waited long and had hope, the Egyptians, hope for the Egyptians. I want to speak to you. I'm going to use a lot of scripture, so if you really enjoy or it's a blessing to you, you may want to ask for a printed copy that I can get for you or a CD. But I believe that we have a responsibility to the unsaved. When I was lost, I knew not Christ as my Savior. God put me in a hospital and put a Baptist preacher in there with me. And I did everything I could to get him out of that room. But he wouldn't ask for another room and the nurses or whoever in charge wouldn't move him. And it's a miserable time in my life. But God knew what he's doing. Our responsibility to the unsaved. Baptist believers are responsible to witness to the unsaved. Jesus Christ himself told his church, ye shall be witnesses unto me. It's found in Acts 1 and 8. And sometimes when we have opportunity to be a blessing, or we have an opportunity to tell somebody how to be saved, and for some reason we're afraid, or we're afraid we're gonna mess up, or whatever the excuse may be, I believe that we meet certain people for particular reasons, and that is to share the gospel. And if you can't talk, I say live that life. But remember, when someone starts bragging on you and putting the light on you, it's your responsibility not to let them down. And where we are at today, well, you know, I'm safe, I know I'm safe, and anybody else can get safe if they want to, but they can't. They can't. The only reason that when you first heard the gospel that Jesus Christ quickened you and made you alive was all of Him. It wasn't that you decided. You may have decided in the flesh, but I'm telling you, the flesh in a few weeks will let you down, and you're right back where you were. But our responsibility to the unsaved, Baptist believers are responsible to witness to the unsaved. Jesus Christ told his church in Acts 1.8, ye shall be witness unto me. He didn't say you should, he didn't say you might, he said ye shall. So if God says you will do something and you're not doing it, How does that make you feel? You say, well, I can't talk to people. There's no reason except a selfless motive that you can't live it in front of. We are responsible to tell the unsaved about the way of salvation by Christ. You know, when Andrew was converted, he went and told his brother about Christ. John 1.41. The woman converted at Jacob's well went and told her companions in sin about Christ. John 4.29. The apostle Paul told his conversion experience before kings and governors. Acts 22.11. If either one of us had won the lottery, And I had many chances because there was an individual when I was at work, every Monday when I came in to work, there was a lotto ticket on my desk. He said, I want you to be able to leave this place and do what you want to do, and I believe God is going to bless it. Well, I don't think he blessed it that way, you know, myself, but he did. I don't know how many. tickets he bought and put on my desk. I never won. But I always respect his, what he did, whether it was the right way, the wrong way, I'll let you decide. But we are to want every one of our brothers and sisters to be blessed. That's our duty. What better way than put their name before the Lord Jesus Christ? If they're sick, put their name before the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great physician. And I'm gonna tell you, you make an appointment to talk to him every day and you will never get a chance to meet him. He will always be there. The Apostle Paul told his conversion experience before kings and governors, you know, Acts 22, one through 11, Acts 26, one through 18. Those are just good pleasure reading, but God wants us, he expects us to witness in one of two ways, to live so that others can see a difference in our life or verbally. Pass out cracks, sir. Tell them when that door opens. And I believe, with everything in me, that if I want to witness, when I'm out there, God's gonna give me somebody to witness to. There's somebody. Don't matter where it's at. That's a restaurant, laundromat, fire, Christmas shopping, wherever you're at. God will get you so that you have opportunity. And I know that that's untrustworthy. But I'm telling you, every road back to church is going to die off if we don't begin to do mission work within the church. That's a fact. Second, a child of grace should live godly in Jesus Christ. Ain't that what 2 Timothy 3, 12 says? I believe it says he should live soberly, righteous, godly in this present world in Titus 2, 12. I mean, there's verses after verses to tell us that, that how we should live, what we should do, and it should become a way of life. It should be a way of life. Churches has cracks everywhere. Nobody passes them out. We got phones. We got all kind of ways to reach the gospel, to take the gospel to somebody. You know, it's not only our church, but I've talked to a lot of preachers the last few months while I was not able to get out and do anything. And your independent missionary baptist churches are dwindling. All they're doing is changing members. That's not growth. I'll take any member that God wants from any church. I'm not saying that. But where is the growth from within? It's not here. I'm not talking just about Amarillo. I'm talking about churches all over. But there are some, and it's all got to do with music. And I love music. But music won't keep them. Won't keep them. Only the gospel will keep them. when God changes that individual and they come to a point in our life that I not only want my Lord and Savior in my life, I need Him in my life. So we look at it, you know, first of all, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. His manner of life should be such as become of the gospel. In other words, people are to look at you and me and every member of this church, every Christian everywhere, and know there's something different about us. Thirdly, it is our duty to pray for the unsaved. We've got paper after paper with 20, 25 names on them to use. Take this bulletin, you have to get in the car, wrap it up, and do this. Or do you use that bulletin? These are names. Those are lists. He must not live in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. That's what the first Peter, you know, chapter four, verse two, you know, it's just scripture after scripture that we can tell, you know, that we have got to look into the word of God. So let's read this one. Let's read this particular scripture, first Peter. Chapter 4, verse 2, that ye no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. See, we got to come to that each individual. We have got to do exactly what Peter has said here. He no longer should live the rest of his life in the flesh to the lust of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in less vividness, less excess of wine, rivaling, requiting, and abominable idolatries. Thirdly, it is our duty to pray for the unsaved, as we said a moment ago. And God said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, Romans 10.1. Is it not our responsibility to pray that God will use our president? He will use ones we have elected. If there's going to be a change in our country, there's got to be a change in our faith. Faith is active. It's active. Love is active. You know, I don't know how many couples I've counseled in the last 50-some years, and they all love each other. I just love you, love you, love you to death. And you're out here going with anybody, they'll go with you. That's not love. That's lust. And we ought to love our wives. We ought to love our husbands. We ought to love our children. We've got to love more than we care about our particular happiness. And it's hard. It's hard. His manner of life should be such as he becometh the gospel of Christ. It bothers me, and let me share something with you. It bothers me when somebody's gotta ask me, am I saved? Think about it. Isn't that telling us something? That somebody has got to say, Do you know my Lord and Savior? Well, I really don't care what anybody thinks. Then you just blow the little candle out in your life. It is our duty to pray for the unsaved. Paul penned these words, brethren. You know, Romans 10.1. He said, brethren, he's talking to people that could pray or should be able to pray. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Our heart's desire ought to be that everyone in my family, your family, be saved. But do we really mean it if we don't pray for it? Can we really mean it if we don't do what we can do? No. It seems like every day it gets worse that people don't keep their word, they don't care about telling you something, they have no intentions of doing. And how many times, I walked that aisle, I'd get on my knees and say, Lord, I'm going to do this for you. I'm going to start tomorrow. I'm going to start tonight. And it lasts a week, week and a half, two weeks, a month. And we're back in the same old routine. I'm all right. I mean, I'm better than my neighbor. Well, you may be four times better than your neighbor, but if he's lost, both of you are going to hell. See, I try to get my life right before I can be an influence on somebody else's life. Paul yearned to see his kinmen according to the flesh saved. He longed to see them turned from their evil ways and brought to believe in Jesus Christ. Christian parents have a duty to their unsaved children. They should take them to church if it's possible. I know some situations it's not possible, but it doesn't do away with our duty. And Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 12 says, gather the people together, men and women and children and these stranger that within the gates that they may hear, that they may learn. And fear the Lord your God and observe to do all the words of the law. Notice what he said. And fear the Lord your God and observe to do. We gotta have a desire to put Jesus Christ in our lives. I'll start with a simple thing. And believe me, I'm not bragging on myself, but this is a simple thing. I would never eat something without thanking God for it first. Because he provided it. He provided it. And I think that's exactly, it's just simple things I'm trying to get in these messages that we can see what we ought to do and pray that what we do can be an influence on somebody else because everybody's watching us. You know, we think they only watch and see what the latest clothes we're wearing or something like that, and I'm sure the people do. And I'm sure if they doing me away, I would be a disappointment to them, but it don't bother me a bit. But God said in Psalm 78, Psalm 78 verse five, for he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, and they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children. See, it is my responsibility And I'm sure that all three of mine didn't want to go to church as many times as I required them to. But it was my responsibility until they get to an age where they don't. And I think parents are going to answer to the Lord. Now, that's not going to make me the favorite preacher of the week. But we have got to realize we got a responsibility when God blesses us with children, we got a responsibility for those children. And we got a responsibility to pray for one another, to pray for one of our flock if they're sick or having a terrible time, you know. And you know what is so wonderful about praying? I don't have to know every detail. Because I'm not informing God. You know, I tried to put Brother Tom's address down and said, I want to put these two on your prayers. Wouldn't even have to say that he was in Iraq. I wouldn't have to say nothing. Not that I'm against that. I think the more I know about a situation, the better I can pray, but I don't have to know that. So I think, you know, in my next thought, every name on this bulletin, all you gotta say, Lord, when you go to bed tonight or whenever you pray, say, Lord, I don't know all those names. I don't know those people. I hear their names, and the names is familiar. But Lord, if it be pleasing, if every name that I read is lost, that you would see led to save them. Having marriage problems, that you would lift them up. Financial problems, you would lift them up. God is interested in the smallest detail in my life. You know how I know that? He died for me. I may not be special to myself, I may not be special to you, but I was special to the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave his son that I may have life, and that he's given me life. What is my responsibility? You know, Peter told Simon, for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. That's found in Acts 8.23. Isn't that amazing when we can look at those we love and we may not know something is wrong, but what it is, but we know something is. Because we've been praying for, you know, I pray for each of you daily. And your countenance will tell me, and I don't go up to you and say, what's your problem this week? I don't have to have details to pray. but I don't mind you, I want you to pray for me, and this means, I don't want anybody to take it, but I have an arm here, I gotta do a certain exercise for the next eight weeks, and I believe if I meet that, he'll set me free. Woo! Free indeed! Physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, we all need one of those, if not all of them. No, I don't want to get all excited. Somebody thinks something's wrong. I'll tell you what's wrong. When you love Jesus, you want to shout about it. You want to talk about it. He's the answer. I don't know what your problem is, but Jesus is the answer. Yes, he is the answer. How many are enslaved by sin and refuse to acknowledge it? Peter said in 2 Peter 2, 19, you know, and other verses around this, you know, how many are enslaved by sin, refuse to acknowledge it. Peter said, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption for whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought into bondage. You know, if I went out last night and got drunk, and you didn't know it, and you said, senorita, called me and said, pastor, I've got this problem, would you pray for me? You really think that prayer would be answered? It didn't get any higher than the ceiling. That's why we don't have prayer warriors. You've got to be in the will of God to pray for me, or I've got to be in the will of God to pray for you. So we ask ourselves, how important is that prayer we pray? How important is it that we receive for Brother Steve to get his eyesight back and to see good. He's healthy now to go back to work. How important is it for us to see, to hear that somebody's really in bad shape but God has intervened? Proverbs 5.22, his own iniquity shall take the wicked himself. See, we hang around with wicked people, we become just like them. And I didn't like that when I was a kid. You remember that? You remember your parents saying, don't hang around with him? And I hear my mom saying that now. And I was thinking all the same time, don't you have any confidence in me? But what that lady knew that I didn't know, you can't put confidence in sin. I'll show you who it is. We can't put confidence in sin. The impenitent man is Satan's captive. He's got me. And they that may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are according to the course of this world, you know. We just got to get to the point where Jesus Christ What did Jesus die for? He said, well, he died for his people. What organization did he die for? What organization did he die for? He died for his church. Because out of that church comes his bride. How important is it to be active in church? If you're going to be in the bride of Christ, his bride doesn't come from any place except his church. That doesn't do you being saved. You can be a Pentecostal if God has blessed you, you can be saved. But you can't be in the bride. Well, who says? He says. We ought to look sometimes when we say, well, you know, I know Brother Tony says it all the time, but I don't believe that. Then why don't you check it out? Because the same book that taught it to me, prompted by the Holy Spirit, will teach you that. And then when it does, your church becomes a little higher on the rail of what you need to pray for and support and be active in. So, simply, what it means to be saved. Takes us back to the initial, to the beginning. What it means to be saved. Well, Ephesians 2.1 says, you know, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. That was my beginning. I was dead in sin and God came to me in the form of a man who was in the hospital bed preaching to me instead of feeling sorry for me. God said, it is the spirit that quickens John 6, 63. The son give of life to whom he will. John 5, 21. The person enslaved by sin must be free from the shackles of sin. Sin can only be forgiven by a bloody sacrifice. Without the shedding of the blood, there is no remission of sin. You can walk the aisle, you can be baptized, all that, and it makes the flesh feel better maybe. But I'm telling you, there's no way that I can live good enough to save myself. There's no way I can live good enough to keep myself safe. But do you know what is so wonderful? When Jesus saved me, he not only saved me that morning on US 25 as I was going to work, but he has kept me safe all of these years. That's eternal belief in the blood of Jesus Christ. He built a church so that his people could come and learn truth. He heals our families so we can see that he's a healing God, a loving God, a precious God. Second, the person enslaved by sin must be freed from the cycles of sin. Sin can only be forgiven by a bloody sacrifice. And believe me, when they put those thorns on my saver's head, blood ran down his face. And he did it for me. It's good that he did it for you, but that won't help me. See, everyone is saved individually. He doesn't save as a family. He doesn't save as a community. He saves his elect one at a time. You know, when Jesus died for sinners, he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's what Hebrews 9.26 tells us. Many other places tell us that. Those who believe in him are redeemed from all iniquity, past sins, present sins. And even if we get backslidden and go out in sin again, he's gonna whip you. You know, when a person tells me, I've been saved 50, and I had a person tell me this, I've been saved over 50 years and I've never been chastened. And I, I wanted real bad to tell him, you know, good way not to lie is to keep your mouth shut. There ain't no way a man can live 50 years without not sinning. It's a sinful nature. The very fact that I don't love Jesus Christ the way I should every day I'm sinning because I'm putting something else before him. And what did the Lord say? Don't put anything before me. You don't put your husband, you don't put your children, you don't put your wife, you don't put nobody. But see, what is so wonderful, and this is the good news, if you put the Lord first, they will never know that they're second. I believe that's what a good husband, a good wife is. They love their wife and their wife knows it. They love their husband and their husband knows it. And they both love the Lord. That's not being taught. It's not being believed. It's not being practiced. And if you practice those things, thank God for how good he's been to you because your body is just like my body. It's sinful. Nothing good in this body. But you got the beautiful word, it's called sanctification. And God, each day, sanctifies us so that we may think it, but we don't do it. But if you get, if you get backslidden enough, you know what will happen? You'll do it. Ask David. When you get to heaven, say, David, I want to ask you a question, buddy. God for David. So all we got to do when we realize that we've messed up is just come to him. Sometimes I think, God, maybe he's going to be harder than me. But what it means to be saved, number three, the man who is captive of Satan must be liberated and salvation is being delivered. You know what it's being delivered from? If you ever read Acts 26, 18, you're being delivered from the power of Satan unto God. Ain't nobody. Nobody could make me believe that I would do what I've done since God has saved me. And you know, He didn't make me, He made me willing. God makes us willing. He doesn't make us. He makes us willing. So it is a great experience to be delivered from the power of darkness and to be translated into the kingdom of his son. Jolosians 1 13 is such a beautiful verse, you know, and that's when he transformed us from that old depraved sinner into the son of a living, loving God. And that's what he does. Jolosians 1 and verse 13, who have delivered us from the power of darkness, and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. He did it. And you know, you can tell if you did it or he did it. Because whatever I do usually don't last very long. Month, two months, six months, a year. But if I did all of that changing, Nothing has changed in my heart. But if he does it, if he does it, when you can realize that this is what Paul is saying here in the book of Galatians, you know, that it was him, chapter 1, verse 13, who have delivered us from the power of darkness and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. what happens, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thy They be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or power. All things were created by Him. And what? And for Him. I have what I have. If I'm smart, I'm smart for Him. If I'm not too smart, it gives me the ability to depend upon Him. But in everything, it's all Him. I just, I just said I really believe that the time for the Lord to come back is so close. It's so close. Thank Him for what you have. Thank Him for how good He's been to you, but never put it before Him. Never put it before Him. One more thought. One more thought. The converted man ceases to be a subject of Satan's kingdom and becomes a subject of Christ's kingdom. The gospel of grace is simply this, deliverance to the captive. Luke 4.18, you know, whenever Christ frees a sinner from the power of Satan, He is free indeed. Don't you remember that old Negro spiritual? I'm free, Lord, freed indeed. I'm free! I don't have to go out here and get drunk. I don't have to do this. I don't have to do this. I'm free. I'm free to serve him, free to speak for him. Let him talk, I don't care. I'm not ashamed of my Lord and Savior. May God give us grace to see that as our pianist come and we have a