Life’s most important question(even for Baptists)

Hi

Life’s most important question, is “Are you saved”.

This question, is important, because it will determine where you will spend eternity;

But it is also important, because it will change your life.
Many of the issues being discussed here, fall into this same category:
i.e. (If a person has been born again, this wouldn’t even be an issue!)

It’s heart breaking to say, but what it at the heart, of many people’s problem, is they need to get saved.
--------------------------------------------------
The first thing that you must understand, is that "you are a sinner" : Now before you get mad, let me explain, that I am a sinner also; The Bible says in Romans 3:23 etc., that we are all sinners, in need of forgiveness. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 3:23) Until you face this fact, you can't go any further. All that, "being a sinner" means, is that some time in your life, you have sinned! We must be honest with ourselves about this, or we will die and go to Hell.
Next, you must understand, that "God knows, that you are a sinner": And as a result, you have already been judged as guilty before Him. The Bible says in Romans 6:23 etc., that sinners, will have to face eternal death, if they don't get their sins forgiven:

Secondly, you must be motivated to be saved(God won't save you, unless you really want to be saved). This brings us to our next Scripture:
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23)
The "Death" being talked about here, is Eternal death in a lake of fire; This is pretty serious business. Rather than debating, weather or not God is right, for sending unbelievers to hell, you aught to first make sure that you aren't gong there. Hell is real, and after you get saved and start studying the Bible and going to Church, you will quickly learn that God is right, in sending people there.

Also notice, that the second line in this verse, gives us a clue, about the true way of salvation, "but the gift of God is eternal life": God has set things up, so that the only way to get our sins forgiven and be saved, is to accept it, as "a gift": That is, we can't work our way to heaven, by doing good things: We must receive Salvation, as a gift!

Now, you are ready, for the good news: The one fact about the meaning of life, that makes all the difference: The fact, that makes Christianity different, from every other religion on earth: And that is the fact, that our Savior died in our place, so that we wouldn't have to. The Bible says, in Romans 5:8, that God, demonstrated his love for us, by sending His Son, to die for us: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) This verse is from the Bible; and that means that every word of it, is important.

This word "commendeth", simply means "Demonstrated"; But the really good part about this verse, is where it says, "while we were yet sinners". This means, that in order to get saved, we can't be helping God to save us; We must be sinners, in need of His Salvation! Until you realize that your are a sinner, and need God's Salvation, you can not be saved.

One more important point about salvation, is that our Savior Jesus Christ, not only died for us on the cross, but was buried and spent three days in hell, and then rose from the grave, to prove that He was God: "And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" (1 Corinthians 15:4) This is important, because it reminds us, that our Savior conquered death, and that by Him, we will also gain a victory over death. This is the eternal life, that is promised to every one that gets saved.

The last thing that I have to say to you is......if right now, you realize that you are a sinner: and You believe that God knows about it, and has judged you guilty: and You also believe that God loved you enough, to send His only Son to earth, to die on the cross for you, and then to rise again, three days later: Than you are ready to get saved, right now!
The Bible says, in Romans 10:13, that real salvation, is as simple as, asking Jesus to save you:
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)

If right now, you are convinced in your heart, that you are a sinner, and that you need to get saved, then you are ready for salvation, at this very moment!

You don't have to wait until Sunday, you can get saved right now, by asking Jesus to save you. He promised in the Bible(John 6:37), that He will never say no, to anyone!

So right now, you can get saved, by simply talking to Jesus in prayer and asking Him to save you:

"Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I believe that you died and rose again, to save me; please save me now, and help me to live for you!" Amen

-That's it!-

If you understood this message, and believed the Bible truth that is contained in it, and asked Jesus to save you, than you are saved, and I will see you in heaven, one of these days! And from now on, you will be praying to your Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name.

P.S. If you have gotten saved, you need to find a Bible believing Church, and join it by water baptism; So you can learn of all the other wonderful truth's, that the Bible has to offer!

 

Hi Brutus

Nice to hear from you;

You asked.......
“Do you really believe that one must pray, a sinner's prayer if you will, in order to be saved?”

No; In fact I never use that term, because it gives people the impression, that there is some special prayer, that a person can say, that will get them into heaven.

But on the other hand, to get saved, you have to ask the Lord for it; And in order to ask the Lord anything, requires prayer. Therefore, if a lost person, realizes that they are a sinner, and want to ask Jesus to save them, this would be “a sinners prayer”.

The prayer that I mentioned in my post, was just a guide. To get saved, a person should ask Jesus to save them, from their heart, using their words.
--------------------------------------------------
As for your personal experiences, with people who are trusting some prayer for their salvation, instead of the substitutionary death of Christ, this is a shame. Because they are lost, and don’t know it.

I believe that this is one of the results, of the “Church Growth movement”. Pastors, push their Church members, to be in some kind of a competition, in getting professions and baptisms, e.g. “My stringer of fish, is longer than yours”, etc.


I hope this answered your question.

 

Hi Tom Butler

Thanks for your input:

As for why, I chose to use these words, in this prayer:
No, I have never heard anybody use these words before, but they are similar to, the words that I used.

Back in 1981, I was sitting in my pickup, eating lunch, and I heard the Gospel preached over my radio, and the preacher(Oliver B. Green), asked...If you believe that Jesus died for you, and want to get saved, bow your head and ask Him to save you.

I did, and my life hasn’t been the same since!

As for declaring, that if someone says a prayer, that they will be saved: You can do it, but it has to be done the right way........

Like I said in this tract.

See you later.

 

Hi Tom Butler

I read every word of your response, and appreciate your comments.
--------------------------------------------------
You said......

“I find no scripture which mandates that we ask God for salvation.”

What about......
Romans 10:13
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
--------------------------------------------------
As for if I doubt the salvation of anyone, simply because they didn’t ask the Lord to save them, No.

And now that I think about, Romans 10:13, is the only Scripture, that I can think of, that gives us this mandate.


Thank you for, getting me to think, outside the box.

 

Hi Tom Butler


You said.......

I get your point Tom.

When it comes to presenting the Gospel, it is important to get every word correct.



Thank you