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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 458 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Thomas: Now I'm going to speak to you on this subject--How to be saved. I especially want this...I have to keep in mind when I'm preaching here, it's not just for you, because actually more people hear this than we have here, by far and large--maybe 20 times as many, maybe more than that. I don't know. When you're going out on the radio all over the world and then on two different TV networks, why you don't know who's gonna hear it. So I'm trying to help them too. So you be patient with me. I want to read Romans chapter 10, down through 17. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. "But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it?" You'll notice that expression...I noticed that Mike used that expression last week in his testimony. And it's not what man says, it's what the Word of God says. "What saith it?" I'll find it here in a second. Third? Eight, oh yeah, I've gone down there. "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." How to be saved, that's the question. First of all, a person's got to be lost before he can get saved. He's lost, he just don't know it. He has to be made conscious of it. That's what I'm talking about. In Jeremiah chapter 7--I mean in John chapter 7, verse 17. Note this word. Jesus said this, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine," that word doctrine means teaching, "whether it be of God," or whether it's just me talking. And I'll say this to you, if you will to do His will--that's in here--if that's so, God has worked in you. Cause you ain't gonna naturally will to do His will. You're gonna will to do your own will or do your own thing and not be bothered--go on like you are. But, if you will to do His will, you'll know of this teaching, whether it's of God or whether it's just me talking. ( congregational amens ). Now God don't have any time for you unless you mean business. Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13, the scripture says, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Is that right? ( congregational amens ). -- Brother Thomas: And the preacher has to be sent of God, not by the Methodists or Baptists, Pentecostals, Mormons or anybody else, has to be sent of God. You don't like that? That's what the Word says. You'd be just like Hananiah. Jeremiah said, "Hananiah, The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie." That's in Jeremiah 28:15. People don't know what they're doing. I'll tell you one thing, God does not leave us without a witness. That's what the Lord says to Moses. He asked the Lord, said Lord, now you say you've sent me. How am I going to know that you're with me? The Lord says, my presence shall go with thee, and I'll give you rest. Do you know what the greatest witness there is? Everybody says, well I want to see something. It's here. Remember it's "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," and when God sees that belief, He gives you the witness. Hallelujah! Let's go over to Hebrews. You know I've noticed here once again, verse 7, Hebrews 3. "Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith"-- not as C. Parker Thomas saith -- "as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice." Now God can't speak except through His voice. That's why the Bible speaks of John as the voice in the wilderness, cried out, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." That was God's voice. God's voice down here has to come through man. Somebody says, oh, I can read the Bible. Read it. You'll get in about as much trouble as most of these people around. See, first God's got to work with you here. You've got to seek Him, want Him, and He'll bring you in contact with a voice. I notice, in studying the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve sinned and they hid themselves and covered up their nakedness. It says the voice of the Lord came walking in the garden. I was astounded when I saw that. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 3. "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness." He's talking about the wilderness, from Egypt into the wilderness. "When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways." Now you can go to some churches and they'll give you a nice little invitation to get you forward, get you enrolled in Sunday School. All you got to do is just come to church, put your money in the plate, and they don't care whether you do anything else or not. God's called every one of us to something. Some of the greatest things I know of in the church is people who pray, who can't do anything else, but pray. You can do that. Now, he said, "They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways." God wants you to learn something about Him. He says, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you." And you know not whither you go. When God works with you, He intends for you to obey. Now, God sware in His wrath, because they did always err in their hearts. He said, "So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest." And that's another thing. Do you have peace? Can you go to bed tonight and relax because you're not worried about your soul. When the Lord came into my heart, that's exactly what I did. I laid down that night. I said, Lord, it's alright now. If you want to come, I've made my peace. I wasn't worried anymore. I'll tell you before then, though, I have been in bed and something happen to scare me, I'd jump up and stand up in the bed. ( congregational laughter ). I didn't have no rest then. "Peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you." "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." That's what He's doing right now. Praise God. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you," watch this now, "an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." Now what causes people to depart? -- Congregation: Unbelief. -- Brother Thomas: Unbelief. Let's just go on in this chapter. "But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." See, this is why you have to have Jesus. He don't give up. He holds out. He never forsakes. He said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." If you trust Him, that's the greatest thing you've ever done or ever will do this side of eternity. God honors that--trusting in Him, believing in the Word, believing what He says. Has Jesus paid your sin debt? When He went to that cross, your sins were laid upon Him. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Hallelujah! ( congregational praise ). There's no excuse, no excuse. If you desire salvation, that means Christ. He's the Way, He's the Truth, and the Life. No man comes unto the Father, but by Him. Hallelujah! He's the door. "If any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." Praise God! "While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation." He repeats that. "For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses." That's what he's talking about. "But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?" Now listen. "And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest?" But to them who backslide and lost it? -- Congregation: No. -- Brother Thomas: It don't say that? What does it say? -- Congregation: "To them that believe not." -- Brother Thomas: "But to them that believed not." Listen, "So we see that they could not enter in because of," what? -- Congregation: "Unbelief." -- Brother Thomas: "Unbelief." I could not, not believe in God. It's not a matter of me believing, I can't do anything else. Praise God! I don't believe anybody could ever enter into a relationship with God and not believe. I think some people can join a church and then fall out with somebody and leave and it won't amount to a hill of beans. But, not have Christ in them. It's, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." ( congregational praise ). And you don't have any hope of glory unless you have Him. If you have Him, you have everlasting life. Hallelujah! Then in chapter 4 of Hebrews, He said, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." You need this rest. That takes care of everything. Praise God! I'm ready to die anytime God wants to take me. For your sake, it might be better that I stay a little while longer. Praise God! Verse 2 Hebrews 4, "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them." Why? -- Congregation: Not mixed with faith. -- Brother Thomas: That's the whole thing. It keeps you out. That locks the door. The door's locked between you and the kingdom of God. Believing in Him, it's like learning to swim. You'll never learn to swim, if you don't give yourself to the water. You'll never know that God can save you, unless you give yourself to Him. If I was 10,000 people, I'd give all of them to Him. Praise God! I love Him. That ain't all. He loves me. You love Him. He loves you too. Praise God! It's wonderful isn't it? I wish you could share my joy. Hallelujah! "For we which have believed do enter into rest." That's the seal right there. That's why in Ephesians 4:30, it says, "And grieve not the holy Spirit of God." Now, you can grieve the Holy Spirit, but you can't lose it. "Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto," how long? -- Congregation: The day of redemption. -- Brother Thomas: "The day of redemption." Now, I want to give you something else here now. This is in Galatians chapter 1. The reason I'm giving this to you is because I want you to see. Paul was very religious, the apostle Paul. You know the story of Paul. He was going around catching Christians, persecuting them, and he held the clothes of those that stoned Stephen to death. He thought they were enemies. He wanted to do away with them. The apostle Paul did! And one day he was on this road with some others and he thinks he's going to Damascus. But suddenly he's blinded. He can't see a thing. Almost like this does here, but a little worse. He fell to the ground. Couldn't see nothing. And a voice spoke and said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" He heard it. I don't whether the other men heard it or not. But he did. He said, "Who are you, Lord?" He said, "I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest." And it was us, the members of His Body, the church, that he was persecuting. But Jesus took it personally. You're persecuting Me. Did you know that we, Christ in us is the hope of glory? But it's also the hope of this world--every single one of us that has Christ in us. Praise God! You don't just come to a man, you come to the Christ. Hallelujah! Alright, let's go on now, back to Galatians. I want you to see this. It's very good. Now this is Paul's epistle to the churches of Galatia. In verse 6, he says, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ." Let me pause right here. I want to emphasize the grace of Christ. Have you ever heard grace explained? What does it mean? It means, unmerited, undeserved, unearned favor. You can't buy it. You can't earn it. You can't get good enough. If you could be the best person in the world, which you can't, you'd never earn God's favor. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Now you want to know where works come from? Listen to this 10th verse, Ephesians chapter 2. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." If your works are not a result of being made a new creature in Christ Jesus, you can forget it. If you're going to church and giving your money and anything else that you're doing you think is good, and it's not because you love Christ, forget it. You're not going to get any place. He says, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ." And one other thing about the definition of this word grace. Some people look at that and say, well it's up to us. No, no. My brother, my sister, if God doesn't start the work in you, you'd never come. He not only is the author, He's "the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." He's the author and the finisher! Praise God! Now he refers here to another gospel. In verse 7, he says, "Which is not another." You've got all kind of gospels here--over 2,000 of them in the world, maybe more than that. You've got whole continents just about that believe in heathenism. They bow down and kiss the ground--all kind of shenanigans. There's only one gospel. It's a gospel of the grace of God. You don't start it and you don't end it. He's the author and the finisher. Verse 8 says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven,"--even an angel--"preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." You've got all kind of gospels being preached. Think of it. I didn't say this. "As we said before, so say I now again," he repeats it, "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Why? Here's why. "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men?" Most preachers are men pleasers. That's it. They're men pleasers. You won't find one in a thousand that really wants to please God. Do you know why? How many churches do you think I could go in and preach what I believe? Not a one. They wouldn't have me. Do you know what they'd brand me? They'd brand me a heretic. They'd say I was a heretic. Praise God! If having the truth revealed to you is a heretic, I'm guilty. Note what he says there now. "Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." I am. Do you know what that word servant there is? Slave. That's right. It just means--that's what I am. I'm a slave, but I'm a happy slave. ( congregational amens ). I've refused to go out. I've worked my sixth year. God ordered to let me go. I said I don't want to. Put the hole in my ear. 
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