Being Certain You Are Certain (Salvation)

God’s command for us Christians is to, “GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL.”

Look at that word “GO”. Have you ever been behind a car at a red light and when the light turned green they just set there? After a little while you start talking to yourself “GO MAN! DON’T YOU KNOW WHAT GO MEANS?”

Evidently some Christians must not know what GO means. They have been sitting in their recliners for years while neighbors have been lost, not knowing Jesus.

Jesus' Great Commission applies to all; we must get up and get out and share our faith with the help and strength of God.

• A “witness” (noun) is defined as a person who has seen or can give first-hand evidence of some event, or a person who testifies, especially in a court of law, to events or facts within his or her own knowledge.

• To “witness” (verb) means to see or be present at or know at first hand, to give evidence of or about, and to attest to the genuineness of something.

A witness cannot be someone who says ‘I learned about X from someone, and believe it to be true’; that would be second-hand, what in Law is called “hearsay”.

To be a valid witness, someone must be able to say…

• “I saw it.”

• “I heard it.”

• “I experienced it”.

No one can be a true Christian just because he knows someone else who is one,

• or because his parents were Christians,

• or because any relative is a Christian.

• A Christian is someone who has personal knowledge and personal experience of Jesus Christ, and is individually and personally born again of the Holy Spirit and can personally Witness and testify that Jesus is Lord.

Illus: Among us Baptists there are those who feel you can become a Christian by going to church and shaking a preachers hand.

Listen, if that was true you could go to mechanic shop and shake the hand of a mechanic that would make you a mechanic.

The Lord has commanded we who have partaken of this great salvation that we share it with others.

Illus: One of the primary reasons there are so many lost people in the world today is because many Christians do not witness to the lost world.

Illus: We understand that in the fishing world, that is, a fisherman can not expect to catch fish if he is not willing to go fishing. But that concept seems to have escape Christians when it comes to being fishers of men.

The Lord is not out of the soul saving business. But it is obvious that many of God’s churches are out of the soul saving business.

• There are churches today that can not remember when someone got gloriously saved and baptized in their church.

• Many of the churches today have replaced salvation for church membership.

Illus: Dr. John R. Rice has a book that talks about churches today. In his book he points out…

• No longer do some preachers preach salvation sermons to the lost.

• No longer do some churches have an invitation for the Lost to accept the Lord as their Savior.

• No longer do some churches sing songs that appeal to the lost in their lost condition.

Illus: Now many sing these 7-11 songs that contain seven words and they sing them seven times.

Illus: One day many Christians will stand before the Lord and give account of the souls who went to hell because of their failure to obey this command to witness and it is not going to be a good time in heaven for them.

Think about it, they are going to have to give account to God almighty that He left them here on earth for decades and decades and the only thing they did with their life was selfishly use those decades God gave them for themselves.

It is the command of God almighty that every Christian to win souls to the Lord.

Some Christians understand that and others do not!!!

Illus: One of the greatest soul winners of all time was a man known as Uncle John Vassar.

• In a railroad station one day he saw a lady with a serious look on her face sitting by herself. He sat down and talked to her and led her to the Lord.

• Just as he left, her husband came up and, seeing the tears, demanded to know what was going on.

• She told him that a man had just been telling her of her need to be saved.

• Her husband said, "Why didn't you tell him to go about his business?" said the indignant husband.

• She answered, "Husband, if you had only been here you would have seen that he was about his business." ("Choice Illus." W.W. Clay pg. 48)