Let's go back to Ephesians chapter 2 as we are in between expositions. And I'm looking at some foundational things. To revisit, it's been like 23 years ago since I preached through Ephesians. But as I said to you last time, it was in Ephesians that we slammed the door, locked it, padlocked it, put chains on it, concerning all the gimmicky, if you will. The cleverness of so much that had come into evangelical life.
Now, when I talk to you about the reforms or the changes we made, please do not understand or misunderstand. That I'm talking about some new thing that never existed. Matter of fact, everything we believe and everything we do is thoroughly established in Baptist history. and evangelical history in general. Just for the last fifty, seventy five years, maybe a little more than that, there was a turn away from some of the things we used to believe and stand on to, if you will, help God out.
Help the gospel. Make it more practical, I guess you would say. And I know there were some good men and godly men and well-intending men. And matter of fact, since we started this journey, there's been a lot of churches. Sharpen up, if you will, and re-examine the systems and the approaches to what they do, especially in the area of evangelism.
I thought about the things that we reformed over these years and. It's really been a blessing and quite astonishing that we survived it all together, to be honest. Everything from going to a true membership, where that to be a member, you look like a member, you act like a member, you come to church like a member. Um Uh competent leadership. Going from what Typically, it was more of a popularity vote process versus a biblical spiritual qualification process.
the exercise of a corrective church discipline. What a journey that was. Installing biblical conflict resolution in the church. Long journey there, biblical counseling where we Only use the scriptures and we don't use the jargon of psychology. Psychology may help us understand some things.
But psychology does not have the solution. to man's issues and problems. A biblical theology, how foundational that one is as we go to the scriptures and say, okay, what's God's big overarching view? What's God's big overarching purpose? And everything we do must fit that.
And I'm trying not to get on too many tangents this morning because this stuff stirs in my heart. But if you don't get the glory of God as the first thing. in your biblical theology. Nothing else works. If you get man missing hell as the first thing, you've missed everything.
Now that's a very important foundational motivation in our hearts. is to keep men out of eternal loss. But there's a purpose greater than that that is explicitly shown in Scripture, and that is that all that we do, including winning the lost by his means and his power, gives him glory, and that's why we're here.
So a biblical theology is so very important. The Bible, you hear some preachers preach, and it looks like the Bible is some sort of self-help book to help you have a better marriage and a better home and a better work life or overcome anxiety. And the Bible does help us in those areas. But it's not about man's psychology and man's well-being first. It's about God's glory first.
Well, Christ-Centered and Biblically Sound Music program. It's been a wonderful journey to turn that corner, but Tom Clay's been wonderful to help me in that. the biblical role for women. I rejoice, especially in our younger women, giving a very serious, primary consideration to the biblical instructions and commands and then piecing other things on that as God allows or instructs. A biblical love, I've seen that flourish in our ministry here.
We just simply don't get at odds with people or get on ought with people unless it really matters. And then, if we have a problem, we deal with it biblically and not form parties and factions and have a church business meeting, and the person that gathers the biggest mob to their position wins the day. We don't do that. But then I thought there's a couple three others that came to my mind this last week as I was thinking on this. How could we miss this?
A personalized strategic world missions program. Decades ago, when we began our personalized strategic world missions program, and we talked about and thought about how we want to put our hands and our hearts and our shoe leather into missions and not just send some money off somewhere. And by the way, we received a lot of negative feedback, a lot of criticism, if not condemnation, that that was not the way Baptists do it. You shouldn't do it that way. Only to do it for a number of years, and our giving went from around $40,000 a year to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to world missions.
And of all things, the president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention flew 60-plus missions executives to this church and stayed a week during our conference so that they could learn how to do missions. And we learn that if we'll just be biblical, God will vindicate us.
So that was a huge reformation in our church. And what a. What a growing and some ways overwhelming way our size that this ministry has grown to. I plan to meet with three pastors this week in connection with new church plants and missions. It's just amazing what God is doing.
And then these next two are two sides of the same coin because I realized how important these are, especially as I counsel with pastors and churches today, and that is the biblical role of the pastor. The biblical role of the pastor.
So often today, In Baptist and evangelical life, you have a church, and there's a few long-term families in the church. Um For lack of a better way to say it, more or less, they're the power brokers of the church. And the pastor better come in and take care of those families. And he, in effect, becomes a family chaplain. Instead of God's pastor.
And the whole notion that the pastor is to be involved in every need and every ministry. And by the way, I did that for a long time. That was what we did. I went to every children thing, youth thing, college thing, senior adult thing, every funeral, every wedding, every counseling session, pretty much. And then you come to the realization, I can't do all this and preach the way God called me to preach.
Because Paul told Timothy Timothy, be up to your ears in studying and preaching. Literally exhaust yourself in it. And see, that's the benefit to the church. That you are I hate to say this to you, and I know you don't kick against this because, in God's providence, this is the way He's ordained it, but you. Your spouse, your children, your children's children's eternal soul greatly depends upon the preaching of the word of God.
He could have done it different ways, but that's the way he did it. That's why when he finishes training young Timothy, He concludes by saying Timothy. I charge you. Preach the word. And some years ago, our elders more or less said to me, We're going to get other staff members to handle a lot of things.
I still do a little bit of everything, but not like I used to. But you get in the study and you preach. That freedom to meditate on the word and study the scriptures and read church history. Has led to the development of these reformations and the ministries like our Anchored in Truth missions and the Pastoral Training Institute and the Philemon Fellowship that God's so wonderfully blessing. And on and on we could go with the reforms that God, but that comes from having the heart to.
Free to look, to muse, to meditate on God's truth. Most pastors, the majority of pastors, by the time they're 35, at the latest 40, They've stopped preaching. They're going to the pulpit. But they're worn out. They're emotionally and psychologically and physically worn out.
And there's not the juice to keep on studying and preaching. And who suffers for that? are from that. The congregation. It's an intoxicant.
I know this is kind of preacher talk this morning, but we have a lot of young preachers, I mean, in the ministry in our church, and certainly in our network. But it's intoxicating to a pastor's flesh. To hear those statements like, You're always there for me. You're always available. The problem is, if you study and preach the way the scriptures describe it, You're not always available to God if you're always available to men.
You remember the Spurgeon story? I think I've told you before. You know, Spurgeon was the most read. Most published Baptist preacher of all time. Pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, the Baptist Church, the huge Baptist Church in London, England.
And one day, Spurgeon's maid came up to his door in his study and knocked on the door, and he said, Yes. And she said, Mr. Spurgeon, there's a man here that needs to see you. He said, I'm studying for the Sabbath. I can't be seeing anyone right now.
And she went back downstairs and she told the man he's studying. He can't see anyone right now. And the man was a prominent man in the church. And he said, Would you go back up and tell Mr. Spurgeon that a servant of Jesus Christ is here to see him?
She was scared. She didn't want to knock on that door again. And she goes up there and she knocks on the door, and Mr. Spurgeon comes to the door, and she said, Mr. Spurgeon, the man said to tell you, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ needs to see you.
And he said, Mr. Spurgeon said, Would you tell him that I'm meeting with his master and I can't be meeting with servants right now?
Well, that's Spurgeon had all kinds of stories like that, but it's the principle. And I just did a funeral the other day and participated in another funeral, well, two recently. And it warms my heart to minister to the brethren. To learn for a church to grasp, Pastor, give us the word of God, and we can let everything else go. That's so important.
And it's such a journey in the typical church to get there because going to the. The naysayers are going to say he doesn't care. He doesn't love us. Look, if your pastor loves you, he gives you Jesus. I can only go so far.
I'm not a priest. When I show up, God doesn't show up. God's in all of us as we minister together. But you can't ask the, and I'm not saying this because people have complained about me. You've gone over that.
Plateau, if you will, and you embrace these biblical truths, but it is so rare, and it's such a journey. to get there.
Well, I'm taking too long there. But the other side of the coin is every member ministry through small groups. You look at the New Testament, you see this exhaustive list, two of them, of these spiritual gifts God gives to every person who's saved. And every one of those spiritual gifts, or we might say spiritual gift mix, you have a mix of gifts, every one of you. And your spiritual gift mix is like a snowflake, everyone's unique.
But the scripture makes it explicitly clear: your spiritual gifts are not to bless you. They're to be used for your local church family, the body of Christ.
So the point is, that has to be active so that everyone is ministered to.
So that when you call a man to be your preaching lead pastor, he's not the caregiver for every little need. He's preaching, but those needs are met because the body is doing that through every member ministry. And it's a beautiful thing. When pastors come in, and we have, I told you there's four pastors now that are coming from Toronto, Canada, in view of connecting with us.
So we don't know if that's going to happen, but that's kind of the way it starts. The real key element will be you. They want to meet you, talk to you, be around you and say, is all of that crazy stuff Jeff Noblet preaches, do you really believe that? Are you guys really walking in that? Or is he just yelling a bunch of stuff over the Internet?
But it's been consistently clear through the decades when they meet you, they say, those people really believe that. And my ministry has been to the purpose of proving God's word works. God's truth works. We don't have to change it, we don't have to twist it. We don't have to neglect it, quote, to be effective.
We can just be biblical. But for the pastor to do his role, there has to be the congregational care element of every member of ministry through small groups. One quick story and we'll move on talking about all the things that we have seen uh our experience uh in in the in view of reformation here at grace life Um This was life-changing for me. I had about three or four experiences like what I'm about to tell you that. Helped me because here's what you don't understand.
I like being liked. Do you like being liked? I don't like when people say that I don't care. Or they're not available, or that I'm not loving, or I've done this or that. What you have to understand is for every one of you that knows somebody has a burden that I could probably minister to, you got to multiply that by a few hundred.
There's a lot of burdens and a lot of needs, and a lot of people that would be blessed by personal care of the pastor. John McAwather actually taught me this years ago. He said, you have to practice purposeful. neglect if you're the preaching pastor of a church. You have to draw a line in the sand in your week and say, okay, it's time to get ready for the Lord's day.
I'm not doing other stuff. Unless it's time in a real dire emergency, of course, you would. But generally speaking, I'm not doing other things. I'm getting ready to preach from this point onward.
Now, one of the things that that's done for me is Over these 40 years or so, I have an amazing amount of study under my belt. There would be very, very few. Pastors. who have the amount of hours in the study that I have. But that's a blessing to you.
I literally, and I'm not, I'm not saying this to be. Braggadosius, I could speak for 10 hours and never stop and never repeat myself, I think, on just about anything. I'm just.
So what happens? You get the riches of that. But anyway, this event happened.
Some of y'all remember the name John Powell. He was actually an Independent Baptist preacher, was a member of our church for some time, but John had a heart issue. And he was rushed to the emergency room. I knew nothing about it. It's probably about nine o'clock at night I got a phone call.
And it was the men in his small group. And I forgot who the gentleman was. He said, Brother Jeff, just want you to know, Brother John Powell is in the intensive care. Right now he's stable. He's okay.
There's three or four of us men here. Our wives are with the wives, and some of our wives are with his children. We've got it all covered. You don't need to come. Just wanted you to know.
I thought, who are these crazy people? Baptists don't do that. Baptist saith the other way. This is critical. You better get here.
Well, I would lie. I did that hundreds and hundreds of times before, but it kind of registered with me that they had taken ownership. A biblical ownership of the ministry of congregational care. Check on him and visit with him, of course. But I had several experiences like that.
Where the body of Grace Life Church begins to take Biblically speaking, ownership of those ministries and freed me up to continue the things that we've done. Developed over the years. You might say, well, you might have been good if you'd have been more busy, so you wouldn't have had the vision for building all these ministries. We got to support now. I guess there could be something to that.
But God is blessing them. And we praise him for it. But come in full circle, the foundational reformation that we're revisiting right now, and I'm in the second part this morning, is the gospel and the truth of conversion. We had have 45,000 or so Southern Baptist churches. That's the denomination we used to be a part of.
And 16, 17 million members in those churches. and about 4 million go to church. And as a young pastor, I just couldn't. People told me, that's just the way it is, just accept that. And I thought, that's not right.
That dishonors God to have, you know, 50 to 75 percent of the folks who claim to know Christ not even come to his house. And so, through a series of events, I began to learn that the real problem was genuine conversion. These church membership roles were packed with people who had done a thousand and one things other than get genuinely converted. You can't keep a genuinely converted person out of church.
Now, if it's a weak church, it might just grieve their spirit. It might cause them to desire something better, but they know the church is God's will.
So I tried to fix all. I thought, well, maybe we could disciple our way out of this problem. You know, just thoroughly disciple people, and then they'll love Jesus. But I found out it's not my discipleship that makes people love Jesus, it's regeneration. Conversion, being truly saved.
that causes people to love Jesus. And you know how people get saved? By preaching Christ. Faith comes by hearing, hearing the things of Christ, present tense. You hear these people in the Baptistry, and almost every time they'll talk about an event.
Certain thing was preached, a certain thing was said in it, and they were convicted. But without exception, if you set them down, it's been a series of things. Over weeks, months, and often years. Sermons, Bible studies. small groups, mom and dad sharing, et cetera, et cetera.
So it's that hearing of the truth that brings a person to that settled faith.
Now, Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9. One of the problems with preaching on something you've had on your heart for 45 years is you ad-lib too much. Ephesians 2:8 and 9, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one should boast. And that's what we said first: faith is a gift from God.
All of salvation is the gift of God. And we looked at a lot of verses that talked about. A sovereign grace. And that there's mysteries here we cannot grasp. But even your faith to believe was God's gift.
And we'll elaborate on that in just a moment.
Now, To begin this morning with new material, though, I'd like for you to remember. But there are two. Faiths talked about in the Bible. And we could categorize it this way. There's saving faith.
And then there's serving faith.
Now, yes, you could argue in infinity. That's parts of one faith. That's fine with me. Describe it the way you want to. But the Bible does speak directly about saving faith, and it does speak directly about serving faith.
But what is clear about both what the faith that saves you and the faith that empowers you and enables you to serve faithfully in God's church. are both gifts from God. That's the point. They're the gifts. Oh God, matter of fact, um Romans chapter 12, verse 3 should be up on our screen there.
Romans 12.3. Through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.
Now, he's talking in the context of people in the church doing various ministries and various roles. And some people we get arrogant about, well, my role is more important than your role. And what Paul's going to say is: well, it doesn't matter about the importance because it's all a gift anyway. You have nothing to boast about. You have nothing to glory in over yourself.
He says the middle part of verse 12, chapter 12, verse 3: but to think so as to have sound judgment. Literally, the great theory is to not have an insane notion in your thinking. That somehow you are responsible for this gift that's being used by God in the church. Brothers and sisters, I want to tell you something from my heart. I love what I do.
I love what I'm called to do. I love being your preaching pastor, but I know it's not me. I am expendable. I am expendable. I can be removed, and God can replace me with a rock.
If need be. He just said the rocks will cry out and praise me if I want them to.
So it's not Our giftedness is not of us. Our giftedness is a gift from God. Last phrase, verse 3, Romans chapter 12: God has allotted to each a measure of faith.
So, in the context of serving in the church. He says, God gifted you. It is a grace gift that you got certain spiritual gifts. And I believe you could add to that from the context here: God has given you a grace enablement to use those gifts. Praise the Lord for all of those gifts that are out there, the gifts of mercy, the gifts of help.
Helps the gifts of service and administrations and teaching, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But my point is, behind all of this, These are Gifts from God under God. Grace. We didn't come up with them. We're not special.
God's the only special one that there is. In 1 Corinthians 12:9, when he's again listing these spiritual gifts or the mixture of gifts that each one of us got at conversion as a gift, he says one of those is faith. By the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by one spirit, and he goes on and on and on.
So here he says. In addition to your saving faith, In addition to a special enablement God gives you to use your spiritual gift for the well-being of the local church family. There are some in the church family who just have a unique capacity to believe God. He says they're right there.
Some. Um to another faith. I believe God gave me that. I just believe that. I believe God gave me.
The gift to say, here's what the book says, and I believe it's true. I believe God will do it. Thus, all the reformations we've had back to Fabdist history and back to biblical fidelity in our practice. Because there was often times when I felt like I'm believing this by myself. It was early in my pastorate when we began to stand on some of these reformations of church life and um To say that we got a lot of criticism.
And denunciation from other Baptists and evangelicals will be an understatement. We certainly did. And honestly, I would lay in bed at night and think, am I crazy? I know it's biblical. I know our forefathers did it this way, and we've drifted away from it, but I keep, and this phrase over and over again, I would get from Baptist leaders.
And I don't mean to put them all down. There's good and godly men out there, but they were wrong on this point. I'm sorry, they were just wrong. And here's what they would say: Well, we know that's in the Bible, but it won't work. It won't work.
And I just determined for the glory of God, not the glory of Jeff Knob. If you're doing it for yourself, you won't make it. But the glory of God will hold you. When that's your purpose, when other things will hold you. And I thought, for God's glory, for God to prove the power, the beauty, and the wisdom of His Word, we're going to do this and stand on it and let God prove that it works.
Well, so far it's worked for 45 years. And I think, well, it'll work anywhere someone will apply it. It's like salt. You apply it, it works.
So my point being and Pointing out to you that you could categorize faith as saving faith, and then after you're saved, you're given by grace a spiritual gift and a grace enablement to exercise that gift in the body of Christ.
Now, by saying you have a grace enablement, I'm not saying that it's always fun or it's always easy, but here's what I am saying. Are you listening to me? When you exercise A ministry, a service to other brothers and sisters, i.e., in your small group, we're not going to throw you out here to a thousand people and say, now take care of all these people. But in your small group, nobody's overwhelmed. You can care for 7, 8, 12 people in a small group.
When you minister in that way, it may not be fun at the first, but as you do it, it begins to be a blessing. Your emotions get in it thin, and you're blessed by doing it, you're encouraged in doing it. Can I just tell you a little insight on being a pastor? You know there's a lot of weeks I don't want to study. There's a lot of weeks I don't want to pray.
There's a lot of weeks I don't want to preach. But I get up here and God's grace takes over. And it's such a blessing, such an honor, and so humbling to get to do it. to exercise my calling and gifting. in the body of Christ.
But all of this is a gift of God. Not by works. lest any men should boast.
Now let me amplify on this to point out some Some practical errors that have crept into professing Christendom.
Now, again, this is not Jeff Knoblett on his own standing up here saying, I've examined all of them and I'm right, or we're right, and everybody's wrong. No, these things I'm pointing out were abundantly taught and lived out in church history. Our forefathers. Matter of fact, Early Baptists were martyred. For not going along with these bad examples I'm about to give you.
Did you hear me? Put to death. rather than capitulate. to some of these errors that we're going to talk about in a moment.
Now, broadly speaking, two grave errors I want to mention to you when it comes to what is saving faith. Number one, It's the error that faith resides in the natural capacity of man. That faith somehow resides in man, naturally speaking. In other words, you're born into this world, and you're born into this world with a spark of virtue. You're born into this world with some some good you're a sinner now.
We know that, but they'd say there's some goodness in there whereby you're capable of doing the most important good thing, and that's believe on Jesus.
So there's some goodness in there.
Some virtue in you, naturally speaking, where you can believe on Jesus.
So, when we talk about man is fallen. Man in his pride. Man in his arrogance desperately wants to think that he himself naturally can Believe on Jesus. And then, by the way, he gets some credit, does he not? That is, when man fell in sin, I mean the human race has fallen in sin.
Well, they would say at least he didn't fall all the way. He got close to the bottom, but He didn't go all the way. There is in his natural capacities An ability to believe on Jesus. That is a grave error of teaching and theology.
Now Second error. First cousins to The first error is That saving faith is inseparable from A tangible act. There's something you can do. And here's where we got in trouble. Here's where Baptists got in trouble.
Here's where evangelicals got in trouble. Here's where the Roman Catholic system has been in trouble. Episcopalianism has been in trouble here. There's that. Insatiable, maybe temptation for church leaders to give you something to do.
If you'll just do this. Then you can know you're going to heaven. There's only one problem with that. There's nothing in scripture about that. Nothing at all.
Do you know one time where Peter James Stephen Tall ever organized a meeting and preached and then it said and here's what he told them to do And all of them who did that were saved.
Now, you would think if there are steps to do to get you saved, they'd be all in the New Testament. They would be all in the New Testament. But it's not there. It's not there. In fact.
What's sometimes called the second great awakening? In the United States, we're just Scores of people were saved, and our churches experienced significant growth and multiplication as people were saved. The Presbyterians were big in it. They were called the New Light Presbyterians, where they repented of their childhood baptism and came to true faith in Christ. And we're radically changed.
The Baptists saw great numbers of people saved. And if you look at the Great Awakening and look at their methods, you know what their method was? They didn't have one. They preached and left it with the people. They didn't say, now do this, now do that, now jump through this hoop, now jump through that hoop, now perform this ritual or walk to this plate.
Nothing. These are Baptist people. And their churches grew more than our churches have grown now that we've added steps to help people get saved. Are y'all with me? Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
This is foundational stuff.
Now, I know we've been down this road decades ago and have moved past it, but it's good to revisit it.
Now some examples. The Roman Catholic system, the Episcopalian system, all what you might call sacramentalist. Teach That partaking of the sacraments, a tangible act you do with the priest. Is the exercise of faith? whereby you receive Grace that saves you.
And, like I've said many times, it greatly keeps people dependent upon the church. See, I want to preach to you a gospel where you don't need me or the church to be saved. but where because your heart has changed, you do love the church and want to serve God in the church. Are you getting it, folks? But if I tell you Chris, you better come back in here every week and let me give you a wafer and some juice.
If not, you might go to hell this week. You're going to think, I think I'll go get my wafer and juice this week. Just to be plain and simple and blunt about it. Those kinds of systems, and the Catholics developed all kinds of. Sacraments.
Baptism is a sacrament. Communion. The Mass is a sacrament. Holy matrimony in the church is a part of the sacrament. In other words, all of these tangible acts.
Cause you to get Grace that saves you. That's in their teaching, that is. Reconciliation or doing penance. is a sacrament. The anointing of the sick or extreme unction is a sacrament.
The holy orders, the ordination into roles of minister in church is a sacrament.
Now, is that the only people that in principle are doing this kind of thing that give you certain rites or rituals? Tangible acts that whereby you get grace that saves you? Certainly not. The Church of Christ system. By the way, I'm not saying they're not Roman Catholics who do not love the Lord and are generally saved.
I believe there are. I'm not saying they're not Church of Christ folks who are not generally saved and know the Lord. I believe there are. But their system teaches error. For example, the Church of Christ practiced the same type thing.
I had a Church of Christ leader one time tell me that we believe faith saves you, but it's when your faith reaches the place that you're Baptized. Then you're saved. That's a sacrament. That's the same thing Catholics teach. If your faith leads you to go through this tangible act.
Then you're converted.
Now, they wouldn't technically say. That the Lord's Supper Is a part of salvation. But ask them what happens if you refuse to take the supper. You lose your salvation.
So in effect, it too is a saving act. And then you could go on to a number of other things. This is sacramentalism. The same principle, whether it's Roman Catholics putting some tangible acts to the gospel to help people get saved, or whether it's the Church of Christ system that puts tangible acts onto The gospel to try to help people get saved. And then you come down to evangelicals and Baptists.
Have we done the same thing? Yes, we have been prone to fall into the same grievous error. of turning salvation by grace into a work. Turning our faith into some sort of work. Therefore, it in itself becomes an empty, if you will, sacrament.
Some systems or methods we've developed over the generations. have just Enabler multiplied the error. of implying that works With your faith is a part of salvation.
Some things are just out and out heretical. They're just wrong A to Z. One of the simplest expressions that a person might use. To confirm that they're saved. And I used to hear this quite a bit from senior adult men when I was a younger adult guy.
Now I'm one of those senior adult men, but when I was a younger adult guy, I would talk to an older gentleman and I would share the gospel with him. And I would hear this a lot: Preacher, I did that. You did what?
Now, maybe it's just a figure of speech and he really is saved, but if you're trusting what you did, you're not saved. By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Then, in case you didn't get it.
Next phrase, not by works. Lest any man should boast.
So, it's not of you, and it's not of your works.
So, when you say, I did that, now what they're usually meaning is, I said that prayer. I went to the front or whatever it is.
So that was A plague. That came through with Good intending folks who I think saw people saved in their ministries. Who gave people something to do whereby they could look to something tangible? A tangible action. whereby they gain assurance of salvation.
But that is a lie. They're going to be. Untold numbers of people in hell. Who did that? Who did certain things Some priest, some pastor, some evangelist told them to do.
I'll elaborate that in just a moment. Maybe it's I prayed that prayer.
Well, that's good if you repeated a prayer or prayed a prayer, but that's not what you did that saved you. I went To the pastor, I walked down the aisle. I came to the altar. As Vodi Baucom says, I came down to the magic spot. Where God saves you.
And can I get on my tangent about an altar? Catholics have altars because that's where you get saved. And if I believed an altar saved you, I'd build one and I'd drag all of you down here to the altar. You've seen people do that almost in revival services. Hey, just grab somebody, let's go down there, like it happens down there.
There's only one altar. It's called Calvary. And it was finished there. The sacrifice was there. The propitiation was there.
The vicarious atonement was there, and it's never to be repeated. That's why you can get saved in your car, in your closet, in the hall, at the bar, wherever God convicts you, and you turn to Christ, that becomes, in a sense, your real altar. There is no altar in the church.
Now, I'll be honest, I don't think it would hurt us to have a service or two where people are weeping up here before God. But that's no better than you weeping back there before God. Are you weeping in the hall before God? The geographic place, that is absolute heresy, folks. That's Roman Catholic, superstitious heresy.
with Baptist clothes on it. That's why, when I became your pastor. And I give a lot of credit to Dr. Bob Pittman. He had us moving in this direction.
He took some initial steps. And I appreciate that. He just didn't know I'd be crazy enough to keep it going. That's why we have so many on our church rolls. I mean, typically in a Baptist church, if you have, what, we have 800 in attendance for worship service, sometimes up to 1,000, to have that many on a roll, you had to have 3,000 members.
Do you know there were decades and decades, we could say a few centuries. when Baptist always had more people in attendance than they had as members. It was rather the opposite. Because membership meant something. There was a value to that, and you came and attended until you were ready to join a serious fellowship of baptized believers, i.e., a local church.
So, here's what happens. I went to the pastor, I repeated the prayer, I walked down the aisle, I came to the altar, I went to a mourner's bench, I went to the inquirer's room, I filled out the card. Do you remember when that's all you had to do? Fill out the card? You come to the front.
That was a big deal years ago. You come to the front, a deacon if you're a guy, a deacon's wife if you're a woman, came and sat down beside you and asked you to fill out the card. You fill out the card, you check the box that I've received Jesus as my Savior, and they presented you, and you remember. And called you saved. And you and the card are still going to hell.
That can't save you. My mentor, Dr. Pittman, said, We're getting rid of that stuff. He got rid of the cards, and we started a counseling thing, and that was helpful. It was a good first or second step for the steps that we were going to take.
even as latter years went by in our Reformation.
So what happened? An evangelist would come through. And the evangelists would say, Well, you did this and this, but here's a little spin on it that you didn't get the last time. Are y'all hearing this? Have y'all been here very long?
You did it right, but really, when you walked down the aisle, you had your head this way, it ought to have turned to the right. I mean, it was just the most unbelievable little tweaking mechanics of what you do at the end of the service. And a whole lot of people would come down because the evangelists just gave them a new little twist on the system. It wasn't just believe the gospel, it was believe the gospel and do this little thing. And a whole lot of people, and good people, and sincere people would do that because this evangelist said we didn't get it just right last time.
So you And this is this is the one that really Uh hood winks a lot of people. Did you do that? Whatever it is, pray the prayer, whatever it was. Did you do that? Well, yes.
Then the evangelist says, Well, did you mean it?
Well, I kinda think I sorta did. But here's what happens when you say, did you mean it? You look back on when you got saved six months ago, six years ago, and you evaluate how good have I done since then. And if you've blown it a lot, you think, I must not admit it, I better walk down there and do it again. And we used to baptize people over and over again because they kept walking down because they didn't know if they meant it right or meant it enough.
I think this is in next week's message because I've got to wrap things up for this week. But let me go ahead and say this right now. It is not your faith that saves you in the final analysis. It is the object of your faith that saves you. It is not great faith that saves you.
It's faith in a great Savior that saves you. Your faith may be weak and wobbly and up and down and shaken and got it back again, but it's faith in the one who does not grow wobbly, who is not able to be shaken, who cannot fail. Faith in him and his finished work on the cross on your behalf. That is what saves you. I mean, if you're clever and a good speaker, you can get people to get saved every week again.
Just put another twist on it.
Okay, folks, we've got a new twist.
Now we all got to do this again. I'm telling you folks, it's I believe the best. I want to believe the best that good men We're trying to be helpful, but that is not the gospel. That's not the gospel. The Bible clearly says.
It's not of yourselves. It's not of yourself. And so instead of being like a dog chasing its tail, well, did I do that right? Did I do this right?
Well, I better do it again.
Well, did I do it right this time? Did I really mean this?
Well, I better do it again.
Instead of that cycle. Rest. Ian. Jesus. Another quick Spurgeon quote.
Sometimes at the end of his sermon. He would say this. He said, Now I'm through preaching. He said, Now your flesh would love for me to give you something to do. Here's what I'm going to leave you with, Jesus.
Believe on him. I've heard the phrase. That folks will say, well, if you don't let people walk to the front, by the way, you can walk to the front all you want. I'm not going to stop you, but I'm not going to tell you that saves you. I love you too much and love the Lord too much to do that.
It's a free gift. It's not of yourselves. It's not a prayer. It's not your walking forward. It's not jumping through this hoop or that hoop, or a Catholic or Episcopalian sacrament, or any work, or any religious motion.
It is simple. Faith. It saves you. Real quick, Romans 4 and we'll be done. What shall we say then?
Romans 4, 1 through 5. What shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, has found?
So, Paul wants to write back and said, You see, everybody who's ever been saved is saved the same way, even our father. Among the Jews, that is, even our father Abraham. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about. But not before God. What does the scripture say?
Abraham believed God. Listen, and it was credited to him that righteousness. Listen to me. It didn't mean he became a faithful, participating, righteous one. At that moment, he was credited.
as being righteous. Though he himself, as yet, was not functioning righteously. Matter of fact, when you're first saved, you don't know enough to live righteously yet. Are y'all hearing this? I'll have to start over and half of you will leave and then I'll have my feelings hurt.
Yeah. Credited to you. I can go down to the bank. And put money in your account, and you had nothing to do, but now it's credited to you. Yours.
That's what the Bible says.
Now it gets stronger than that. Look at verse 6.
Now, to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what is due.
Now, if you did something, Ritual, rite, sacrament, whatever it is that you're trusting for salvation, then God owes you salvation. You did what he said.
So now he owes you. And what Paul is writing is that's just what Paul's point is, that's ludicrous. ridiculous. Oh, but look at verse 5. This is such a penetrating point.
But to the one who does not work. Didn't do the sacrament, didn't go to the priest, didn't come to the altar, didn't go to the front, didn't repeat a prayer. But the one who does not work in any work but believes in him. Who justifies the ungodly. Oh my ma ma.
While you are still ungodly. and have not performed one righteous or godly work. God justifies you the moment you believe in Jesus Christ. He's the God. Who justifies the ungodly.
Now, certainly, if he's really justified you, your life begins to bear the fruit. But now, listen to me. Baptism, for example, there's a number of you that need to come for baptism right now. I'm not 97, 98, 99. I'm 100% sure there's a bunch of you right now that have not come for baptism because you're analyzing your faith and not looking at Jesus.
As long as Satan can get you analyzing your faith, he's going to show you little blemishes and shortcomings and this and that. And some of you moms and dads, now I'm talking to Brother Jeff too, I've had to journey through here, and grandmothers and granddaddies, quit telling your kids to keep examining their faith and get them to examine Jesus. And rest on that. As another Ungodly One Comes to put his faith in rest. And the finished one.
work. of Christ. Nothing I'm preaching to you is new. It's abundantly resounded in the whole Reformation. Several hundred years ago is abundantly taught and practiced.
In Baptist life. But I'll tell you what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to remove the mystery.
Okay. Pastor, how can I be saved? Believe on Jesus.
Well, how do I do that? Looks kind of like the wind. Wind blows here, you don't know where it came from. It blows again, you don't know where it's going. Matter of fact, that's what Jesus told Nicodemus, didn't he?
Nicodemus was an intellectual and he wanted to understand it. And he said, Jesus, what can I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, Well, you're going to have to be born again. He said, How can I be born again? Go back into my mother's womb.
He said, Well, you've got to be born of the Spirit.
Well, how's that happen?
Well, I don't know. It's kind of like the wind. That's Jesus evangelism.
Now, Lord willing, next time we're together, we'll talk about the assurance of faith. What gives us an assurance of salvation? Are you? Warts and all. Unrighteousness and all, ungodliness and all, are you trusting Jesus?
For justification, a right standing before a holy God.
Some of you need to reaffirm that this morning. Lord, I've examined everything in the world, but here's where I am today, Lord. All the rottenness that I am. All the failure that I am. The bankruptcy of my wretched soul.
I come to you in faith. Will you save me? And Jesus will say. Absolutely. I've been waiting for you to get here.
I've been waiting all along. You need to get to this point. A Justifies. Yeah. The ungodly.
Wow. No wonder the songwriter wrote. Hallelujah. What a savior. Yeah.
