“If Christ Is Not Lord Of All, He Is Not Lord AT All” HERESY!

Romans 14:8-9, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.”

I am so sick and tired of hearing the unbiblical cliché: “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.” Nothing could be further from THE TRUTH of God's Word! The unbiblical idea that Jesus Christ is either in absolute control of your life, or else He is not your Lord at all, is of the Devil. Yes, in fact, Jesus can be only partial Lord of your life:

2nd Chronicles 25:1-2, “Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem.  And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.”

King Amaziah only served the Lord half-heartedly! Christ was NOT the supreme Lord of his life. I think I can safely say that most genuine Christians today do NOT serve God with a perfect heart. And I can tell you assuredly with 100% Biblical certainty that ALL believers still commit sin every day (Romans 7:14-25; 1st John 1:8-10). No one has arrived. There's not one saint on the planet who can be lifted up as an example of what all the rest of us should be, if the truth be known. 1st Timothy 5:24, “Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after.”

Dear reader, the day that you became a born-again child of God (which is by faith alone in the Gospel of Jesus Christ), Jesus also became the supreme Lord of your life. That is, He became your Master! Jesus is “LORD,” you don't make Him Lord. Our text passage from Romans 14:8-9 proclaims that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and resurrected miraculously from the dead, so that He could be Lord of both the dead and the living. That is interesting, why the dead? It is because even the unsaved dead must acknowledge their mistreated Creator and spurned Savior:

Philippians 2:8-11, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

I am fully convinced that guitarist Eddie Van Halen went to Hell. Eddie was a Roman Catholic, trusting in the manmade sacraments of the Vatican, and the empty words of some unholy priest to save him, but that is NOT the saving truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Salvation must be without human works! God doesn't save anyone who is trying to be saved, He only saves those who are trusting to be saved. Everyone will someday bow their knee before the God and Creator of the universe in eternity, and confess with their tongue that “Jesus is Lord!”

Thankfully, you don't need to make Jesus the “Lord” of your life to get to Heaven, you simply need to receive Him personally as your Savior. The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract according to John 20:31, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” God authored the Gospel (Good News) of John, to convince the human reader that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and that by BELIEVING we will be saved. That is the ONLY way to get to Heaven.

I feel sorry for members of the demonic Bahai Faith (of which singer Dan Seals, aka, England Dan, was a devout lifelong members), because in their religion they teach that there are many paths to Heaven. But what saith the Scripture? John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” No, Dan Seals, there are not many paths to Heaven, there is only one, and that is through faith in Jesus Christ. I am so sick and tired of this damnable heresy of “Lordship Salvation” today! You don't have to take Jesus as your Lord and Savior to get to Heaven, you just need to take Him as your SAVIOR!!!

What saith the Scripture? 1st Timothy 4:10, “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.” Jesus is the Savior of ALL MEN, especially of those that BELIEVE ON HIM!!! So if you go to Hell forever, it will be by your own foolish choosing, because your rejected your dear Savior and His free gift of eternal life which was purchased for you with His blood.

So it is not true that: “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.” That is a stupid thing for anyone to say, even though it does sound good. It is true though, that Jesus is either your Savior, or else He is not. But it cannot be both or partial. When false teachers say that Jesus must be “Lord of all” in your life—they mean that in order to get to Heaven you must faithfully serve God, follow Jesus no matter what the cost, repent and turn away from your sinful lifestyle, live a lifestyle of repentance from sin, faithfully run the Christian race until the end, count the cost and pay the price, carry your cross, et cetera. NONE of those things comprise THE GOSPEL by which we are saved (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).

I don't care who you are, if you are a redeemed child of God, blood-washed and your name is written in Heaven, JESUS IS NOT THE TOTAL LORD OF YOUR LIFE!!! I will be the first to admit that Jesus is not the absolute Lord of my life. Is Jesus my Lord? Yes, of course, absolutely. He became the Lord (Master) of my miserable life the day that I received Him as my personal Savior in 1980 at age 13 in Chicago. But I do not submit to Him very well. I have many faults, sins and short-comings as a child of God. I long for the glorious future day that my soul and spirit are no longer chained to the body of this death, and Jesus resurrects me with a new body fashioned like unto His resurrected glorified perfect body (Philippians 3:21). Even so, come, Lord Jesus!!!

No saint can honestly profess that Jesus is 100% the Lord of their life. I sure can't. And neither can you friend. You and I can only do our best in Christ's strength to live the Christian life by faith to please God. Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Ga:2:21: I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” A lot of Bible students only read Galatians 2:20, lifting it out of context. But there is a beautiful truth tucked away if your interpret Galatians 2:20 in the proper context.

The churches at Galatia had fallen prey to a works-based religious cult (Galatians 3:1-3), who insisted that in addition to placing one's faith in Jesus Christ, you still had to keep the law, turn away from your sinful ways, follow Jesus as “Lord” and live the Christian life faithfully to get to Heaven. This is exactly what the accursed Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) teach today. Sadly, it is also exactly what Bob Jones University (BJU) and most of their corrupt graduates and affiliates are also teaching; namely, pastors' Marty Herron, Jared Baldwin, Joe Hensen, Gary Walton, Steve Pettit, Chuck Phelps, John MacArthur, et cetera.

And tragically, Pensacola Christian College (PCC) wickedly bids BJU Godspeed, hobnobbing with the wicked Harvest Baptist Church on Guam (which is a cesspool of BJU alumni). I had attended Harvest Baptist Church on Guam for an entire year, and I can tell you assuredly that they preach hardcore Calvinism (aka, Lordship Salvation). They use, sell and promote the Devil's corruptible seed (i.e., the damned modern PERversions of the Bible). They also preach a perverted understanding of repentance, unbiblically requiring lost sinners to give up their sinful bad habits as a prerequisite to going to Heaven (which is self-righteousness). Bible repentance is merely “a change of mind” (Greek noun: metanoia) from unbelief to BELIEVING THE GOSPEL. Forsaking one's sins is not repentance, it is reformation! Living a changed life is NOT repentance, it is reformation!!! Judas reformed and went to Hell.

So, yes, Jesus is the Lord of every believer's life, but that doesn't mean that I always follow Him as my Lord. You must understand dear reader that SERVICE (discipleship by works) is something entirely different than SALVATION (justification by faith). My favorite preacher quote is by Pilgrim's Progress author, John Bunyan (1628-1688):

“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —Evangelist John Bunyan

That is exactly what the heresy of Lordship Salvation is—a failure to put a difference between SALVATION (justification from without) versus SERVICE (sanctification from within). We must keep these two great doctrines separate, or else we corrupt the Word of God and utterly confuse the people (especially in the churches).

Another one of my favorite preachers, Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) said it this way:

“There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness.” —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117)

Boy that is good stuff! Dear friend, if you are saved Jesus is your Lord. Receiving Him as “Lord” has nothing to do with getting saved; but rather, after you are saved the dear Savior wants you to pick up your cross and follow Him. This according to Romans 12:1-2 is the believer's “reasonable SERVICE.” Please don't miss that, it is our SERVICE for Christ, not our SALVATION through faith in Christ.

And then if you are not saved, Jesus is still Lord. You may have rejected Him as your personal Savior, but He is still your Savior (you just don't want to be saved). That is what 1st Timothy 4:10 teaches. One day in eternity you will bow to Him as Lord, and confess with your tongue that He is Lord. Even Satan himself, old smutface, will bow his knee to confess that Jesus Christ is the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Oh yes, it will happen, you have God's promise of it dear reader. That is what Philippians 2:9-10 teaches.

The only fools running around saying: “Either Christ is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all,” is the Calvinist crowd, the Lordship Salvation cult! It is possible to become a born-again believer, and yet still choose to remain in sin, living like the Devil. Yes, you CAN accept Jesus as your personal Savior, but still not be willing to submit to Him as the Lord of your life. That is grace dear friend! Romans 6:1, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” If you and I choose to continue living a lifestyle of sin, grace will abound.

Certainly, there will be some inner change when a person gets saved, because now that person has the indwelling presence of God's Holy Spirit in them (Romans 8:9), but those changes may not be visible outwardly. I have heard ignorant preachers say that where there is fire there is smoke. Their point is that you cannot have God's Holy Spirit living inside of your spirit, soul and body without some outward evidence becoming visible. Dear friend, that is simple not true. Some of the most evil people in the world go around smiling all the time. President George W. Bush murdered 1,455,590 innocent people in Iraq, but he was always smiling as U.S. President, like everything was a big joke to him. Remember, Satan comes to the world disguised “as an angel of light” (2nd Corinthians 11:13-15).

There is no way for you to determine if someone is really saved by examining their life. The only way to know for certain is by the direct testimony from their mouth concerning Jesus Christ. I like what my friend Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold said:

“Lordship Salvation is the unsupportable and unbiblical belief that the performance of good works, the promise of good works, or the evidence of good works, must accompany faith in Christ to establish or provide evidence that such faith has resulted in eternal life.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, "Jesus versus John MacArthur"

You don't have to take Jesus as the Lord of your life to be saved dear friend, you just need to take Him as your Savior. Always remember to keep SERVICE completely separate from SALAVTION. I went to the Pensacola Interstate Fair last night. The fair has been hosted in Pensacola since 1934. I had a good yesterday afternoon. I went to the circus and watched all the amazing acrobatics (and pretty girls...lol). I saw the fancy horses and amazing fire dances. I ate plenty of great food. I always enjoy going to fairs.

But then I walked into the exhibit building where all the religious nuts were The Jehovah Witnesses had a booth set up. Gideon's International had their own exhibit booth, promoting their corrupt Devil's Bible PERversions. And lo and behold, I met another heretic from of all places, Pensacola Christian College!!! Go figure! He was a younger fella with his own booth, with a big tattoo on his forearm. He handed me some little stupid booklet with a smiley face on the front, which didn't contain enough truth to convert a caterpillar! I asked him kindly and without hesitation... “You're not preaching Lordship Salvation I hope?” He replied: “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.” SHAME on Pastor Jeff Redlin at Campus Church for not teaching his congregation better!!! It is actually God's flock (Acts 20:28), which God has entrusted to the incompetent pastors at PCC's Campus Church. Unbelievable!

Campus Church at PCC has their members at the Pensacola Interstate Fair preaching the Devil's Lordship Salvation!!! Go back to Hell Pensacola Christian College with your Lordship Salvation!!! I know exactly where they got that from too—from spiritually fornicating with the accursed Bob Jones University camp (who have become hardcore Calvinists in recent decades). Dr. Steve Pettit (president of BJU since 2014 is a dangerous false prophet!!!

The sad reason why that young man at the Pensacola Interstate Fair is promoting Lordship Salvation is because PCC's shameful leadership and pastors AREN'T contending for the faith. That young guy doesn't know any better! Pastor Phil Kidd is right, whatever a preacher stops preaching on is what his church will fill up with in 5 years!!! The PCC camp are filling up with Lordship Salvation because their rotten pastors refuse to PREACH AGAINST ERROR!!!

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Don't Need To "Ask" Jesus To Save You

John 11:25-27, “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.”

God's plan of salvation for mankind is so simple. In our text passage above, Martha simply BELIEVED on Jesus and was saved. This was the same Gospel preached throughout the Old Testament by ALL the prophets. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.”

Sadly, humans have a horrible tendency to complicate everything, including God's plan of salvation. Here is a helpful sermon excerpt from Pastor Max D. Younce's sermon titled: 'Rapture Versus Revelation.' This excerpt explains that a lost sinner DOESN'T have to “ask” Jesus to save them, because God is already freely offering “TO SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE” (1st Corinthians 1:21b)...

Don't Ask Jesus To Save, He Wants You To Accept Him

Jesus Christ has already paid for your sins. So Jesus doesn't forgive sins! You read correctly. Jesus does NOT forgive anybody's sins, He has already paid for those sins with His precious blood. So you don't need to ask Jesus to save you, nor do you need to ask Him to forgive your sins. The work of redemption has already been completed by our dear Savior.

Why is this important to know? It is important that you understand how simple it is to be saved, so that you can go to Heaven someday. Religion has never saved anybody! I mean that. My father used to wisely say: “Religion is the worst thing that ever happened to this world.” My Christian Dad was right! Religion has never granted anybody access into the Kingdom of God. You cannot get into Heaven by trying to get there, you must trust completely in the Lamb of God. John 1:29, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” Jesus is that precious Lamb!

Jesus exclaimed to Nebuchadnezzar in John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Someone once asked the minister John Wesley why he kept preaching on the subject: “Ye Must Be Born Again,” over a thousand times. Wesley replied: “Because 'Ye must be born again!'” Dear friend, Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again! NO ONE will enter into God's Kingdom without being born-again by the Holy Spirit of God (1st Peter 1:23). We are born again by the seed of God's incorruptible Word, that is, by the truth of the Gospel (1st Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 1:16).

You don't need to ASK God to save you, He is already freely offering to save you, if you will simply accept the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the cross as full-payment for your sins, believing that Jesus is risen from the dead. 1st Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” What a wonderful Savior!!!

Now, having said that, it is okay if you do ASK Jesus to save you. I got saved when I was 13 years old. I was sitting in a pew in back of an old-fashioned Baptist church in Chicago (a rare find in Chicago, for which I count myself very blessed to have been there at that time). It was a Sunday morning during the summer. I believe it was 1980, but I cannot remember the exact year that I was saved. I didn't think at the time to write the date down, but I wish I had, so that I would know the exact age I was saved. But it doesn't matter, because I DO remember a place, and what happened that day.

I don't remember the title of the sermon that my pastor preached. But I do remember what he said that compelled me to get saved. The preacher said that if you can commit sin and have no conviction about it from the Holy Spirit, you are not saved. I knew immediately that I didn't have the indwelling Holy Spirit. I knew that I wasn't saved. But I sure wanted to be. At the invitation time, I was too shy to walk down the aisle to learn how to be saved. (This is why every preacher should ALWAYS tell people how to be saved right from their pew.)

So in my pew, as best that I knew how, I asked Jesus to save me, crying out silently from within my soul. I had grown up in Sunday school, and my father was a Skid Row preacher, so I had heard often the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus, the Christ, the only begotten Son of God; who died on the cross for my sins, was buried and then resurrected from the dead after three days (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). So believing those facts, I prayed from my soul for Jesus to save me. I knew in my soul that I was calling out to a RISEN SAVIOR! I believed Jesus was the one to whom I was speaking in my soul. I know that I got saved that day, because the blessed presence of the Holy Spirit has bene with me ever since that glorious day.

So I did ASK Jesus to save me, which is okay. However, I doubted my salvation for the next several years. I kept wondering if I left something out of my prayer. I kept hearing pastors teach people to “pray a sinner's prayer” to be saved. That is what every religious tract that I read also said to do. I was confused. No one has ever taught me that I could simply BELIEVE to be saved. I thought that the way you believe is through saying a prayer.

It wasn't until two decades later that my salvation beliefs were finally SOLIDIFIED, when I read a helpful book by Pastor Max D. Younce titled: 'Salvation And The Public Invitation' (backup link). The reason why the book had such a profound impact upon me is because it exactly described the manner in which I had been saved, from a pew. Dr. Younce explained from the Bible that you can be saved just by BELIEVING the Gospel, without praying or walking down an aisle in a church. I had never heard any preacher say that before, but the Holy Spirit confirmed in my heart of hearts that what Pastor Younce was saying is THE TRUTH.

A heavy burden was lifted off my soul. For the first time in my life I had a 100% grasp on God's simple plan of salvation. All those years that I had worried, was because preachers kept lying to me, misleading me to think that you must pray a sinner's prayer to be saved.

And then years later I read a helpful sermon article by Pastor Bob Gray Sr., in which he said that Jesus doesn't forgive sins, He has already paid for them with His blood. You simply need to accept God's free gift of forgiveness through faith alone in Christ. That is so simple!

I thank God for preachers who keep God's plan of salvation SIMPLE, the way God intended for it to be. I love something that one of my favorite free grace preachers, Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold said:

“There is power in this Gospel message. Most people just don't know how to present it... The clarity of the Gospel is what makes it easy for them to believe.” —Pastor Yankee Arnold, a quote from the excellent MP3 sermon titled, “WHY GRACE CAN SAVE THE WORST MAN!”

Amen and amen! I get so frustrated hearing local pastors in Pensacola tell their congregation to “have a relationship with Jesus“” to be saved. That is NOT the Gospel. That is confusing to people, because Judas had a relationship with Jesus, but died in his unbelief and went to Hell forever. What does that even mean, to have a relationship with Christ? Why use terms that the Bible doesn't use? Why add to the Gospel? Sadly, I even handed that bad pastor (who made that comment) a copy of Michael P. Bowen's helpful book: 'I Never Knew You,' which apparently he didn't even bother to read. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot force them to drink it. You can give a pastor THE TRUTH, but you cannot force them to heed it.

I recently spoke with a member of that church, with the bad pastor who says you need a “relationship with Jesus” to go to Heaven. That church member told me that you have to be water baptized to go to Heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, this is how messed up our churches are today doctrinally! This is why I like to teach all my blog readers the golden nuggets of truth that I have learned over the years, to help SOLIDIFY your salvation beliefs. I want you to have the blessed inexplicable joy and peace that I have, knowing 100% without question that my name is written in Heaven (Luke 10:20). I NEVER doubt my salvation anymore, because I understand it.

You don't need to ASK Jesus to save you, God is already eagerly OFFERING you His free gift of salvation, just for the taking by faith. You don't need to ASK Jesus to forgive your sins, because He has already paid for them with His precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19; Revelation 1:5). Simply BELIEVE that Jesus did it for you, and you will be instantly, irrevocably and eternally saved by God's grace. Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty! Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith. Jesus is precious!!! Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do.

 

You're Not Going to Lead Anybody To The Lord With A False Gospel

Galatians 1:6-7, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”

A FALSE GOSPEL CANNOT SAVE!!! Our churches are flooded today with all sorts of heresies concerning the Gospel. In our text verse, the apostle Paul was astounded how quickly the churchgoers at Galatia had fallen prey to “ANOTHER GOSPEL” (which is no Gospel at all). Listen to what Evangelist Paul Washer errantly teaches:

I tell 'em this. I say, “Listen. If tonight you have truly repented and believed in Jesus Christ, you have become a child of God. But this is going to be the evidence—If you have truly repented unto salvation, you will continue repenting unto salvation, and growing in repentance. And if you have truly believed, you will continue believing! None of this flu-shot stuff! I don't want someone walking up to that person, ten years later, they're living an ungodly life, and someone witnessed to them, and they say, 'Oh, don't worry about me, I done did that!' Cause that's what most people do in the south, isn't it? 'Don't worry about me preacher, I did that.' You did what? 'I got my flu-shot.' Yeah, but you didn't get Jesus! ...You counsel them with many Gospel promises and many Gospel warnings!”

SOURCE: Regeneration Verses The Idolatry of Decisional Evangelism

Ladies and gentlemen, that is not the Biblical Gospel! That is not the simplicity that is in Christ! Paul Washer is infamous for this type of false Calvinistic preaching, that conditions one's salvation upon personal works of discipleship. I've listened to many dozens of hours of repentance and salvation by Paul Washer and he is corrupt. Mr. Washer makes the dire mistake of mixing discipleship with sonship. He confuses salvation with consecration. Here is an excellent quote by Dr. Martin DeHaan (1891-1965) explaining the difference between coming to Christ for salvation, verses coming after Christ in discipleship:

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117).

Here are some more great quotes below exposing the falsehood of Lordship Salvation. This is GREAT SOUND DOCTRINE!!! The following excellent information by Dr. Hank Lindstrom is from the helpful Christian website, Get God's Gift...

THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF THE LORDSHIP GOSPEL WITH THE GOSPEL OF GRACE

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Galatians 1:8,9

The importance of this question can't be overestimated in relation to both salvation and sanctification. The message of faith only and the message of commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a false gospel and come under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel.

"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our Savior." —Pastor Charles Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life; Moody Press, Inc., 1969 (p. 170)

"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism' and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." —Howard, William. "Is Faith Enough to Save?" Bibliotheca Sacra. January-March, 1942 (p. 99)

"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" —Hook, H. Phillip, A Biblical Definition of Saving Faith; Bibliotheca Sacra; April-June, 1964 (p. 133, 138)

"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him everything, including life itself." —Hodges, Zane C., The Hungry Inherit; Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (pp. 114, 115)

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —DeHaan, M. R., Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117)

"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ." Post, Roger. "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and 'Repentance' in the New Testament." —Master's Thesis, Wheaton College, June 1972 (p. 80)

"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning Him." —Lindsey, Hal, The Liberation of Planet Earth; Zondervan Publishing House, 1974 (pp. 136, 137)

"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian." —Pentecost, J. Dwight, Design for Discipleship; Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11)

"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship." —Harrison, Everett F, Must Christ Be Lord To Be Savior?-No.; Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14)

"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." —Unger, Merrill F., God is Waiting to Meet You; Moody Press, 1975 (pp. 117, 118)

"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." —Chafer, Lewis Sperry, Salvation; Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46)

SUMMARY
Lordship salvation is where someone teaches that there must be a commitment to Christ as Lord of one's life in order to be saved. Recently there has been a modification of this position to say that willingness to be controlled by the Lord at the time of salvation is all that is required in addition to faith in order to be saved. The message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a FALSE GOSPEL and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel.

Galatians 1:8, 9 says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." If only committed people are saved people, then where is there room for carnal Christians? What kind of dedication must be preached to people, if in order to be saved, they have already dedicated their lives to the Lord?

Where do you stop if you start adding something else to this which is the gospel revealed in the Bible? Look at what God says about adding to the revelation of Jesus Christ (gospel), "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book" (Revelation 22:18). The Bible plainly declares that we are saved by faith, and not by works. Where does it say this? Ephesians 2:8, 9 "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." What are you trusting in to get you to heaven?

* Written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom

The moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God who can read your mind knows, saves YOU and gives you the Gift of God, eternal Life.

You do not need anyone to pray over you, or pray for you, because this is between you and God in heaven. Because of your new trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ you are now a child of God. Before you trusted in Jesus, God was your creator but now and forevermore he will be your father.

You are saved in a moment of time, because you are trusting in the true Savior now, not working your way to heaven day by day which is not even possible.

Once saved you can never be lost, for any reason. This is because you were born spiritually the moment you put your trust in Him. Just like your physical birth which brought you into this human world, your spiritual birth gave you a new spiritual life that is permanent. You were born-again, made righteous and holy in Gods eyes. In fact you have the righteousness of God himself, your are sinless and perfect in God's eyes now and that's why you can enter into a perfect heaven.

My favorite saying is:

God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will only save those who are trusting to be saved.

You MUST put ALL your trust in Jesus to be saved, trust in the blood that He shed on the cross, trust that He is God in the flesh, trust that He made the complete payment for your sins, not just part; He paid for ALL of your sins (past, present, and future)! Trust that He rose again from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights, and in return for this trust, He gives YOU Eternal Life. All false Christians put part of their trust in Jesus and part of their trust the Church and part of their trust in themselves. If you put 99.99% trust in Jesus and 00.01% in something else, you will go to hell. It must be 100% trust in Jesus and what He did and 0% in you or your church! This information in critical... (grace always cancels works!) You are going to hell if it's by your works or you are going to heaven by Gods grace. It's as simple as that.

So I guess the question comes down to who are you trusting. Are you trusting yourself to get to heaven by being a good person and giving lots of money to your church or are you trusting Jesus, the lamb of God, that was slain for the sins of the world to get you to heaven? You receive the Gift of God (Eternal Life) as soon as you stop trusting in yourself, your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your money, or any other works and put your trust in Him and Him ALONE, Jesus Christ, Yeshua, The King of Kings, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Alpha and Omega, the Mighty God.

False religions are everywhere and they will find you, the one true God and His plan of salvation must be found.

If all this makes sense to you and you would like to trust Jesus as your personal Savior right now then tell the Mighty God in Heaven of your decision to trust Jesus Christ as your only hope of heaven. Tell Him that you are no longer putting your trust in your actions, or your church, or your church membership, or in your money, or in your Rabbi, or in your synagogue or your Mosque but that you are putting all of your trust in Him and the shed blood of the cross to pay your sin debt. Thank Him for doing it for you! Thank Him for giving you the Gift of Eternal Life that He paid for with His life. There is no greater deed than that of laying down your life for another.

Will you trust Jesus as your Savior right now, the one who shed His precious blood on the cross of Calvary to pay for all your sins?

A Suggested Sinner's Prayer
Lord, I admit that I'm a sinner & I don't understand a whole lot about the bible, but I do believe that Jesus Christ died & paid for my sins in full, by His death & shed blood on the cross. I trust right now the He died for me, was buried & rose again from the dead and will live forever more. I trust Jesus Christ right now to save me, to be my savior, to forgive my sins & to give me the GIFT OF GOD Eternal Life. Amen

By reading this sinners prayer aloud, you are putting your trust in God and His plan of salvation. You are not saved by saying this prayer, you are saved the moment your mind made the switch from trusting in yourself to putting your COMPLETE TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST. That moment may have been five paragraphs up on this page or that moment may have been on another one of our pages. You will not feel any different, but you will be changed and changed for the better forever. Once you have trusted Jesus as your savior and received his gift of eternal life, this gift can NEVER be lost. You can NEVER go to hell for ANY reason. Your past, present and future sins were paid in full the moment you put your trust in Him. You are blameless and Holy in God's eyes now and FOREVER. If you have eternal life today what kind of life will you have in five years? ETERNAL! What kind of life will you have in ten years? ETERNAL!! What kind of life will you have in 50 years? ETERNAL!!! God does not give probationary life or temporary life, His gift is ETERNAL LIFE! Thanks be to GOD!

Why be good, now that I am assured of going to heaven? Because God's law of sowing and reaping still applies to you and me. You will reap what you sow. You will reap more than you sow and you will reap later than you sow. If you drink alcohol like a fish, you will reap a diseased liver. If you smoke like a chimney everyday, you will reap lung cancer. If you rob, murder, and steal you will reap a life in prison. You will reap what you sow. I guarantee it! Now that you are saved, when you do good things you WILL be rewarded here on earth and in Heaven. And when you do bad things you WILL lose rewards that God had planned on giving you here on earth and in Heaven. But you will NEVER lose your guarantee of going to heaven. That can never be lost for any reason!! You have God's word that your salvation can never be lost for any reason. You did not earn salvation and you do not work to keep salvation! Eternal Life, salvation, being born again, becoming a child of God, was, is, and always will be the GIFT OF GOD.

Remember: If your not saved forever... you are not saved!

Why is this true you might ask? Because if a person is not sure that they are saved TODAY / RIGHT NOW it means that they are still trying to be the savior! They can't be sure they are going to heaven because they don't know what sin's they may commit next week, next month or next year. We who have trusted in Jesus alone, can have comfort knowing that all our sins have been paid in full on the Cross of Calvary (past, present, and future sins). Jesus has already died for my sins so I don't need to pay for any sin I have or will commit in the future because Jesus already paid the price in full with His blood. So called Christians who say that you can lose your salvation because of suicide or murder or falling away from the church don't have a clue what the Bible says and clearly have not trusted Jesus ALONE!

Biblical Salvation is forsaking any other means of salvation but Christ and casting ourselves fully upon Him for eternal life.

The Gift of God, Eternal Life can never be lost once possessed for any reason. John 6:39, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should LOSE NOTHING, but should raise it up again at the last day." You have God's promise that once you put your trust in Jesus you can never be lost for ANY reason whatsoever.

"For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Romans 11:29). Again, God is telling you that this Gift of God that you have just received is without repentance. He can never take His gift back for any reason, no matter how bad you get, or how bad your sins are it is not possible. God would have to cease to exist for that to happen because He cannot lie.

SOURCE: Lordship Salvation » How to get into Heaven

I plead with you, whoever you may be, to start checking your church's religious tracts, and see what type of stuff is being taught to people concerning how to be saved. I visited a local church recently and was dismayed at what I read in their Gospel tracts. IT WASN'T THE GOSPEL!!! I read three big heresies in their tracts. First, that you must turn your life over to Christ to be saved. Second, that you must receive Jesus as your Savior AND LORD to be saved. And thirdly, that you must turn from your sins to be saved. Ladies and gentleman, none of these things constitute the Gospel. We are saved by believing the Gospel.

But in order for this to happen, there must be repentance, which is admitting that we are a guilty sinner in the sight of a holy God, thus realizing our need for the dear Savior. No on has ever been saved without repentance!!! But you don't get saved by repenting, you get saved by placing your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to receive Jesus as your Savior to be saved, which happens the very moment that you BELIEVE. 1st Corinthians 1:21, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” What exactly is “THE GOSPEL”?

“The mark of the child of God is that he loves everybody!” (a quote from Pastor Jack Hyles' classic MP3 sermon, “FORGIVENESS”

Four Calls To Soulwinning

“But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20) “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.” (Acts 16:9) “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” (Hebrews 12:1) “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” (Luke 16:27-28)

Thirty-eight years ago last August 30th, a nervous, frightened 33-year-old Texas boy became pastor of a downtown First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana. There is no way for me to describe how formal it was. No piano was allowed to be played on Sunday morning. No congregational song leader was allowed to stand up and wave his hands and no gospel songs were allowed on Sunday morning. You could sing “Jesus Saves” or “Rescue The Perishing” on Sunday night, but not on Sunday morning. The former pastor preached in striped pants and a scissor-tail coat. I do not know of an Episcopalian church any more formal than First Baptist Church was.

When the pulpit a committee interviewed me, they asked what I thought about the Sunday morning service. I said, “I think it stinks.” They said, “What kind of a Sunday morning service would you have if you became our pastor?” I said, “It would be more like a Billy Sunday Revival Campaign.” The wealthiest man in Hammond was on the board of trustees. Several months after I became pastor, he came to me. “Reverend, I want to talk to you. We like you fine. We think you’re a good guy. But the truth is, we have a problem with your preaching. Ever since you’ve been here, the pressure’s been on. Every Sunday morning and Sunday night, and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday it’s soulwinning. The pressure’s on all the time. Before you came, we use to have a revival meeting every 6 months or so and bring a fellow in to have an evangelistic crusade. But since you’ve been here it’s been that way all the time. Every Sunday is just like one of those revival meetings.” He said, “Look at me, I’m a nervous wreck. I shake when I come to church anymore. You’ve ruined our worship service.” (If I could, I’d ruin every formal worship service in America next Sunday morning.) “I’m not the only person who’s nervous—this church is full of nervous people. It’s soulwinning on Sunday. It’s soulwinning on Monday. It’s soulwinning on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Then we start all over again on Sunday. Last Sunday morning we sang 52 stanzas of ‘Just As I Am’. No wonder we’re nervous! Something’s got to change!” I said, “Come back on Sunday night and I’ll give you my answer.” That Sunday night I preached the message I am preaching to you tonight. I’m telling you exactly what I told my people 38 years ago. I said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, a man came to me last week and told me that you’re nervous. He said that you were concerned because we’re having soulwinning on Sunday, and soulwinning on Monday, and soulwinning on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I’d like to tell you tonight why it’s that way, and why it’s going to be that way as long as I am the pastor of this church, whether that is one more week or 50 more years.”

A CALL FROM WITHIN

In the first place, there’s a call from within. There is something inside of me that says I have to go soulwinning. “I cannot but speak the things I have seen and heard.” I have no choice. It’s burning inside of me - a call from within that compels me to stress soulwinning in everything that we do. This call from within came to me many years ago. When I was a boy, I was the most timid boy in the church. When I was 17 years old, I weighed 92 pounds. I now weigh...I finally got your attention, didn’t I? I now weigh MORE than 92 pounds! (Once my doctor put me on a diet, and I gained 15 pounds on 1,000 calories a day. I wonder if it could be that 7,000 calories at night that caused the problem?)

On my 17th birthday I weighed 92 pounds and I was the most timid fellow in the church. They called me little Jackie-boy Hyles. I failed public speaking in high school. I could not make the ball team. I was too little to get a date. I didn’t get to be in the senior play. I was an introvert. Most of the people in my church had never heard me say a single word.

One Sunday after the morning service, one of the deacons, Jesse Cobb, said, “Hey, Jackie-boy. Would you like to go soulwinning with me this afternoon?” I said, “Uh, J-J-Jesse, y-y-you know I c-c-couldn’t go soulwinning.” He said, “Jack, you won’t have to say anything, I just need a partner to give me some moral support. My partner is on vacation, and I just need someone to go with me. you won’t have to say a word.”

The first door we knocked on was the home of a high school football player named Kenneth Florence. Jesse Cobb was 5’4” tall, and I was shorter yet. He must have weighed 120, and I weighed 92 pounds. The two of us put together might have weighed as much as Kenneth did.

When Kenneth came to the door, Jesse looked up and said, “Kenneth Florence, my name is Jesse Cobb and this is Jack Hyles.” Jesse said, “Kenneth, Jack here wants to say a few words to you.” No, Jack didn’t either! Kenneth looked at me and said, “Yes, what is it, Jack?” I said, “Uh ... Uh... ahem... K-K-Kenneth, would you l-l-like to come to ch-ch-church tonight?” I do not remember what happened. Jesse told me later that Kenneth said, “Yes, I would,” and I said, “You would?” Jesse told me that I said, “I’ll come by and get you tonight at 7 o’clock.” And Kenneth said, “That will be fine.” That night at 7 o’clock I borrowed Jesse Cobb’s car and went over to get Kenneth Florence. For the first time in my life, knew I had to win a soul. I had never won a soul in my life. The sweat was rolling down my face, and I was trembling. When the invitation began, I put my arm across Kenneth’s big broad shoulders and said, “K-K-Kenneth, w-w-would you like to get s-s-saved?” And he said, “Yes, I would.” I said, “ I don’t know how to tell you, but follow me.” We walked down the aisle, and my pastor met us at the end of the aisle. I said, “B-B-Brother Sizemore, this is K-K-Kenneth Florence. He wants to get saved.” I had done my part, so I started back to my seat. Brother Sizemore said, “Hold it, Jack!” I turned around. He said, “Kenneth, Jack wants to kneel here and show you how to get saved.” No I didn’t! He was a bigger liar than Jesse Cobb! I knelt at the front row. I said, “Kenneth, I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve never done this before. But I want to see you saved.” I began to weep. Kenneth said, “Jack, I know how to be saved. I’ve heard it many times. Every Sunday afternoon for months, somebody from the church has come by. But you’re the first one that I ever thought really cared. I know how to do it.” I said, “Well... do it!”

Kenneth bowed his head and said something like the old prayer you’ve heard thousands of times, “Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I now receive Jesus as my Saviour and trust Him to take me to Heaven when I die.” And while Kenneth Florence was getting saved, the fireworks of Heaven turned loose in my soul! I mean the sparklers sparkled, and the firecrackers banged, and the Roman candles soared through the sky. I jumped up and said, “Brother Sizemore, would it be okay with you if I just did this all the time from now on?” We started a revival that night. In the next 7 days, little introverted Jackie-boy Hyles that nobody took seriously brought 37 people down the aisle professing faith in Jesus Christ. God set something ablaze in my soul, and that something is still burning tonight. When you tell me not to build a soulwinning church, you may as well tell a bird not to fly or a fish not to swim. It’s a call from within.

“Why can’t you be like other preachers?’ he wanted to know. “Why can’t you be normal like everyone else? Why the constant pressure about soulwinning?” Not one time in the Bible does it say, “The Son of man is come to exegete the scriptures.” Not one time does it say, “The Son of man is come to lead the deeper life program.” My Bible says the reason that Jesus left Heaven, and the fellowship with the Father, and the glory and majesty that were rightfully His for 33 homesick years - the reason why He lived with no place to lay His head while foxes had holes and birds had nests - the reason He was rejected by His own city, hated by His own race, expelled from His own synagogue - the reason that He went to Calvary was TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST. Why do we work day and night to build soulwinning churches getting the message of the Gospel to America? I’ll tell you why. Because of the burning call from within.

A CALL FROM WITHOUT

“Preacher, we’re nervous. Why does it have to be soulwinning all the time?” I told my people that night, “Not only is there a call from within, but there is a call from without.” Come over and help us.” There’s more to it than personal preference. There’s a world going to hell! There’s a call from without. I believe that men without God are lost. I believe that when those lost men die in their sins, they go to hell. I believe that men who go to hell burn forever and ever. If that be true, would you tell me what else counts in this world? That call from without began many years ago. I was called to pastor a little country church. I could win souls to Christ, but I could not preach them down the aisle. For more than a year, nobody walked the aisle professing faith is Christ. I begged and pleaded for God’s power. I didn’t know what the answer was. But on May 13, 1950 I knelt on the grave of my alcoholic father who died, and as far as I know, went to hell, and I said, “Dear God, I’m not getting off my face until something happens to me.”

The next Sunday night I went back to my little church to preach. A lad came to receive Christ as Saviour. And then there came another ...and another. I’d never seen anybody walk the aisle under my preaching before. When they came in we voted them in on the spot. Up north today, you have to have credit references and blood tests and everything else to get in a lot of Baptist churches. I’d say, “So and so is coming, professing his faith in Christ. What is your pleasure?” I had a deacon that sat over here every Sunday right next to a window, and he would spit out that window and say, “I make a motion that he be received for baptism, and after baptism into the full fellowship of the church.” I had a man over here next to that wall who would say, “I second the move.” The same two men said it all the time. I said, “All in favor, say aye.” They all did. Then we ‘extended the right hand of fellowship’. We sang, “Shall We Gather At The River’ and everyone went around row by row to shake hands with the new converts. Then I dismissed the service.

That night 3 people got saved, and boy I was happy. Back in east Texas where I pastored, there weren’t many cars. Most everybody came by tractor or horseback or wagon, and one Model A Ford. Everyone was getting on their wagons and tractors to go home, and I was praising the Lord. I was having a spell. I wish some of you folks would get religion again. You’ve gotten too used to it. I was having an old-fashioned spell - clapping my hands and praising God when all of a sudden --- WHAM! A big old 235 pound fellow hit me from the rear. I turned around and there was O. C. Pruett, a trainman, with tears in his eyes. He said, “Reverend, my daughter Barbara is leaning up against the wall back there crying her eyes out. I think she wants to get saved.” I went back and said, “Barbara, do you want to get saved?” She said, “Of course, I do! Nobody wants to go to hell.” I won Barbara to Jesus.

I went out on the front porch of the church and said, “Hey, come on back in.” Folks left their wagons and tractors and came back in. I said, “Folks, Barbara Pruett just got saved. What’s your pleasure?’ The same man said, “I make a motion that she be received for baptism, and after baptism into the full fellowship to the church.” Over here he said, ‘I second the move.’ Everybody in favor, say aye.” “Aye.” We sang “Shall We Gather At The River” and came around row by row to shake her hand. Glory to God, hallelujah! I dismissed the service again at about 10 o’clock.

I was having another spell when the same guy hit me from behind. WHAM! He said, “Reverend, my married daughter Dorothy is there on the back row. Look at her crying her eyes out. Would you go talk to her?” I went back and said, “Dorothy, do you want to be saved?” She said, “My sister’s going to heaven and I’m going to hell. Don’t you think I want to go to Heaven with her?” I told her how to be saved and she got saved. I went out on the front porch and said, “Hey, come on back in.”

When they came in, I said, “Folks, Dorothy Hall just got saved. What’s your pleasure. This man over here spit out the window and said, “I make a motion that she be received for baptism and after baptism be received into the full fellowship of the church.” This one said, “I second the move.” I said, “All in favor, say aye.” “Aye.” We opened our song books to “Shall We Gather At The River” and came row by row again to shake Dorothy’s hand. I dismissed the service for the third time about 10:30 and went out on the front porch and continued my spell. I know you won’t believe this, but it really happened. WHAM! It was the same man. “Reverend, her husband Sam is over there and he just threw down his cigarette. Do you reckon that means anything?” I went down and said, “Sam, I understand you just threw down your cigarette?” He said, “Reverend, you preached about hell tonight. I looked at the fire on that cigarette, and it dawned on me --- that’s where I’m going when I die.” I said, “Do you want to get saved?” He said, ‘Sure I want to get saved. My wife’s going to Heaven and I want to go to Heaven with her.” On the front porch of that little country church I won Sam to Jesus Christ and said, “Hey, come on back in. Sam Hall just trusted Christ as his Saviour.” We went through the same thing again.

Six people got saved that night. I’d been preaching for over a year and hadn’t seen anybody get saved. We had over 1,000 walk the aisle for salvation last Sunday at First Baptist Church, but that didn’t make me any happier than those six people that Sunday night after God filled me with his Spirit for the first time.

Now I know you won’t believe me—I wouldn’t believe you if you told this story either. But as I stood in the same spot having a spell, WHAM! ...you guessed it. The same fellow. He said, “Reverend...I think I’ll get saved myself before I go home.” I won O. C. Pruett to Jesus and all the people came back in and voted him into the church and sang and gave him the right hand of fellowship/ That night Mrs. Hyles and I went to our little parsonage next door. I wish you could have seen it. The foundation under the back bedroom was so shaky that two people couldn’t walk around in there at the same time. There was a rat at the back porch when we came, that was still there when we left. he thought he was one of the family. We gave him rat poison and he gained weight on it. We put a rat trap out there and he thought it was a toy. We went to our little country parsonage that night at 11:15 and took out a great big Bible. We were just a couple of kids—I was only 22 or 23 at the time. We put our hands on that Bible and looked up and said, “Oh, God! This is what we’ve been wanting. We’re not going to settle for anything less.”

May I take a moment and praise His name? Since that Sunday night almost 48 years ago, there has not been a single somebody saved. I’m talking about little country churches and small town churches and big city churches. We baptized that night, and there’s not been one single Sunday since then that somebody hasn’t been baptized. All of our children have grown up and not a single child has ever gone to church without seeing somebody baptized before Sunday night was over. You say, “Preacher, why don’t you calm down?” I don’t intend to calm down. I believe there’s a hell! Now if there’s no hell, let’s all go ‘deeper life’. If there’s no hell, we can all join John MacArthur. If there’s no hell, let’s all go exegete. But if there is a hell, let’s go soulwinning. Let’s build soulwinning churches. The call from without.

A CALL FROM ABOVE

“Pastor, may I talk to you please. We like you fine,” said the wealthy man, “but we’re nervous. I represent the nervous people of this church. We like your preaching, if it is a bit loud and long. We use to have revival meetings now and then. But since you’ve been here, it’s like that every Sunday morning. Soulwinning, soulwinning, soulwinning. Why can’t you be like other preachers are?”

That night I told them that there is a call from above. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses... My mama is watching. Dr. John Rice looks down from Heaven, and I can tell you that he’s mighty pleased. He gave his life for soulwinning, to fight formalism and the deeper life movement and the hyper-Calvinism movement and the Charismatic hodgepodge. He gave his life for what’s going on right here. Tonight they’re watching. Dr. John, Brother Lester Roloff, Dr. Bill Rice, Dr. Ford Porter, Dr. Bob Jones, SR...There’s a call from above.

Years ago I was pastoring in Garland, Texas. I was 26 or 27 years of age. The church had grown rapidly and was running about 1,500 in Sunday School. One Sunday morning I was out front shaking hands with everybody that came in. An old man came through the door. He was close to 90, I think. His hair was as white as freshly fallen snow. His shoulders drooped. If he stood up straight, he couldn’t have been more than 5’4” tall.

I said, “How do you do, sir. My name is Jack Hyles.” In a squeaky voice he said, “My name is James W. Moore.” I said, “Brother Moore, we’re glad to have you. Where are you from?” He said, “I just moved to the area. I’ve been a preacher up in Iowa for over 50 years. I had a heart attack and the doctor says I won’t live long. I came to Texas because it’s warmer and I have some family here. I’d like to join your church. I won’t cause you no trouble. I’ll be for you. I hear you preach it like it is.”

I bought a platform rocker and put it by the altar next to the wall for Brother Moore. He’d rock while I preached and clap his hands. “Amen! Glory to God! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!” When I’d preach on dancing or movies or something, he’d shout, “Pull over and park there for a while.” Apart from my pastor J. C. Sizemore and my best friend, Dr. John R. Rice, I’ve never loved a preacher like I loved James W. Moore.

Every Monday morning he’d come by my office at 9 o’clock. He’d walk in my office and pace the floor. He’d say, “Brother Jack, I just came to tell you about a stupid mistake I made when I was a kid preacher...” It was always the same mistake I had made the day before. I’d hug him and thank him for telling me what he had learned. He’d teach me the Bible and talk to me every Monday morning from 9 to 10 o’clock. What a dear, sweet man of God. One Sunday his chair was empty. For several weeks he was gone. I went to his house and no one answered. I thought maybe he had moved back to Iowa. Late one Sunday night the phone rang. The lady said, “This is the nurse at Spiegel Memorial Hospital. I hate to bother you this late at night, but there’s an old man that was brought in with a heart attack. He has no identification, and nobody knows who he is. He’s about to die. But he keeps saying, ‘Call Brother Jack.’ We knew that you like to be called Brother Jack, so we thought you may know the old man.” I said, “Is he about 5’4”? Is his hair real white?” She said, “Yes.” I said, “Yes, I know him.” I went to the hospital. I hadn’t seen many folks die, so I was all prepared for a solemn ceremony. But Brother Moore wasn’t dying right. He said, “Come on in, Brother Jack. I’m just about to take a trip I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. In just a few minutes I’m going to see Elijah and Moses and Abraham and Paul and John the Baptist and all those fellows. Anything you want me to tell them for you?” Then he said, “Brother Jack, I want you to have a Bible conference. I’m going to Heaven now, but I want to plan it for you.” He chose the speakers. I had the conference after he had gone to Heaven just like he asked.

Then this is what he did. He took the oxygen mask off his face and laid it beside him. He reached his hands out and put them around mine, and said, “Brother Jack, KEEP...PREACHING...IT...!” I heard the rustling of wings as the angles came and took his dear old spirit to the presence of the Saviour. I said, “Oh God, help me to keep preaching it.”

Many times in the past several years I’ve heard that old man say, “Keep preaching it! Keep preaching it!” Don’t you hear tonight the call from above? Even the blessed Saviour says, “Go! Go! Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel...”

A CALL FROM BENEATH

“Reverend, we’re glad you’re our pastor and we like you fine, but you’re different. Why can’t you be like everybody else?” I told my people that Sunday night, pretty much what I’ve told you tonight. There’s a call from within - something on the inside that says, “I’ve got to do it.” There’s a call from without - a lost world crying, “Come over and help us.” There’s a call from above - heavenly witnesses cheering us on. And there’s a call from beneath. “Send Lazarus, have him tell my 5 brothers not to come here.” They’re more concerned about soulwinning in hell tonight than you are in your church. “Send Lazarus. I’ve got 5 brothers and I don’t want them to burn in hell.” There’s a call from beneath.

On Saturday, December 31, 1949, I got burdened for my father. My father was an alcoholic - a part-time bartender. I was pastoring a little country church in east Texas. Up to that time I had won souls to Christ, but I had never had anyone walk the aisle under my preaching. On New Year’s Eve I got in the car and drove 150 miles to Dallas to a tavern right across the street from the seminary. My daddy worked there part-time and drank there rest of the time for 8 years and not once did one single professor, staff member, administrator or student ever walk across the street to witness to the drunkard that tended the bar. That’s not New Testament Christianity. I didn’t care how much Greek and Hebrew you memorize.

I walked in the Hunt Saloon on Saturday morning, New Year’s Eve. My daddy was sitting at the bar, drunk. I walked up and put my arm around him and said, “Daddy, I’m going to take you with me to east Texas. I’m going to have a Watch Night service tonight, and tomorrow is Sunday, New Year’s Day. I want you to go with me.” He cursed at me and said, “I’m not going to no church tomorrow.” I said, “Yes, you are.” He said, “No, I’m not.” I laid my Bible down and said, “Daddy, you are either going to have to come with me or whip me. I’m going to fight you if I have to in order to get you in that car.” He came with me and I sobered him up.

That night my daddy went to church and we had a light kind of a service, a lot of fun. The next morning was the first time he had ever heard me preach. Tears streamed down his cheeks. The invitation came and my big one-legged deacon put his arm around my daddy, and said, “Mr. Hyles, won’t you come to Christ.” He did not walk the aisle. That afternoon I took a walk with my daddy out across the pasture and said, “Daddy, I want to see you saved more that I want anything in the whole world. Daddy, I want you to go to Heaven with Mama and me.” He had left us many years before when I was a little boy. My daddy said something I never thought I’d ever hear him say. “Son, I’m going to get saved. I can’t today, but I’m going back to straighten up some things at home, and I’ll come back in the spring, and maybe get a little fruit stand or something, and I’m going to get saved. You’re going to baptize me this spring, and I’ll be a deacon in your church one of these days, you wait and see if I’m not.”

I took him back the next morning. The last words he said to me were, “Son, I’m going to let you baptize me in the spring.” That was good enough for me. But the spring never came. On May 12th I got a call that my daddy had dropped dead with a heat attack, and I was a powerless preacher.

Several years passed. One Sunday night, I was still in my office at about 11 o’clock. I heard a knock at my door and there stood my sister weeping. She said, “Jack, would you tell me how to be save.” I brought here into my office and led her to Christ. She’s now a lovely Christian and a wonderful soulwinner. After she got saved, I said, “Earlyne, why did you come tonight.” a She said, “Jack, tonight you preached on Luke 16. You told about the rich man in hell who lift up his eyes and said, “Send Lazarus to tell my five e brothers not to come here.” She said, “Jack, when you told that story, I thought of a dream I had shortly after daddy died. I dreamed that a man in a white robe, maybe an angel, took me in a big building. He showed me walls lined with caskets. In every casket was a copse. He took me to the first casket and I looked into the face of that corpse and he had a smile on his face. He took me all around that room and every casket had a corpse, and every corpse had a smile on his face, until I got to the last one. The angel said, ‘You can’t see that one.” She said, “I must see it,” and in her dream she broke away from that angel.

My sister told me, “Jack, daddy was in that casket. I went up and looked at him and his face was writhing in pain. He cried out in agony, “Sister... sister...sister...” All those years I wondered what daddy was trying to tell me, and tonight when you preached that sermon, I know what it was daddy was trying to tell me. He was saying, “Sister... don’t come here.” Don’t you tell me not to build a soulwinning church. Don’t you tell me not to live for soulwinning. I’ve got a daddy who, as far as I know, is in hell. There’s a call from beneath. Why don’t you let God change you tonight? Where is that Curtis Hutson who was in Atlanta in 1961 whose life was changed? Where is that Wally Beebe who was in a meeting like this up in Danville, Illinois and his life was transformed as a kid preacher?

“Pastor, I come representing some nervous people. We like you fine. But pastor, why are you like you are? Why is the pressure on all the time? We use toe have revival meeting twice a year, and see people get saved, sometimes 50 or 60 a year. But ever since you’ve been here it’s soulwinning Monday, soulwinning Tuesday, soulwinning Wednesday, soulwinning Thursday, soulwinning Friday, soulwinning Saturday... Why can’t you be like everybody else/ I’ll tell you why. There’s a call from within. “K-K-Kenneth, w-w-wouldn’t you like to b-b-be s-s-saved?” There’s a call from without. “Reverend, I think I’ll just get saved myself before I go home.” There’s a call from above. “Brother Jack, KEEP...PREACHING...IT!” There’s a call from beneath. “Sister...sister...sister!” FOUR CALLS TO SOULWINNING!

Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)

How To Know If You've Believed In Vain

1st Corinthians 15:1-2, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.”

A good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one. So many misinterpretations of the Holy Bible could be avoided, if the reader would simply also read several verses before and after a particular passage of Scripture.

The Apostle Paul started the church at Corinth. After leaving Thessalonica, Paul and his companions, Timothy and Silvanus, arrived in Corinth and began, again, to preach the gospel in an effort to win converts. 2nd Corinthians 1:18-19, “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.” Paul preached THE GOSPEL to the Corinthians. Paul defines this Gospel in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 as three things:

1. Jesus Christ DIED on the cross for our sins according to the Scripture.
2. He was BURIED according to the Scripture.
3. Jesus bodily RESURRECTED three days later from dead according to the Scriptures.

1st Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” This is “the gospel” according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4, by which WHOSOEVER is saved if they BELIEVE IT.

So when Paul warns the churchgoers at Corinth (and by extension all who read this passage), to make sure you haven't BELIEVD IN VAIN, he is simply saying that one's faith is in vain (worthless and non-productive) if it is in the WRONG GOSPEL. Paul said that he received the Gospel (i.e., the GOOD NEWS) directly from the Lord Jesus Christ, and not from a mere man. Galatians 1:11-12, “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Some false teachers claim that Moses preached a different Gospel than in the New Testament.

They also claim that Jesus and Paul didn't preach the same Gospel. I have heard some damnable false prophets teach that Jesus' Gospel required water baptism, but Paul's Gospel does not. THAT IS WRONG!!! There has always been, is now, and always will be ONLY ONE GOSPEL. What saith the Scripture? Galatians 1:6-7, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.”

Dear reader, there is only ONE GOSPEL. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Salvation has always been through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins. Hebrews 4:1-2 says that Moses preached THE GOSPEL to the Jews in the Wilderness for 40 years, but sadly most of the Jews perished into Hell forever, because they didn't have faith mixed in the Good News that they heard, so they perished. Hebrews 4:1-2, “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. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Those millions of Jews heard the Gospel, but they didn't believe any of it. They bickered and complained and doubted God every step of the way through the Wilderness, not putting their faith in the light of THE TRUTH of the Gospel which Moses preached unto them day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

After Jesus raised up from the dead, He came alongside two disciples who were talking while walking to Emmaus. The Savior inquired what the big commotion was around town. They asked Jesus (not recognizing who He was) if He were a stranger. Everybody in Jerusalem knew what had just happened, that an innocent good man named Jesus was crucified as if He were a guilty criminal by the envious Pharisees. As the men began to explain the situation to Jesus, they expressed frustration and doubt that Christ hadn't risen from the dead yet. That is so ironic, because they were talking to the risen Christ, and didn't even recognize Him. Jesus must have looked physically different in His resurrected, glorified, perfect, immortal, new body (or else the Lord made it so that no one could recognize Him). The Bible does not specify. 

When Mary Magdalene (who had been possessed of demons before she got saved) met Jesus at the tomb, she thought He was the gardener. She did not recognize Jesus, until He called out her name as the Lord had done so many times before during His ministry, “Mary.” John 20:15-16, “Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.” That is so beautiful.

For their lack of faith, Jesus rebuked the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:25-27,“Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” The Gospel is the Good News of the Savior. They didn't have all the details of the Gospel that we have today, but the Good News was still the same—remission of sins comes only through faith in Christ.

In the Old Testament they looked forward to the coming Christ, as evidence by the words of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well. John 4:25-26, “The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” She wasn't saved yet, until Jesus expounded her in the Scriptures, and then she BELIEVED ON HIM and was saved.

The inspired Word of God plainly defines the Gospel:

1st Corinthians 15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”

Our pastor in Sunday morning church today preached a wonderful sermon from Galatians chapter 4 and 5.

Every Believer Is A Heir With Jesus Christ

The Apostle Paul uses the brilliant illustration of a heir (which Scripture passage I will quote to you in a moment), to demonstrate a believer before and after salvation. In the Old Testament, God required the Jews to keep the law of Moses (not to be saved, but to obey the Lord's Commandments which He applied only to His people during the Old Testament). If the Jews failed to keep God's law, they didn't lose their salvation; but rather, it brought judgment upon the nation of Israel. Romans 3:19-20 teaches that the LAW which given to mankind for the purpose to give all individual THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN.

This is why the Jews were chastised by God, sent into Babylonian captivity for 70 years (1 year for each 7 years of the 490 total years that they didn't keep the Sabbath day). If keeping the law were required to get to Heaven, then none of those Jews could have been saved who were taken into captive to Babylon by king Nebuchadnezzar. So please don't ever let anyone deceive you into foolishly thinking that people in the Old Testament were saved by WORKS, or by PARTIAL FAITH PLUS WORKS, because that is not the truth of the Scriptures.

You cannot be saved until you first know what you are being saved from! We all need to be saved from the consequences which sin brings, “DEATH,” which Romans 6:23 calls “THE WAGES OF SIN.” Believing on Jesus is not enough to get to Heaven, you must also realize that you are a GUILTY SINNER. Pastor Jack Hyles preached a helpful MP3 sermon on this topic called: “The Sin Question And The Son Question.” It is not enough to admit you are a sinner and merely turn over a new leaf. Christ died for your sins, because there is NOTHING you can do to remedy them. Not can you merely trust Jesus to be saved, you must admit that you are a sinner deserving of punishment in Hell. If you're not a hell-deserving sinner, then why would you need a Savior? You must answer both the SIN QUESTION and the SON QUESTION. Please listen to Dr. Hyles' sermon if you don't understand what I am saying.

The Apostle Paul likens the believer, before and after salvation, to being an heir (a “heir” is a person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another). God has promised that any sinner who places his or her faith in Jesus Christ will become an adopted child of God (John 1:13-14; Romans 8:15). The moment you get saved, you become a heir with Jesus, just as if you were God's only begotten Son. Even though we are adopted as God's children, the blessed heavenly Father treats us the SAME as His Son. What a wonderful expectation and privilege that we don't deserve, and it all happens by childlike faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior...

Galatians 3:29, “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Ephesians 3:6, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:”

1st Timothy 3:7, “That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Isn't that precious? The Old Testament LAW tutors us to recognize our desperate need as guilty SINNERS for redemption, and then brings us to CHRIST to be saved by grace through faith in Him. 

Galatians 4:1-5, “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”

I love that! Before we were saved, the law of God was our guide, tutor, governor and schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24-26). The LAW teaches (tutors) us that we are helpless guilty sinners, and then brings us to CHRIST to be saved by grace through faith alone. But once a child heir grows up and becomes of age, they become adopted sons. As God's children was are FREE from under the curse of the law. We have liberty in Jesus Christ, so that the law no longer has any power to condemn us. I believe that is why 1st John 3:9 says, “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” We cannot sin as saints because Jesus paid for our sins with His blood through Calvary's cross. Our sins have all been washed away. That is why a believers can only FALL IN grace (Romans 6:1), never FROM GRACE (Galatians 5:4). Only a Christ-rejecting sinner, or those who trust in partial faith in Christ plus something else have fallen FROM GRACE. They have not obeyed the Gospel. They have not done the Father's will concerning salvation (John 6:40). We have liberty in Jesus as Christians...

Galatians 5:1-4, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

So many churchgoers today are trying to live the Christian life, following Jesus as their Lord and Master, attempting to do many wonderful works to prove that their faith is genuine; but in reality they are deceived by Satan, calling Jesus “Lord, Lord,” but they are not trusting (resting) completely in His sacrificed on the cross for their sins.

Everyone who has ever been saved got saved by FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE. Acts 10:43, “To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Furthermore, we read in Romans 4:4 that if salvation had ever been by keeping the law, then it would have been of DEBT instead of GRACE. Romans 4:4, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.” God has never owed any sinner salvation for doing works!!!

If it were possible to get to Heaven by works, it would mean that Christ died in vain. Galatians 2:21, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Multitudes of corrupt preachers today are wickedly FRUSTRATING the grace of God. When you mess with the grace of God, you are messing with the God of grace. Carefully notice that a group of unsaved religious people in Matthew chapter 7 boasted of their WORKS...

Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Please read what Jesus said about these false prophets...

Matthew 7:21,“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

What is the Father's will? I'm glad that you asked my fine non-feathered friend. John 6:40, “And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” The will of God the Father is that you put your trust in God the Son. John 14:6-7, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.” The only way to God the Father is through the only begotten Son of God, Jesus. The ONLY way to Heaven is through Jesus Christ!!! Amen and amen.