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Well today I wanted to specifically talk about salvation because it is a topic that really
bothers a lot of people. It really bothers them. A lot of people just wonder, you know,
am I saved? Do I have the grace of Jesus and am I not going to hell? A lot of people have
a lot of fear about hell and they feel that they're going to go there and they feel they
got not hope. Some people read verses in the Bible that they believe condemn them and they
feel that they're not on the way to heaven but on their way to the fire. And so they
get all worried and concerned about ending up in hell and it causes a lot of people to
fall away from their faith. If they have a little faith they fall away from it. Some
people they go and get baptised nine times because each time they feel they need to get
baptised again because they feel that the other time was not good enough. Sometimes
they just go from church to church wondering if they can find a better one to feel more
saved and to feel the power of God in them. Sometimes people feel that they're just not
quite there in their faith and so they feel condemned or don't feel they're in the righteous
way. They don't feel right before God. And so they have a lot of troubles in life. A
lot of condemnation. A lot of guilt. They worry; hey you know I must not be on my way
to heaven I must be on my way to hell. They feel that they're not being saved they are
being condemned because of certain things in the past or things that keep worrying them
now or things that trouble them now. Sins they might be in now and they feel there is
no hope for them. But I want to tell you the truth about the way of salvation today. And
I want to tell you how when we follow the this wonderful way of salvation, we are going
to find that confidence that we need on this earth. And dear friends that all comes when
we realize who the Lord is and how he is here to bring us into the kingdom and is not here
to cast us away. When you realise that Jesus is here to save us then we can have joy in
knowing that the Lord does not condemn people. We condemn ourselves when we walk away into
the paths of sin. But the Lord isn't here to condemn us the Lord is here to save us
and so if we are on that path of doubt and worry about falling into the fire and not
being ready for the Lord, it is time to have faith in the Lord Jesus and realize who he
really is. Realize why he's here. Jesus came here for one reason. I can read it to you
in 1 John 5: we know that the son of God has come and given us understand, that we may
know him as true and that we are in him as true even in him the son Jesus Christ. This
is the true God and everlasting life... I can read on in the John 10:28 Jesus says that;
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them
from my hand. And I can also read in John three verse 15 and 16 that; whoever believes
in him shall not perish but have eternal life... So dear friends no matter what anybody says
nor no matter what you think; if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and we give ourselves
to him, we are going to be saved. If he is for us then who can be against us. And that
is why we repent. That is why we turn from evil and sin because we know that when we
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and want to follow him on the narrow way, we know that
nobody can be against us. Who can be against us and pluck us out of his hand, nobody. Satan
can't nor can the powers of darkness nor can any person. It is only we who can choose our
wickedness choose our sin and then just go and walk away and condemn ourselves in our
wickedness. But we who love the Lord we know that nothing can pluck us away from the look,
so let us stop having doubts today. We can have one baptism of faith and live for the
Lord. We don't need to have 10 baptisms. We don't need to go to a new doctrine and a new
church. We can get to know the Creator himself the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. We do that
when we have faith and decide to go pray to the Lord. He is not a Lord that is deaf and
dumb. He is not a Lord that doesn't speak and hear and lead and give assurance and peace.
He is a Lord that if you actually seek him you will find him. I can read it here in the
words of Jesus where he says in the book of John, he says; if you seek me you'll find
me. He goes on to say those who knock the door will be opened. Those who seek will find.
He says that those who don't seek what little they have will be taken from them. So many
people they don't seek. But the Lord says that those who seek will find and those who
knock the door will be opened. So friends we are here to seek and find. We are here
to dedicate to the Lord in repentance and truth and stay with him. I want to tell you
how Jesus called me out of the world. I used to live my own way but the Lord called me
to repent and start to seek him and to pray and to seek him for who he is as the real
living son of God. And so I got on my knees I started to pray to the Lord and asking to
know me because he's the living son of God. And the Lord came to me. He filled me with
peace. He took away my bondage to sin. This is real folks. This isn't just some religion.
He took away my bondage to sin that I was in because I repented of my sin and I turned
away from it. You see it is through the grace of God that the reality of the living God
can come into us. Then you don't need to get baptized 10 times to feel saved. Then you
don't need to go to 10 churches to feel saved. You don't need to try and feel saved when
you get to know Jesus, because the sheer power of the Lord, the reality of his wonderful
love and truth is going to minister to you anyway. And that alone will give you the new
way that you need. And that's why I want to talk about today is if you're full of doubt
and you wondering according to Romans this or Hebrews that, you know I feel condemned
I don't think I'm on my way to heaven. Well maybe you're not on your way to heaven today.
Maybe you are in sin and you're on your way to the fire. Well so what we have the way
to be saved and that is through a relationship with the Lord. So doesn't matter if we are
condemned today and on our way to the fire, so what. You know today is the day of salvation.
Today's the day that we get to know the Lord and we turn from our old way and we come on
the new. That's where the change begins when the old way becomes the new way. It is not
just words. Not just Ahh I want to go the way.... you know it's actually let's come
on the new way. Let's realize the reality of giving ourselves to the Lord Jesus, and
having him come into our life, and having him transform us because we decide to get
on our knees and seek the Lord for who he really is. That's what we should be doing.
Jesus can sound all very unreal, you might be going to church and listening about Jesus
there or reading the Bible and listening about Jesus there there and you just don't feel
the reality of Jesus anymore. You just feel he is a bit far away from your problems right
now. Well that might be true for you right now but it is not true if you go and seek
him. That's why I talk about this wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ that if you go and
seek you are going to find. Jesus said if you knock the door will be opened. If you
seek you will find. That's what it's all about. It is all about seeking the kingdom of God
that we can find it. It is all about seeking Jesus Christ so we can find him. Jesus said
in Revelation that he is standing at the door knocking and if you open the door he will
come in. these things aren't just figures of speech. These things aren't just things
that are written and you can just say it and go about your own life. No these things are
actually reality. A real situation. What will really happen to you if you go and seek. So
if we seek to know the Lord and we actually start speaking to him like you just open your
mouth and start speaking to God, you want to know the Lord your saviour, the one who
saves, then you got to get into prayer. You got to seek him for who he really is. You
got to seek him asking; Well Lord you have helped this person here and these people you
have freed from sin and healed these people, I want to know you too. And that's what it's
all about. Jesus Christ gave many people different revelations about the truth. He gave the apostle
Paul revelation from heaven about his reality and Paul was converted that very day. And
he gave these things to give a powerful testimony to the world that Jesus is real and living.
Jesus did that for me too. He set me free from sin and came into my life and started
to speak to me and show me things and gave me a new way. A new way to follow. And these
things are to prove that Jesus is real and if you ask and seek you will find. That's
what it's all about; if you seek you will find. But how many of us spend our time seeking.
Are we more interested in having our doubts and get getting baptized 10 times just because
we don't feel saved? Or are we more interested in trying to find the right doctrine in churches
or websites or in the Bible or wherever we want to try and find the right doctor and
we believe will save us. Are we trying to find the right verse or something that is
going to make us feel more saved? Or are we actually going to the Lord himself who is
alive, who is real, who has power and believing that he is who he is! The Lord says I am who
I am. Now I want to read what it says in Ephesians 2:8 for by grace that we have been saved through
faith and it is not of ourselves but a gift of God. Not of any works lest any man should
boast for we are his workmanship created in Jesus Christ unto good works that God has
ordained for us from the beginning. You see the Lord has a plan for everybody. He has
got something for you to do. You are not just created to live your life on this earth and
try and make ends meet and hopefully be a good citizen before you die and life grinds
on... no we are here for an actual purpose to do the works of God that he has ordained
for us from the beginning... but if we don't know him and if we just are not led by the
Lord and just doubt him and he is not our God, then how are we living out our purpose?
We are just living our own way. Just getting baptized 10 times just to feel saved. This
is not the path of salvation. That is the path of a doubting man. But the path of salvation
is to directly go to the Lord for real and get into a personal relationship with him.
That all comes friends the minute we start to pray and dedicate unto the Lord Jesus and
we become serious about him where we go to the Lord in prayer and we asked the Lord;
please know me and please forgive me of my sin... and you go to him and tell him that.
You ask him to free you from your evil. The evil deeds you are doing. A lot of people
they decide to believe in Jesus and they say well he is the Son of God and I believe the
Bible but the thing is they always have a BUT. But I got to live my life. These sins
I am doing I am born into them I can't change. Or they just feel that; I am not strong enough
to walk the narrow way I cannot just put all this sin out. They are just bound to all their
*** and guilt. They feel guilty everyday and condemn. You know why is this? It is because
we need to have a relationship with Jesus to be able to walk in the light and to be
in the light where we can be confident before God. And how does that relation come? That
relationship come? It comes if we are really serious about Jesus and we start to take him
for who he is. If you start to realize that he is the son of God and is the one who sets
you free from sin, he is the one that died for you, well if you can start to believe
that then you can go to him and start to realize that the Lord loves you and is not going to
condemn you for your sins. He is going to ask you to repent of your sin and come to
him so he can wash you cleane from your sin. That's what the Bible says the Bible says
that the Lord came to call sinners unto repentance. He comes to call us to repent and turn from
our ways and follow him. That's what he called Peter as well. He came to Peter and said to
come follow me. The way wasn't easy but the way was the way of righteousness and a new
way. No more living the old way. And Jesus Christ cleanses all people from their ways
and their sins and he gives us power to live a new way, but if we just don't know him and
we just don't follow him, then how can we have that new way? It just doesn't come through
religion. It doesn't come through our church attendance. It doesn't come through even reading
the Bible, it comes through actually getting into a relationship with the Lord. That is
where the power come. You know all these other things can point us to the right direction.
These ministers or people who speak the truth or a church that's in the truth or the Bible
or any of these things that the Lord might use, but if we're not willing to heed and
actually go to the Lord ourselves, then how can we be saved? How can we have the assurance
of salvation? We are just going to want to feel all unsaved all the time thinking that;
hey you know today I am probably condemned. We got to start to realize one thing; salvation
is not something that you suddenly get one day. Salvation is actually a walk, a road.
It is called the way of salvation. Salvation is a walk, a way. It is called the race or
faith. It is not something that you suddenly attain. Salvation is something you receive
as a reward after walking in the way of faith all your life. Along that road you may stumble.
You may pass through the shadow of the valley of death. You may very nearly be falling away
into things that could cause you to end up in the fire. But that's why we have to follow
Jesus because he's the way of salvation. You know it is the small flock that will enter
his rest, those who follow Jesus. Jesus won't lead you into paths of sin. He will lead you
through the gate of salvation. That's what Jesus said in his own words that; I'm the
narrow gate to the father. He says that many will try to enter but will not be able to.
Because obviously they wouldn't want to have faith in him and follow Jesus and we can't
find that narrow gate if we're not following Jesus. So instead of saying I have lost my
salvation today, why don't you instead realize that we got to start walking the way of salvation,
where we receive salvation as a reward after finishing the walk. And let us instead get
off our detours, get off our sidepaths, and come back to that way the narrow way of following
Jesus where we actually listen to him. We can re-dedicate to it and get onto the way
and start walking on the way of faith and don't deviate. You know you can't suddenly
be cut off from that way and suddenly not saved again. That is a whole bunch of lies.
You are not even saved to begin with. We are on the WAY TO SALVATION in the hope of salvation.
That is why we have hope. Hope drive us on have faith. Is not that wonderful. We would
not have any hope if we attain everything now, we would already be in heaven. We don't
need hope there because you're there, but while we're not there, while we're walking
on the way of salvation, we're going to come across many pitfalls and dangers so we got
to be vigilant watchful. We don't want to be like the doubting man. He is not even walking
the way of faith. We don't want to be like the sinner because they haven't even left
the city of destruction yet. They haven't even begun the race of faith. We want to be
those who begin the race of faith and are actually in prayer starting the race of faith.
Getting to know the Lord so he can start to lead us daily. And the we're going to walk
through the race of faith following the Lord as his sheep. Jesus said that my sheep follow
me because he is the good Shepherd. And so it all comes down to not how many times we
have been baptized or been to different churches and religions we have been baptized into.
Some people they get baptized into different denominations because they feel that one might
be more true than the other one. And they think they will be more saved now. No that
is not even starting the race of faith yet. All those things are a diversion. The way
to start the race of faith is to get into that repentance and prayer and acceptance
and seeking of the Lord Jesus who is who he is the son of God. The one who has the power
to give us the new way that he gave me new way to follow and now I've started on the
race of faith. I want to keep going on this race. Easy to be sidetracked. Easy to go down
a path that you shouldn't go down. Some paths have a very bad end, you don't want to go
down some paths. The end can be your destruction where you are one of the many who didn't make
it. But that's why we have that steadfastness. Why else would Paul talk so much about this?
Be steadfast. Fix your eyes on the prize. Run with endurance. Temptation develops endurance.
And you know all these things develop perseverance. These things are needed to walk the race of
Faith. Because the way of faith is not so easy at times. You may be getting a lot of
testing to fall away from the faith or you might feel that God is not there for you at
the moment because he's decided to give you a time of trial. And you say, well Lord where
are you? I needs money I need this and that. And so you start to try and go off your own
power and you forget to trust in the Lord who made all things. And so you know you're
starting to go down the wrong path. And then Jesus calls out and says I was here all along.
Why did you leave me. Why did you doubt? He reaches out a hand and pulls you back up.
That's what Peter was like too. It is a bit of an analogy of what happened to him. Peter
was called out on the water doing something that was supernatural by the power of God
which nobody can do, and then he realized that. He started to sink as you should. And
Jesus pulled him up and said why do you doubt? Why do you doubt? You know friends the way
of faith is supernatural and against reasoning and against the way of the flesh. It is not
a way that you can just come on and then just live your own way. You know the way of the
flesh friends, is a way where we got to dedicate. We just got to be serious and we got to really
lay faith in that way and we seek the Lord till we find him. That's the only way we going
to be able to find the way of faith and walk it if we decide to go to the Lord ourselves.
Now I can't teach you to have faith. I cant say have faith. That's not going to work.
But I can say that look when I prayed and I dedicated to Jesus and I asked him to forgive
me, I had peace. I had freedom from sins I could not stop before. Suddenly I was a new
way. I can tell you these things that I did this happened so why don't you do the same.
It is real have faith in that. You think well you know it happened for this guy so why don't
I go and do the same and seek the Lord for myself. And if Jesus does all this for me,
why would he not do it for you? Considering he does it for anybody who calls out and he
says it in the Bible himself: anybody who knocks the door will be opened. Anybody who
seeks will find. Everybody who asks will be given. So when we ask for the kingdom we ask
of the Lord, he is going to give you his salvation way to follow. He is going to give you freedom
from sin to follow. You don't have to be in all this guilt because you're doing sin that
you don't want to do everyday. You think I failed again! Well you have, but Jesus can
set you free from that if you're willing to repent of it. If you're willing to have that
desire and that choice to turn away from those sins, Jesus is willing to free you from them.
He is willing to free you from all kinds of things. It does come from the power of God.
It doesn't come from our own power. We can't free ourselves. A lot of people have a lot
of willpower and sure they can stop some things in their life. Some people are able to stop
smoking. Some people are able to stop doing all kinds of things. But on one area they
are successful there is always another area that the power of darkness has got them. And
that is their weakness. So the powers of darkness and wont bother with their strong areas, they
already got them in their weak areas and that is all they need to take them off to the fire
anyway, slavery to sin. So that is why we need the Lord Jesus to set us free in all
areas. Not just in one area. You know Jesus just doesn't set you free in one area of your
life and he leaves you bound to sins in another area. No Jesus sets you free from all areas
all sin. So we actually able to walk free from doing sin in all areas of our life. The
power to be able to walk on the narrow way comes through faith. It comes through seeking.
It comes from walking to Jesus. You know it is time for us to get victory in all areas
of our life. I am not saying that temptation won't come it will come. I am not saying that
your sinful nature will suddenly disappear and you become like you are redeemed. No you
wont, you will have the sinful nature to tempt you. But what I'm saying is the Lord will
free you from the action of sin, from doing it, from following those desires and the ways
of the flesh like being a helpless slave to the flesh helplessly addicted to *** or substances
or fowl words, or helpless enslaved to lying. Maybe you got a problem of some kind that
you cannot stop doing sin and you're doing the sin. Now Jesus sets you free from the
sin so you no longer have to do it. You can say no and turn away from temptations. That's
what Jesus does. He gives you the power to overcome so when certain desires can rise
up and try and pull you back onto false paths of the past, you got that wonderful power
to very firmly and powerfully say no. keep away from those things and they go away and
they just wait for another opportunity time. That's what the devil does. He will come back
later at an opportune time but he is going to leave you alone if you say no and you'r
set free from sin by the power of God. That's why it's so wonderful to walk on this way
of salvation. When we're walking on the way of salvation, even though we come across many
side allies that we can go down, we don't have to go down them. The wonderful thing
is we can stay focused on the Lord Jesus where we don't have to go down any side allies.
We don't have to go down any other paths, diversions. We can stay on the way. But the
thing is if we do actually happen to find ourselves lost down a diversion, it doesn't
mean that we are all condemned now. No we can come back and we got to cry out to Jesus.
And that's where we find the new way and hope. We're not condemned. We got to cry out to
Jesus. As long as you have a voice to cry out to the Lord, you're going to be saved.
He is going to come to your aid and bring you back on the narrow way. Jesus is going
to give us mercy but if we don't want to come back there is nothing he can do and we are
going to have satan as our father. But we don't want Satan as our father we really want
to obey Jesus. All of us who love him. We are here to obey Jesus hallelujah. We are
here to love the Lord with all our heart mind and soul. So that when temptation comes to
do our sins we feel we want to do, we got a higher calling we love the Lord. He loves
us we don't have to do these things and we can turn away from them and we have been set
free. So friends again I want to say that if you feel you're not saved. Let us put aside
all such foolish nonsense and realize that hey today is the day to start walking the
narrow way to salvation. Walking with Jesus in a relationship. No such thing as losing
our salvation. You don't suddenly be condemned one day and that is it, finished for you.
That's a whole lot of lies from Satan. You don't need to be baptized another time to
somehow be saved. Nor do you need to go to a different church or different doctrine.
What you need to do is you need to embrace Jesus. Get to know him, so that he can lead
you to salvation. And it won't come all at once. You may have a few years to go where
you go walk faithfully, and stay in the faith all the way to the end, and then at the end
of your race then you will inherit the crown of life. And that's what we're here to have
is this wonderful crown of life where our prize of life, the eternal prize, and that
prize is going to be ours as soon as we just dedicate ourselves to the Lord and just follow
Jesus amen. And he is going to lead us unto victory. Because Jesus doesn't lead you the
false park like false shepherds. He is the good Shepherd. But you have to have him lead
you. How can you go the way of salvation if Jesus doesn't lead you? Because who knows
that way. People don't know the way. They might have wisdom about the way, they might
themselves be led by Jesus but they can't in turn lead you. You also got to be in turn
looking at the good Shepherd. You also got to be listening to his voice and he's going
to help you. He's going to lead you himself. He is going to bring you onto the way of salvation
if you seek to know him. If you really want him. If you're really wanting to find him
that means you are going to pray. You are going to seek to know him because he does
speak to you. He will give you words for today. He will confirm you today that he wants you
to do something and he is pleased with you in a way or he wants you to repent of something.
He will show you in your heart things. But you got to go to him and you got to realize
that he is the way to the kingdom only but you got to follow him. People might sound
all good and might sound pretty good to follow but they're not the way. People are not the
way to life. Preachers are not the way to heaven. They can't lead you there. They can
tell you about Jesus. They can tell you about Jesus leading them, but they themselves can't
lead you to find the Lord. You got to seek him yourself. They can't lead you into heaven,
you got to follow Jesus. So that's what it comes down to friends is that we have to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ ourselves to be able to find the way into the kingdom of God hallelujah.
It's the only way. There is no other way. It is the way of salvation. No more do we
need to feel guilty today and say we're condemned by this bible verse and we are in too much
sin now and got no hope. That is a lie. You've got hope to come out of any false path you're
on today if you would only come pray to Jesus about it and get freed by him. He is not going
to turn you away. You know John 10:28: I give them eternal life and they will never perish
says the Lord. You know he gives people eternal life. It is through faith friends, and you
got to go to the Lord yourself. And thats how we find salvation. We find it after a
walk of following Jesus and Jesus gives us that confidence daily when we walk with him,
to keep walking and to keep the faith in our hope because we know as we walk with Jesus
that he is pleased with us and we have peace and we have hope strength confidence that
the fruits of the spirit doing things for the Lord, joy, all these things that we have
when we know that we're walking right with God. But if you're not walking right with
the Lord today, you need to get praying and walk right with him. Because when we are not
walking right with the Lord, that means we're not walking after the Lord. We are actually
on a diversion somewhere. You know this world is full of diversions. The different doctrines
are diversions. All these different segregationists and churches are diversions. We don't needed
to be diverted into getting baptized 10 times. We need to have a go to Jesus himself and
start following him so we are no longer in a diversion. Diversions always lead off to
the path of despair anyway. It always leads off to a path of sin and we end up dying in
sin and go to the fire. We don't need to follow diversions. We need to follow the Lord Jesus
and we need to know him, and when we follow him and we know him, he just keeps leading
us onto that way of salvation through faith. We inherit the crown of life. And Jesus isn't
going to say to us on the last day, go away I never knew you, you worker of sin. Because
Jesus did know you, and you were not a worker of sin because he set you free from sin. You
know Jesus knows he set you free from sin, he knows who you are. Because he set you free
from sin. He says "I remember you, I set you free from sin, and you were following me as
part of my flock." Jesus isn't going to say to you I never knew you, you worker of sin,
if you follow him, because he knows you. That is why friends we got to seek the Lord. When
we fall away from a sin we got to repent and we got to come back out of it. Some people
say that Jesus makes you so that you never ever sin and so people think they are not
saved because they fell away to a sin one day. And some people say that you will always
sin and Jesus will forgive you. That is not true either, because Jesus wont forgive you
if you just always live in sin and you wont repent. People say that because they want
to hang on to their sins. They want to really hang onto their lusts a lot. They want to
keep doing that. It is good to them and they want to have the peace to do sin and feel
they can be saved while doing that. That is why some change the bible. That is why you
get homosexual churches will change the scriptures about homosexuality to make it seem ok for
them in their sin in the love of God that they feel they can be saved still because
they really love the sin and they don't want to turn from it. They same things goes for
other sins. People really love their failures, they really love the fact that they don't
have to be accountable. They don't like the narrow way which is a little difficult. They
want to keep going after their temptations and not having to be accountable before God.
And so they make up these doctrines that say we are all saved and Jesus will forgive you.
You wont always sin if you follow Jesus and he wont forgive you if you wont repent. But
for all of those who do repent, they Lord loves them and chastises them, and scourges
everybody that he receives for God deals with you as sons. We are partakers of the eternal
life. And it says in Hebrews that when we are chastises, it might be displeasureable
but it is for our own good and it brings forth fruits of peace and righteousness. So when
we are in our sins and the Lord chastises us because we are in a false path and we feel
pretty bad because the terrible things that happen to us because of sin, these things
chastise us unto repentance. Then we get peace and we come on the new way and get fruits
of righteousness. That is what it is all about. It is all about following Jesus on the way
to salvation. And if we do fall away and get into a false path, we can come back. We can
keep walking on that way. It doesn't have to end. Today can be the way where we find
the narrow way and stay on it, or we can come back to the narrow way from an area we have
fallen to. We don't have to stay away from Jesus, today we can know him. Today he can
be our Lord. Today he can be leading us in that relationship that we so desperately need.
People just desperately need that relationship with Jesus. They really need that. They really
thirst and hunger after the Lord. And you are going to get that if you really thirst
and seek that. If you want to turn away from your sin and you just want to seek and turn
to the Lord and you just want to have that peace and relationship with the Lord but you
got to SEEK it friends.....