Glen Bond Nov. 18, 2007 Picayune Ms Subject : What must I do to be saved? Acts 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house What can anyone do to be saved? You that are here tonight, those that want to be saved. What can you do to be saved? I want to try yo give you some hope . Most of the worldly churches preach that salvation is simply saying a prayer. Just admit that you are a sinner, and ask God to forgive your sins. But, you must be earnest and sincere when you ask. Now every sinner that ever gets saved, will admit to God that he is a sinner, and you will want forgivness of your sin. However, saying the sinners prayer (so called) will not save you. This is much the same as saying magic words that control God and command him to save. I tell you that God is not controlled by man. Your magic words will have no effect on God. You can say a sinners prayer every day till you die, but you will die and go to Hell. All of the emphasis of salvation is on man and what he does, and leaves God out altogether. What does the Bible say about salvation. Jonah 2:9 Salvation is of the LORD. Salvation was totally designed and implemented by God. It is a work of God and man has no part in it. You and I can't do one thing to save a lost sinner. You can't do one thing to save yourself. Where does this leave your 'magic words' or sinners prayer? You can't do one thing. Yet, every sinner has a responsibility to seek the Lord. Isaiah 1:18 says ...Come now,... You are called to come to Christ. Come NOW. Well, where is Christ? He must be sought out. You must find him. He doesn't stand in your face for you to ridicule in your lost condition, but you must find him. If you truly want something then you will make the required effort to obtain it. I have seen this over and over in my own life. This does not pertain only to seeking the Lord, but to anything in this life. If you want it, then you MUST make a continued effort to obtain it. If you don't get what you want, then you must try again, and continue on until you get the desired results. It is the same when seeking the Lord, You must keep on until you find him. Here is King David talking to his son: 1 Chronicles 28:9 9 And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, HE WILL BE FOUND of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; If you won't have Christ, then you have no hope except Hell. Here again is the prophet Azariah talking to the people: 2 Chronicles 15:2 2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. if ye seek him, he will be found of you. This is Gods word, Gods promise to you. If you will seek the Lord, you WILL find him. Now when we consider salvation, we must consider the whole word of God. This is where many Go astray, they will take a verse that says: Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved... And they will leave out verses like Luke 13:3 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. and, John 6:44 44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: They will say, "All you need to do is believe" Well surely you must believe, but faith without repentance is not a saving faith. It won't save you and if you die in this condition, you will surely perish. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, -"AND"- that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. So you must have some type and measure of faith before you will ever seek the Lord. If you truly want to be saved, then you have some faith. The faith you have is not saving faith, and you may not have much of it, but it is there. Lets look at an example of seeking the Lord. Mark 10:17 And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? This man sought out the Lord. We don't see here that the Lord came to him. It says ...he came running... The man came as if it were urgent, it couldn't wait. I must know now. This is how you will come to the Lord. He kneeled to him...this is a form of submission. Every sinner will submit to Christ and to His will before you are ever saved. He said ...Good master... He acknowleged that God is good and righteous, giving to all what is just and right. This is what many today need to learn. The world today is so warped and twisted in it values that they think that God is obligated to save everyone. They say that God wouldn't send anyone to Hell, that wouldn't be fair of him. To save one and leave another. To acknowlrge God's righteousness is to accept the fact that God has no obligations toward you. He doesn't have to save you. He came reasoning with the Lord ... what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? He told the Lord what was on his heart. It should be noted here that this man didn't want salvation, he didn't want to go to heaven when he died, he didn't want to know Christ, What he wanted was to live forever. Now we could go into a long discussion about exactly what he wanted, but that is not my point. What I want you to see here is that this man came to Christ and was honest about what he asked. He told the Lord just what he wanted. You will get honest and tell the Lord, truthfully, what you want before you ever obtain salvation. He could have thought and said, "well, he might think that I don't care about God if I ask this..." "He might think that I only want to live forever so that I can be wicked and never be killed..." "He might think... what ever! This is how many today reason in their mind. If I want this thing, then I have to say I want that thing, and then I can get another thing, that I can use to get what I want. They will never truly ask for what they want. We have learned to lie like never before. But you must be honest with God because he knows when you are lying. You will tell him what you want, and you will be honest with him. When you begin to get honest with the Lord, you will most likley tell him that you don't want to be saved. Why? Because the natural heart hates God and therefore doesn't want to be with him or have anything to do with him. Ephesians 2:8,9 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. Come now and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Luke 13:3 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Pastor: ...the terror of condemnation.