submit to God, you bring them to James 4, submit to God. Talk them through how life is and help them piece these puzzle pieces together in their life. Believe it'll help them. Also ask them to commit. Psalm 37 5 says, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him. and he shall bring it to pass. Commit, ask him to commit thy way unto the Lord. Last one we'll look at this evening is trust, trust. Go to Ephesians chapter one. As you're turning there, Psalms 118, it says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man, praise God. And it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes, praise the Lord. We all know Psalm 3, 5, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding. Proverbs 30, verse five says, every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Isaiah 26, four says, trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. You won't ever have to do pushups again. You won't ever have to keep yourself in physical shape Well will down here because we're not talking about it a physical strength we've got the Lord's strength which He'll give us and it'll be ever lasting everlasting strength If we trust in the Lord You don't have to rely on your own strength to save yourself You don't have to rely on your own strength to keep yourself. Last verse, Ephesians 1. That we, verse 12, Ephesians 1, 12, should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ, and whom he also trusted. After that, you heard a word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit. Ask them, will you trust this word of truth? Will you trust the gospel? Just ask them, trust Jesus, trust Jesus.