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Good evening, everyone. I'd like
you to take your Bibles and go to 1 John, please, 1 John. Chapter
number five, very common passage that I'm looking at tonight. The world contains 7.4 billion
people, approximately, give or take one or two. 6,500 different
languages. 195 sovereign states or countries
plus about 60 that are disputed states like Kosovo and others
like that. There are 19 major world religions
who are subdivided into some total of 270 large religious
groups and many smaller ones and also some independent churches
like ours. The scriptures tell us that Though
there are all these people that speak all these different languages
from all these different nations, from all these different religions,
and all these different walks of life, there's really only
two groups as God looks down upon this earth. He sees two
different groups. And we see that in 1 John chapter
5. I'm gonna read verse number 12. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not length. These two groups are not divided
by language, borders, denominational titles. They're really divided
by one very simple word, and that word is the word yes. In regards to the question, will
you believe the record that God has given you concerning his
son? Yes, saying yes to salvation. The response yes is not just
sounding out some letters. It's a word that expresses affirmation
or consent Whether you say in the English, yes. Whether you
say in the French, oui. Or Spanish, si. Or Hebrew, ken. Japanese, hi. And high German,
ja. And low German, obayo. Whether you speak Mandarin and
go, nadio. Hindi, you go, ji. Or ha. Tagalog,
you go, ah. In Mandarin, you go shir. In
the Arabic language, you go naham. In Russian, you go da. In Kannada,
suri. Whatever your language is, whatever
vowels come out of your mouth, the word yes is a consent or
an affirmation to something. And within the gospel context
or the salvation context, what you're really saying is, yes,
I believe what God has said concerning His Son. And really it's simple. I don't want to complicate the
matter tonight. It's actually very simple for
us tonight. And I want to bring this across to us. Be sure that whether you say
yes or no, or whether you say yes at all, it may be a little
word, but in reality, it's the difference between life and death.
It's the difference between heaven and hell, and it's the difference
between salvation and damnation. That little word yes, or obayo,
or ya, or whatever your language is, or da, It's a difference
between heaven and hell. And that's what I wanna bring
across today is explain how it is that you can know that you
are saved and how you can say yes to God for salvation. The first thing I want you to
see is the source of the record. Now I want you to see something
here in verse number seven of chapter five. Now, this verse,
to many, is disputed in some of the modern translations. To
me, it's not a dispute at all. In fact, it belongs here. But
if you have a modern translation, this verse is not in your Bible.
It says, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. That means that we have a heavenly
record or a heavenly witness of something that God has said
and wants us to acknowledge, but its source is heaven, its
source is God, its source is the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. The record of salvation is from
God. It's from God. It's not a Baptist
message. It's not a man's message at all.
In fact, when Jesus came to earth, the Bible says that the light
shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. There was
no light on earth outside of Christ. So there was no message
on this earth that could save a soul. There was nothing on
this earth that could help us. So the source is God. the witness,
the testimony. He's testified to us on how we
can be saved. And we need to acknowledge that
the source of the message that's gonna save our soul is not something
that man can devise or that man has come up with. This is a message
that God himself has sent down to earth for you. Sometimes we get distracted by
the preacher or denomination, but I'm gonna tell you something.
If the message is that Jesus came to die on Calvary's cross,
and they believe that he is the son of God, and that he shed
his blood for you, and that he was buried and he rose again,
that is a good message, and that's a message that's gonna save your
soul. Whether you like the preacher or not. Because the message is
not from man, the message is from God. The record of salvation is from
God. You see, this was a problem right in the beginning. In Genesis
chapter four, what you find is Cain and Abel. You have Cain
who tries to offer to God some of the things that he is producing,
some of the fruits and vegetables, and he says, obviously God's
gonna take something that I have, and he's gonna accept that, so
I'll be accepted by him. But God says, Cain, I can't accept
that. But then you have Abel who took a lamb and shed the
blood of that lamb and the father says, now that I accept. Now
why is that? Where did Abel get his information
from? Abel got his information from God. It wasn't by osmosis. It wasn't that he just figured
it out and said, well, this is probably the best way to do it.
God told them to offer a lamb and he offered a lamb. That's
what real faith is. Real faith is doing what the
Bible says to do. So he knew the source, the source
of salvation. Hebrews 11.4, by faith able,
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts, and by it being dead, yet speaketh. You know, if I
die in my sins, and I don't die a saved individual, my life ends
and everything about me ends. But if I receive Jesus Christ
as my Savior, and then I give my life to follow after the Lord,
the things that I do within the will of God abides forever, the
Bible says. We want to leave a legacy. We
want to leave something behind for our kids. Without Jesus,
there is no legacy. The scriptures reveal the record
of salvation to mankind. And this is why Psalm 119 is
so good, in verse 89. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Amen. That's where it begins. Heaven. It was perfect in heaven. That's where the record is from.
The Father gave the words to the Son, The Son gave the words
to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave the words
to the apostles. The apostles wrote it down in
a book, and here we have the Bible. You understand how important
it is to understand, to believe that? See, if you don't believe
that we have in our hands God's word or God's record, then you're
believing that maybe God's record is still continuing. And that's
why many people are going to hell today, because they're believing
that there's extra biblical revelation and different things that God
is still revealing to mankind. But no, God used specific men
to write down this book. And it's complete. The Bible says, when the Comforter
has come, whom I send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit
of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify
of me. So there you have the Father, the Word, and the Holy
Ghost. A young man in Kenora one time,
I was, I tried to, every time I went to the Kmart, what was
it, Zeller's back then, I think it was Zeller's, and I tried
to witness to this fellow, but every time I talked to him, he
began to tell me about the Discovery Channel. And he'd tell me all
the different things that the Discovery Channel taught him
about where we came from, about evolution, about science, and
all these different things. And so, here I am trying to tell
him that God has given us his record in the Bible, and that
he could be saved, but he says, oh no, I watched on Discovery
Channel. See, his source, his record was
the wrong source. I never saw that young man get
saved. Another man I talked to, I remember I tried to, right
early on when I got there, I was trying to witness to him and
lead him to Christ. I was looking at some property and he owned
it, and I was trying to give him the gospel. And he said,
oh, didn't you hear? And I said, no. He says, well,
there's a priest in Europe that basically said that the resurrection
didn't happen. Oh, wow, well, thanks for letting
the cat out of the bag. Thanks for enlightening me on
that topic. I asked, well, who was this priest?
Well, I'm not really sure who he was. Well, what was he trying to do?
I really don't know. All I know is that there was
a priest and he said the resurrection didn't happen. In this passage, what you'll
see in verse number nine, read this. If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God, which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record. that
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. Amen. We got so many people that
are basing their decisions on the witnesses of men. They don't
even know what the guy's name is, but they're gonna bank their
eternal souls and their children's souls. on some man that they
don't even know lives across, halfway across the world, when
they got God's word right in front of them, and God's preacher
telling them. We live in a wicked world. It's
wicked. Somebody says to me, they said,
what about all these people in Africa? There's nobody there
to tell them. I says, great, let's go. But
the fact of the matter is, I am far more concerned about people
sitting right here in this room. They've got the preaching of
the word of God right in front of them, and they walk away lost. You tell me which is greater
before God. You tell me who God says, what
are they doing? Why don't they receive it? Why
don't they believe it? We somehow think it's a harder
thing for an African in the jungle when there's people living around
Bible-preaching churches all the time that don't care. And
they'll take the Discovery Channel over the Word of God, the source
of the record. Number two, I want to look at
the subject of the record. And this is the record that God
hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The gift of eternal life, this
is a subject of the matter. We sang the songs tonight about
everlasting, it's tis true, it's said. Tis true that we have everlasting
life. Wow, it's an amazing thing. Notice what it says in verse
11, and this is the record. So the record is what the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost have given to us from heaven.
It's settled in heaven. There's no disputing up there.
You can't argue with them about it. This is just the way it is.
He sent it down to mankind. He gave it to us in a book. He
says, I got it right in front of you. This isn't argumentable.
It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter if you watch
Discovery Channel, or it doesn't matter who the priest was, or
it doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter what your
credentials are behind your name, because I created those credentials
that are behind your name. The letter D and the letter M
and the letter D and the letter R. Wouldn't be for me, you wouldn't
have letters to put there. That's what God would say. The gift of eternal life that
God hath given. We are dead to God in our sins.
That's the first thing we need to understand about salvation.
In Romans 6, 23, it says, for the wages of sin is death. but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
See, because we're all sinners, right? Revelation 21, verse eight,
about the fearful and the unbelieving. I thought about that, the fearful.
You know, there's people that won't get saved because they're
scared of what somebody's gonna think. There's people that won't
get saved because they've been in church so long that they think
if I say I need to get saved now, it's gonna make me look
bad. See, that's what makes up hell. That's what makes up the
population of the Lake of Fire, the fearful. You're afraid. And we need to stop being fearful
and receive the record and believe the record that God has given
to us concerning his son. The fearful, the unbelieving,
the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers, the idolaters,
and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire brimstone, which is the second death. The Bible says
in Ephesians 4.18, having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God. Death is simply the absence of
life. Amen. Life, the source of life
is in God. The reason why I am experiencing
death is because I'm alienated from the life of God. And I may
have blood pumping through my heart, and I may have air going
through my lungs, but I have no eternal life without Jesus
Christ. because I have no connection
to God who is the origin of life, eternal life. I have a form of
life, but this life ends, this physical life. This heart will
stop beating one day. My question is what happens when
the heart stops beating and this life ends? Do I have a life after? I have
a consciousness after. But if I have life after death,
then I have to be connected to God after death. And I make that
decision now by faith. See, death is separation. That's
why he says I need to give you eternal life, because the wages
of sin is death. And we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And because of that, you're alienated
from the life of God, which means that you're experiencing death. I say therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I
am He, you shall die in your sins. That's Jesus talking. Can you imagine the somberness
of that conversation? And Him looking at you, if you
were that one, you were that Pharisee, He says, you're gonna
die in your sins. God gives us eternal life. God
hath given to us. Give means to pass or transfer
or to bestow, to pass or transfer the title or property of a thing
to another person without an equivalent or compensation. That's
what a gift is. So I'm giving you something without
any compensation in return. So when he's saying that I want
to give you eternal life, he's saying I'm giving you something,
not expecting anything in return. Amen? The Bible talks about, well of
course the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Some of you at Christmas
time, you've already received some gifts, amen? Let me ask
you, what did any of you do to get those gifts? Did any of you work for those
gifts? If you worked for your gift,
that wasn't a gift. Somebody's playing with you and
they're on the wrong holiday. Amen? Because a gift is something
you give freely without any compensation. without anything equivalent coming
back at you. You're just giving it to them
because you love them. I look at my kids and I say, man, I'd sure like
to take away those presents because they don't deserve it. But I'm not giving
you these presents because you deserve it. I'm giving you these
presents because I love you, even though you don't deserve
it. Amen? You want to use those gifts against
your kids, don't you? If you're not going to be nice, I'm going
to take away that gift. That's bad doctrine. That's Santa doctrine.
That's bad doctrine. He's a false teacher. You know
that. There's no not on your nice list. A gift is a gift.
It's free. There's no equivalent. There's
no compensation. It's something you give because of love. And
that's exactly what God did for us. He gave us eternal life. So we have the eternal life as
a subject, but there's another subject here we have to consider
because this life just doesn't come to us automatically. The
Bible says, and this life is in his son. So we have to remember
the sacrifice of his only begotten son. And I thought about this
passage in regards to Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus Christ brought
life down to mankind. So he had life in heaven with
God. They gave us the record that he's given us life, but
the life had to come down to me somehow. Jesus said, I'll
bring it to him. And the Bible says in John chapter
one, Let me find this. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. That's talking
about Jesus. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men, and the light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not. So in Him was life. in Jesus. During the day where
the Apostle John wrote his epistles here, they weren't questioning
whether Jesus Christ died on the cross. In the first century,
everybody knew that Jesus Christ died on the cross. Amen? They weren't saying, oh, that
didn't happen, like Holocaust deniers. It happened, there's
a proof it's there. Everybody knew that Jesus Christ
died. But the real question was, is Jesus Christ God? This is
the key. It's not just that Jesus Christ
died on the cross of Calvary. The issue is, is Jesus Christ
the Son of God? And that's what God says here,
this is the record. The record is that I've given
to eternal life and this life is in his son. Not just any old son, but his
son. Amen? Now Jesus Christ brought
eternal life down to sinners. The Bible says in Matthew 1.21,
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Because
that's our problem. Now all this was done, that it
might be fulfilled, which is spoken of the Lord by the prophets,
saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being
interpreted is God with us. In 1 John 4 verse 3, this is
what the Apostle John wrote concerning the false teachers there. It
said, in every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh. It didn't say that confesses
not that he died. They all knew he died. But the
issue was, is whether he actually came in the flesh. Whether he
existed before and came down to earth in the flesh. Amen? Because you didn't do that. You didn't come in the flesh
when you were born. You've always been down here. And you started
in Adam in the garden. You've never been above this
earth. But Jesus Christ, the Bible says, the issue is whether
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Because that tells you
that he is God. And so it says, Every spirit
that confesseth not that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of
God. And this is a spirit of antichrist, wherever you've heard
that it should come, and even now already it is in the world. Look at 1 John chapter five in
verse number six. Look at what it says. I have
pondered over this verse many times, and I think I've got it
nailed down. This is he that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it is the spirit that beareth
witness because the spirit is truth. The water, I believe it's
referring to is his physical birth. He came by water. Just like when it says he must
be born again, he must be born of water and of the spirit. Amen,
because it's a water birth is what it is. And blood, why? Because God has no blood in his
body. And in fact, in Jesus Christ's glorious body, there was no blood.
But when Jesus Christ came down to earth and came as that little
baby, he was born of water, but he also contained blood like
a man. And the Bible says that the life
of the flesh is in the blood. This is very important because
what Jesus was coming to do, being God himself, was coming
to die in my place, to pay a price of sin for me on the cross of
Calvary. And that had to include the shedding
of his life, which was in the blood. And so he came by water
and he came by the blood. Now that blood also refers to
the atoning blood that he had to shed for us on the cross of
Calvary, and that's why it was important to mention. The glorified body could not
die, but that physical body could die. In Hebrews 2.9 it says, but we
see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the
grace of God should taste death for every man. Amen. He came and was born as a little
baby in a manger and was born of water and had a body that
had blood in it so that he could give that blood for our sins
on the cross of Calvary some 33 years later. That's fantastic. Do you believe
the record? That he hath given us eternal
life and this life is in his Son, capital S-O-N, not just
a son, but that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and he existed
before that manger and he came down in the flesh and took upon
himself a body that he could die for us in our place. This
is very important. Without Jesus, there is no salvation. And that's why in John 14, 6,
it says, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. And I thought
about this verse in John 5, verse 22. For the Father judgeth no
man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. Amen. The word honor means to value.
See, Jesus Christ is not honored when I believe that he is the
spirit brother of Lucifer. Jesus Christ is not honored when
I believe that he used to be Michael the archangel and came
a man and then went back up to be Michael the archangel again.
He's not honored by that. He is honored when I say that
you are God and you made all things and you came down in the
flesh and took upon a body that could die for me. And you tasted
death in my place. And you didn't deserve it and
I did. That honors Him. And in honoring
the Son, I honor the Father. Amen? It's very important what
you think about Jesus. In fact, I think today we watered
down sometimes the doctrine so much, we didn't know who Jesus
is. We can stand next to somebody that believes a completely different
Jesus, and we're talking the same language. It's like we're
family. But when you start valuing the
Son for who He is, that's when the line is drawn. That's when
they say you're narrow-minded. Without Jesus, there is no salvation.
The last, or John, 1 John chapter five, verse number 20, and I
should have told you to stay in chapter five or keep that
open. And we know that the Son of God has come and have given
us an understanding. that we may know Him that is
true. And we are in Him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus
Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. Talking about
Jesus. This is the true God and eternal
life. There is no salvation apart from
Jesus. Now the third point I wanna bring
across is this. Submission to the record. Submission. Until now, all we've done is
learn some things. All we're doing is putting some
ideas in our mind. All we're doing is building some
doctrines around what I think I believe about things, but now
how do I apply this? In 1 John 5, verse number one,
it says this. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. In 1 John chapter 5, verse number
13, these things have I written unto you, that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal
life, that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Five
times in this chapter, you'll find the word believe. The application
of salvation is to believe the record. This is what it's all
about, believing the record. That devil, he's a sly one, isn't
he? It's very simple. In fact, the
Bible tells us in John 3.36, he that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. In John 5.24,
it says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my
word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. What's the key word? What's the
application? How do I apply this? The word believe. He didn't say
believe and then go to church. He didn't say believe and then
go get baptized and do this and do that and join the choir. These
are all the answers I get when I knock on somebody's door and
say, how do you know for sure you're going to heaven? Well,
I say in the choir and I go to church and I give money in the
offering. I'm not so bad, I'm a pretty
good guy and I've never shamed my mother or father at all. I
may have done some bad things, but I'm sure my good stuff outweighs
my bad stuff. But the Bible says, believe. This is how we apply salvation.
We apply salvation through belief. We believe the record that God
who is in heaven says, this is how it is. I've given you eternal
life and this life is in my son. The life that I give testimony
of, the life that I gave down through my son and delivered
him down and put him in that little body so that he could
die and shed his blood for you. Believe. God help us if we're gonna weigh
anything against what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary.
If there's one thing I could do to be saved, then Jesus died
in vain. Why would he have to go to a
cross and suffer if I could do something to get saved? It was an urgent matter. He had to come. He said, if there's
any other way, Father, if there's any other way, Father, let this
cup pass from me. If we can somehow teach these
people to be good enough, let this cup pass from me. If maybe
they can go to church enough, let this cup pass from me. But
the Father says, there is no other way, son. You've got to
die. There's no other way. but the devil complicates things.
In 2 Corinthians 11 3 it says, but I fear less by any means
as a serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. It's so simple. It's simple that a child can
be saved. And Jesus called the little child
unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, Verily I say
unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
as greatest in the kingdom of heaven. People choose to believe
or not to believe. You choose to believe what someone
says, Or you choose not to believe what someone says. But do you
know something? A child believes a lot easier
than we do. And sometimes we look at that
in the negative. You know that 85% of people that
are saved are saved between the ages of four and 14? Four and
14. You know that 10% are saved from
the ages 15 to 30? Only 4% are saved after 30 years
old. You tell me why. We look at the simplicity of
a child's faith and trust as some kind of a negative, but
God created it like that. He wants our children to be saved.
He wants them at four years old to bow their head before him.
He wants them to receive Christ at that age. He designed the
gospel that a four-year-old could understand. It's simple. I'm
not saying it wasn't expensive, but it's a simple application.
Believe, as a four-year-old child. Yet we look back as adults sometimes,
and we look back at our decision as a four-year-old and say, oh,
you know, I don't know if I really meant it then. And you know something?
I doubt far more where you are now than you were then. Because as you grow older, what
happens is you become embittered. You become hurt. Samuel Johnson said, we are inclined
to believe those whom we do not know because they have never
deceived us. You've got people around you
in your life that have played tricks on you, they've deceived
you, they've betrayed you, and for some reason we turn that
same mistrust to God, and at 30 years old, we're not willing
to receive the gospel because someone hurt us, or this person
hurt us, or this happened, or that happened, or that Christian's
a hypocrite, or this or that or the other, and we'd rather
go to the lake of fire and burn forever instead of receiving
the record that God gave. Over 80% of people saved are
saved between the age of four and 14, and there's a reason
for that. Mostly children that age haven't
been hurt like you have at your age. And the mistrust that you
have with people, you somehow shift that mistrust
over to God and say, then God must be like that too. I'm sorry,
but God is not like that. God loves you. The Bible says
his thoughts towards you are of peace. He sent his son to
die for you. He suffered on the cross for
you that you could live. How can you say that there's
something wrong with our God? Sure, there's something wrong
with men. We live in a dark world. We are a bunch of vile sinners.
We're abominable, we're murderers, we're idolaters, we're sorcerers. But not God. God is just and
he's right. And he's perfect and he's loving
and he's peaceful and he's merciful. And he's long-suffering if you're
sitting here that have lost tonight. He's long-suffering. He's waited
for you. He's saying, I want you to come
to me. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave
of his Son. Believing must come from the
heart. In Romans 10, nine, it says that
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. There's a difference between
just believing something here or trusting something here. I
look at that chair, and that chair, I believe, has all of
its parts. I even believe that that chair
has been assembled exactly the way it ought to be assembled.
But until I sit down in that chair, I've never trusted the
chair. And you may look at Jesus and
say, oh yeah, he's pretty good. Oh yeah, he died on the cross
and he rose. But salvation is in your heart
belief. It's where you finally say to
him, say, you know, Jesus, you did that for me. And you know
what? I'm gonna make you my savior. I'm tired of man's witness. I'm
tired of what this guy says and what that guy says. And I'm just
gonna look to that record in heaven and say, I believe you.
I believe that you have given us eternal life. And I believe
that this life is in your son. And I'm just gonna sit right
down on Jesus today. And I'm going to rest here for
a while. And then I'm going to learn to
love him. And then I can serve him. There's something about
a four-year-old. A four-year-old looks at the chair
and says, oh, you want me to sit down? Sure. They don't know the size of bolts
that are in the legs. They don't know what kind of
wood this leg is made out of. All they know that there was
a chair that they were supposed to sit down on. And that's how
easy Jesus made it for us. We didn't understand all the
ins and outs of salvation. All we knew is that God sent
his son to die for us and that we're a sinner. And if we receive
him, we could be saved. There's a lot more to that chair
than I understand. There's a lot more stitching,
there's a lot more things that are underneath that are supporting
it all and holding it all together. I've never seen that. But I don't
need you to sit down. And you don't need to know a
whole lot more about Jesus either to trust him. You have to believe
the record. That God in heaven told you that
he gives you eternal life and this life is in his son. And
he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. There's two groups in this room. We have 20 languages, nationalities,
but God looks down and he sees two different distinct groups.
Those that don't have the Son and those that do. Then he says,
won't you believe on my Son? Won't you trust my son in your
heart? Then you can be saved. Amen. I like how simple Jesus
makes things for us. Believing is receiving. You have to receive God's word
as God's word. If you don't receive God's word
as God's word, then you don't even believe the thing I'm saying
tonight. 1 Thessalonians 2.13, for this cause also thank we
God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of
God which you heard of us, you receive it not as a word of men,
but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh
also in you that believe. Believing is receiving. You must
receive the Son. In Colossians 2.6 it says, And
as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk
ye in Him. Received Jesus Christ our Lord. Acts 2.41 Then they that gladly
received His word, received His word. John 1.11 And He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. But As many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name. How do you apply salvation? Belief. Belief. That's what the Bible
says. Amen? There should be no dispute
about that. If you are here tonight and you
are lost, and you don't have Jesus Christ in your heart, All
you have to do is believe. And if you believe, you'll receive. If you receive, you'll be given
as a free gift without any compensation or equivalent return. A free
gift of eternal life. And that eternal life begins
the moment you receive it. And that word eternal means perpetual.
So that means when I receive eternal life, when I have the
Son, I have Jesus, and I receive Jesus, I also receive perpetual
life. Perpetual life is because since
Jesus is in me, I'm now reconnected to life in heaven with God. And
it's perpetual forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. And all I have to do is believe. Amen. Let's bow our heads. Will you say yes to God for salvation? Will you say yes, I believe the
record, preacher? Let me ask you this, as we're
seated here just for a moment, You'd say, preacher, I believe
the record that God has given to us concerning his son. And
you wanna signify that by lifting up your hand. Say, I believe
it. With all of my heart, I believe it. Amen, amen. Now maybe tonight you'd say,
Pastor Friesen, when I came in here, I really didn't know what
I believed. but all I know is I want to receive
Jesus as my Savior tonight. I would like to be saved tonight.
I don't want to call God a liar. He told me the truth. He told
me how to be saved. And I'm the only one looking,
Pastor Sullivan's looking, that you'd say, I would like to receive
Jesus as my Savior. Could you just slip your hand
up so I could see that and I'll pray for you? And I won't point
you out. I'd just like to pray for you. Christian, we got a great work ahead of
us here. But let's keep the message simple. Let's tell others about
Jesus. God is testifying. Are we testifying? Maybe you need to come forward.
Maybe you need to pray for someone that you are burdened about their
soul, that they would be saved. As we stand to our feet, our
heads bowed, our eyes closed, as musicians play, if you need
to come forward tonight, please come forward. If you're here tonight, you have
not received Jesus Christ as your savior. Or maybe you just
need help to understand. Say, I don't know if I did. I'm
a little confused about that. And you'd like some help. We're
here to help you. We are your friends. And we would like to
take the Bible and show you. If you'll come forward, we'll
have someone take the scriptures and show you about salvation.
Say Yes To God For Salvation
Series Say Yes To God
| Sermon ID | 21171713126 |
| Duration | 48:12 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | 1 John 5:1-13 |
| Language | English |
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