a subject tonight, and I changed what I was going to preach. But four things God wants you to know. I believe one thing he wants us to know is this. If we had a, I imagine, a screen, you know, up there, and some people, you know, would be totally against that, too. But with the ability that I could take this tile and say, four things God wants you to know, and putting the go in the gospel, and I would have the go in the gospel. with a bright letters, different color. Thank you, brother. You need to be saved. I was telling Valerie and Matt, I talked to a preacher, Southern Baptist preacher. They have a church in Lexington. They have 2,000 or 3,000 people on the rows. I said, what's your attendance? And he said, there was 2,400 some, 500 some. So you really don't have 3,000 members if only 450 or 500 trumps. So I believe in a situation like he explained to me, and this is personal belief, I'm not judging him at all, but I believe there's a lot of members in that church that's never been saved. When I lived down on 2nd Street where Sister Rita lived when she passed away. Some of you know, and I hate to speak of him because he's dead now, but Mr. Brown, who did own a nursing home here in town. There's several liquor stores and a lot of property. He was out lectioneering. I was out in the front yard, and he introduced himself, and I introduced myself. And I said, where do you go to church? He said, we go to Ashland Avenue in Lexington. And I said, I know your pastor. And he named him. But the only problem was that the man that he named hadn't been pastor there for 15 or 20 years. And that's the way we have it in so many places. You're not going to get to heaven just because you belong to a church, Baptist or otherwise. One of the things you need to do, we need to put the go in the gospel. And I said, on my outline, I took the G-O and I made it bigger so I wouldn't forget gospel, but it's go. Our job is to take the gospel and go with it. Because except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You can join a church, You can be deacon, you can be pastor, you can be a lot of things. But if you're not born again, you're not going to glory when I go. Now the reason you need to be saved is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's what Romans 3.23 said. There is not a just man upon the face of the earth that doth good and sin of naught. Ecclesiastes 7.20. Isaiah 64.6 says we are as an unclean thing and all of our righteousness are as filthy rags. Now every verse that I've quoted here to you, you probably know it by heart. I don't know how many times I've read the book of Proverbs. I honestly couldn't tell you. But I read it once a month. I read a chapter a day. And I took my little puppy to have her groomed the other day. It's out in the country, so I decided I would just stay there and wait him. So I went back and it was election day, you know. So I read the third and the fourth and the fifth and I went back and I read the first and the second verse. Man, I seen things I had never seen before. And I've read that book of Proverbs, I don't know how many times. 12 times a year, I know, for several years. But see, God doesn't reveal things to you until you're ready for them. And I believe that churches as a whole, it's just like this country is in a terrible shape, and if Biden is elected president, it's gonna get worse. That's a fact. But what have we, God's people, done to change that? You say, I voted. We've let the Pope, said it's our right to be transgender, it's our right to be lesbian. And we still look at him as a Christian leader. He's not. Any preacher that believes in that, God hasn't called him. And I know I upset people when I say that. But one thing that I know, whether you're Baptist, Christian, Methodist, whatever you are, if God has called you into the ministry, he's called you to preach the gospel as it is to people as they are. Second thing we need to know is you cannot save yourself. And you would be shocked if you really knew how many people have joined church because they feel that's one thing that I need to do in order to grow glory. I believe every saved person ought to be in the church. I believe there's a local church. I believe there's an universal church. I belong to a local church. That's the only kind of church there is. His name is Baptist. Jesus is the founder. That's Bible. You cannot save yourself. Titus 3, 5 said, not of works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. He didn't save me because I quit drinking, quit cussing, quit doing this, quit doing that. He saved me because he granted me repentance, he granted me faith, and I accepted it. You can't save yourself. I mean, follow me. I mean, the sheriff told me this past year, he said, Brother Vance, you know, I believe I know you well, but it's dangerous knocking on doors. Brother Steve and I found that out. You know, they're scared to death. You knock on the door and they just open the door or they don't come outside. And I understand. And I don't have good news for you if the man I didn't vote for is sworn in. It'll be rougher than you ever think. But people think that I'm saved and my point was I knocked on the door one night and I asked a lady, I said, are you saved? Do you know Christ as your Lord and Savior? And she said, wait a minute. And she went in the house and she brought back a pen. She said, this is my Sunday screw pen. I haven't missed a Sunday in I forget how many years. That's good. But I want you to see the heaven. No pen in Sunday school won't get you to heaven. You know, I didn't hurt her feelings, you know, because she believed that. I was in her house, but I said, you know, have you repented of your sins? Young man, you see this pen I sold you. She believes she's going to heaven because she has not missed a Sunday school in I don't know how many years, as she said. That lady is deceived. I mean, she's probably a great woman. She's probably a great church member as far as dealing with it. But attending Sunday school every Sunday will not get you the glory. God said in Galatians 2.16, not by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But James said in James chapter two, if I remember, for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet a fin in one point, he's guilty of them all. Now if you think, Your mom was strict, or your dad was strict, or you to think your pastor is strict. God said, for whosoever shall keep the whole law. And yet a fin in one point, he's guilty of all of it. So if I, only way I could be saved was to keep the law, I would be hell bound. Because I can't keep the law. I can't even keep the first one. You say, shame on you. You may say that you love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, but you're mistaken, you don't. The second is you love your neighbor as yourself, you don't. You know why you don't? You can't. And there are religions that tell you, my favorite, people say, I don't trust, I don't drink, I don't chew, I don't hang around with people who do. Whoopee. You probably got a good breath, but other than that, you're going to hell unless you hear the gospel and repent of it. See, these are simple truths that I see why the churches are in trouble. That's why that, I mean, God has blessed us. I mean, we were just a little handful of people. And we built this building, and it bothered me every Sunday until we got this building paid for. You gotta get the building paid for to be able to do mission work. You can't have a $2,000 church building payment and you only got 30 or 40 people. That's called leadership. And I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about God. God tells us not to do mission work. to get ourselves in a place where we are in bondage, we are in, you know, with the world. God said, who shall receive the whole law and yet offend in one point? He's guilty of the law. Go back to my favorite book in Proverbs, you know, he said in Proverbs 14, 12, there's a way the same of right. unto man, but the end thereof is the way of death." And we all got our ways, you know. This is of what I believe. And I'm not trying to tell you not to believe, but I'm telling you because I love you, you know, the same reason and I'm sure you prayed for Mike, the same reason I did. I love the man. You love the man. No other reason? Why do I want to be faithful to God? Because I love him. I love my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. See, there's a way. Thirdly, Jesus has already provided for your salvation. What can I do to be saved? You know, I remember mom and Judy Kimber, Do you remember? Do you remember those at Tristram's dinner? You didn't have to bring nothing. You had everything ready. Twenty-five, thirty people eating and there was still food left. Well, Jesus has already provided for my salvation. If you're here in Los, you can't do nothing to be saved. God has already provided. But what you need, you need to hear the gospel and you need to know that whether you're nine years old or 99, you can't save yourself and you don't know when you're gonna die. I mean, I'm not bragging at all. I'm just discussing that with Sister Valerie, you know, before you. Y'all got here. You know, I was sick when I was young, you know. When I was born, they weren't doing open heart surgery. I was born with a bad heart, rheumatic fever, you know. Why did God keep me alive until 1978 when I had my first heart surgery? Why did he keep me alive until the last heart surgery? Because God had a plan for me. And when God has a plan for you, nothing can take you out of here until that plan comes to pass. First Peter chapter two verse 24 said, who Jesus, his own self, bared our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live, notice, unto righteousness. Means I'll never reach that righteous stage, but unto. That should be my goal, that I'm a little closer to the Lord today than I was yesterday. It's amazing, I mean, I sat out there in the truck for 45 minutes just reading the Bible, scriptures I'd already read many, many, many, many, many times. But God let it pop out, pop out. I said, man, I know why I love that book now. Go home and read the first four chapters or get up in the morning, read the first four chapters of Proverbs. Don't just get freed. You'll see how good God has been to you. Christ also have once suffered for sin. He's not gonna come back and get a redo. I believe if you're here tonight and you doubt your salvation, you ought to do just like the two ladies on the back, you ought to be rebaptized. But there really is no such thing as re-baptism. Because if you're truly saved and somebody baptizes you, that's all you need. But if you think down the road, I'm not sure, what do you do? But what if I've truly had scriptural baptism? Then you just got me wet and you wet and everybody said, oh, I'm so proud of you. It didn't amount to nothing. But see, it's for a conscious sake. If I knew tonight, believed tonight that my baptism that I would save sometime after that Tuesday morning, I would tell the church I need scriptural baptism. Which one of y'all want to baptize me under the authority of Emory & Rhodes Baptist Church? If you want to, it's all you need. People have laughed at me on this day, said, I know I'm saved, I've been baptized five times. You've baptized so many times, you look like a prune. It's not gonna get you to glory. You're baptized because you believe that God has saved you and you wanna be a part of that church. Four, Jesus will enable you to overcome Second Peter 219 said, the Lord know of how to deliver the godly out of temptation. Ain't that a good verse? You can't stop it. But God's, now let's notice, the Lord know of how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust until the day of judgment. In other words, he's able to cause you to quit doing something and keep you from doing it until he takes you home. Some of us not as strong. We don't know, but I know that God is able. So the four things that God wants you to know that you need to be saved, you cannot save yourself, Jesus has already provided for your salvation, and four, Jesus will enable you to overcome temptation. Now your part. Repent and turn from sin. See, just acknowledging that you got a problem won't take care of it. God said, except you repent, it's all likewise perish. That's what it says in Luke 13 through. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And that includes me, and you, and everybody else. Repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart, that leads to a change of action. What is your part? Believe. Acts 16, 31 says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy whole house. And you can believe any word that God leads you to. I wasn't saved in the church. I was saved in a car on the US-25 going to work. But I'd been going to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, and I believed that Brother Bill He didn't like me because he wasn't preaching to anybody else but me. See, when you sit under preaching and you say, he's preaching at me, that's good preaching for you. And if you're lost, you need to do it now. You know, I'll help people. But if you know you're lost, all you got to do is say, Lord, I want to be saved. Somebody will tell you, well, to be saved, you got to hear the word and believe the word and say, God, if you really heard and you really believe, you know what God will do? He'll grant you repentance. He'll grant you repentance. When do you need to do it? You need to do it now. I mean, surely we don't think that it's better to be saved on a Sunday than it is Wednesday, do we? I was saved on Tuesday. Tuesday morning, about 6.45, The only reason I know that, I was about 20 minutes from work and I got to be at work at 7.24. But I'm just as safe if I didn't know exactly when. The question is, do you know it now? But Paul said, behold, you know, when somebody's in danger, he said, behold, the bridge is out. That was Bible terms. They would say, behold, something you need to hear. And God would say, you know, behold, now is the day of salvation. You know why today is the day of salvation? You may die tonight. How shall we escape if we didn't elect so great a salvation? And the fourth thing that you need to do, or I need to do, is remember. You need to remember that God is the one that gives you the breath you have right now. You know, Leah, Husband, you know, he, my ass, I was his wife. So, well, they're trying to wean her off of the ventilator. But when they shut it down, she can't breathe. When you can't breathe, you're dying. And there's a lot of people that I love that goes around carrying option. I'm thankful for option. Got to remember that there's no certainty about tomorrow. And the reason is, every one of us ought to remember Hebrews 9.27. It's appointed unto man once to die. Now, you know, I had a person the other day that said, I heard you take this COVID seriously. I thought you believed in an appointed time to die. Oh, I do. I'm gonna die right on time. Bad heart, good heart. Strong head, no head. I'm gonna die right on time. But, do you wanna spend your last days on a ventilator? Brother Mike is gonna die right on time. But for him to live and be as he is tonight, he had to have some artificial help. Where's your faith? Ain't that stupid? I think that's stupid. My faith, I'll tell you where my faith was. My faith was on that ventilator when I had my chest spread open like a spread eagle. I would still be living today because I haven't died yet. If you want to call that living. But he that believeth on me shall not come into judgment. So as we close, my last statement. You know, if you're here tonight at a loss, you're here tonight out of God's will, you need to take care of your situation. But Joshua said in Joshua 24 and around verse 15, choose you this day whom ye will serve. And you serve those that you believe. I serve God because I believe God. I believe God is the reason I'm alive tonight. I believe God's the reason Steve's alive, Judy's alive, Mike's alive, Jim's alive, Neil's alive. Neil's not alive because she's young. Young people die too. I've got two brothers I haven't ever seen. But I will see them, and I'll know them. You know. Choose you this day, whom ye will serve. And this is hard for fathers and husbands. He said, choose ye this day whom ye will serve. Each one of us got to choose. If I could choose for my kids, I'd choose for them. If I could get my kids to believe what I believe, I would, but I can't. And I'm not going to sit back and say I was a bad dad and I was a bad this and tell you. My kids had food on the table and clothes on their back. It wasn't the best, but it was clothes and food. And I told all three of them how to be saved, preached to them. And none of them was in a sound church. But I ain't going to take that burden because I, you know, God saved me when I was young enough. Be an influence on those you can. Be an influence.