Today......" Lord's Church" According to the Word of God there is only one way to get into the Lord's Church-the one true Church-and that is through salvation from sin. If we must be saved in order to belong to the Lord's Church and go to heaven, then we should know for sure what we must do to BE saved. The answer to this eternal question is found in the Word of God. There are hundreds of religions, but they do not agree on this question. Some Preachers do not agree. There are a thousand and one ideas about how to get to heaven-but according to God's infallible Word there is only ONE way, one door, one name, one truth; all else is definitely of the devil. The Word of God is right (Rom. 3:4) -and any religion is wrong that does not teach the plain, simple plan of salvation as it is laid down in the Word. Paul said to the Christians at Corinth, "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you . . . BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED" (I Cor. 15:1,2). In Romans 1:16 he declared, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation!" In Ephesians 2:8 he said, "For by grace are ye saved through faith." Romans 10:17 declares, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." James said, 'Receive with meekness the engrafted Word (Gospel), which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21). Peter said, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." (I Peter 1:23). The Lord Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my Word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt.18:3). To be SAVED means to be converted; conversion means to turn face-about-and to turn face-about involves three things: 1. The desire to turn from the way in which one is traveling is the first step toward conversion. Listen!,.... if you are satisfied to be serving the devil, if you have no desire to break with sin and live a new life, then you are not interested in becoming a Christian. "Godly sorrow worketh repentance" (II Cor. 7:10)-and if you are not sorry for your sin, you have no desire to turn from your sinful way. 2. Not only must you have a desire to turn from sin and begin traveling in the opposite direction, but before you can turn, you must STOP-stop dead still, and realize that you are going in the wrong direction.You must then confess that realization to God, before He will save you from sin. There is no need to "beat around the bush" and say that you are not as bad as some people, or that you have not done this or that or the other. Sinners must show the same spirit as the dear woman in Mark 5:33, who fell at the feet of Jesus and "told Him all the truth." 3. Listen!When a sinner truthfully confesses to God that he needs salvation and forgiveness for sin, he turns face-about and looks to Jesus-and JESUS does the converting! Merely deciding to join a church and be baptized will not make a Christian of you. No, salvation is of the LORD. Salvation is God's miracle, and it must be received from the Lord. Are YOU saved? Are your sins under the blood? Were you truly converted-or did you simply decide to join a church or "get religion"? II Peter 1:10 tells us, "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." This is food for thought! What must I do to be saved? As time and space permit, I want us to see what Jesus taught concerning salvation, and what salvation is likened unto in the Gospel of John-often referred to as the "Salvation Gospel.' Every book in the Bible has a key hanging right by the door if we look for it. The key to the Gospel of John is in chapter 20, verses 30 and 31: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: 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." John's Gospel is the Salvation Book; it tells us plainly how to be saved: 1. Jesus refers to salvation as a BIRTH: "But as many as received Him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:12,13). When we believe.on the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as our personal Saviour, God (through His own power) " birth's " us into His family. In Genesis 3:15 God told the serpent that the Seed of the woman would bruise his (Satan's) head. Jesus was that Seed to which God referred: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 14). No Bible believer would question that this verse refers to the Lord Jesus. He is the only begotten of the Father, He is full of grace and truth, He is the SEED that brings about spiritual birth. Spiritual birth comes only through the miracle of God's power. God's "birthing" power works through seed-and there must be good seed, living seed, in order to produce life: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (I Pet. 1:23). Here is the plan of salvation: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my Word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). The sinner hears the Word of God, believes the Word of God, receives the Word of God-and immediately the Word (SEED) springs into life within. We are born of the Spirit (John 3:5,6) and are immediately baptized into the body of the Lord Jesus (I Cor. 12; 12,13). We are then newborn babes in Christ, and we should desire the sincere milk of the Word, that we may grow thereby (I Pet. 2:2). Being born again does not consist of merely making a decision to join a church, shake a preacher's hand, or be baptized; being born again is receiving LIFE-newness of life, divine nature-becoming a new creation in Christ Jesus (John 3:36; Rom. 6:4; II Pet. 1:4; II Cor. 5:17). When one is born into God's family, he knows it-and those with whom he comes in contact also know it! There is no such thing as being born again and NOT knowing it. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17) It is easy to see that God's grace does the saving. Saving grace is received by faith-and faith to receive God's promise of salvation comes by hearing God's Word (the Seed). The Word of God received by faith brings life. To be born again one must hear the Word, believe the Word, and receive by faith the Christ of the Word. Any sinner who will do so is born again immediately. But what about confessing sins? Confession of sin will always accompany believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. A person who believes on the Lord Jesus for salvation will certainly confess that he has sinned against Him. It is no trouble to induce a person to confess his sins if he can first be persuaded to recognize his lost condition and come to Jesus for salvation. Jesus plainly declared to Nicodemus the necessity of the birth from above: "Except a man (any man, all men) be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye MUST be born again" (John 3:7). Have YOU been born again? If you have not, you are lost; you cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus settled that, and man cannot change what Jesus has declared! Hear the Word, receive the Word, believe the Word-"and thou shalt be saved!" 2. Salvation is likened unto MARRIAGE. We who are believers make up the bride of Christ; we are married to Jesus. The first miracle Jesus performed in His public ministry took place at a marriage to which He and His disciples were invited. The feast was well under way when the supply of wine ran out. The mother of Jesus came to Him and told Him that there was no more wine, and she then told the servants to do as He instructed them. The miracle which followed was performed for two reasons: First, to give us a beautiful picture of salvation (John 20:30,31), and Second, that the disciples might believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God (John 2:11). There is no more beautiful picture of salvation in the entire Bible than the account given here. In the first place marriage signifies that two people have fallen in love and desire to be one in all things for the rest of their lives. That is what happens in true marriage, and certainly Jesus would have had nothing to do with a marriage if it were not a true marriage. Two people love each other, and in marriage they meet before witnesses to confess that they are accepting each other as man and wife. They confess that they want each other, that they are taking each other, and that they desire to be one in love and companionship. In comparison, Jesus said by His death on the cross, "I want that man, that woman, that boy or girl, for my own!" Christ has said, "I will-I will die on the cross for their sins. I will lay down my life that they might have life. I will call them by my Spirit. I will seek and find them-and I will save them if they will confess me as their Saviour": ". . . if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved" (Rom. 10:9). Listen!.. it is up to YOU, dear sinner, to say to Jesus, "I will! I will accept God's Christ in forgiveness of my sins and let Him be enthroned in my heart forever!" When the groom says "I will," and the bride says "I will," the minister then declares the two to be ONE in marriage. Just so, Jesus has already said "I will," and if you are lost and on the road to hell, just bow your head right now and say to Jesus, "I will!" He will forgive and save you, and God the Father will then declare you to be one in Christ (Eph. 5:30). True marriage signifies love, sacrifice, obedience, devotion; two people are one in all things. The same is true in Bible conversion. God so loved sinners that He gave Jesus to die for them. Jesus so loved sinners that He sacrificed His place with the Father in heaven (John 1:18) to take upon Himself the form of man in order that He might taste death for all men (Heb. 2:9-14). Jesus obeyed the Father; He completely satisfied the Father's desires and demands, and just before He gave up the ghost He bowed His thorn-crowned head and cried, "IT IS FINISHED!" (John 19:30). At the marriage in Cana where Christ performed His first miracle, they needed wine-not fermented wine as we know it, but the "fruit of the vine" (Mark 14:25), which in Scripture represents the blood of Jesus (Mark 14:22-24). The blood of Jesus is necessary for salvation (I Pet. 1:18 ff); and if His blood had not been shed on the cross, the blood offered on the altar in Old Testament sacrifices would have been to no avail. The blood of bulls, lambs, doves, and pigeons could not atone for sin; every drop of that blood pointed to the coming of the Lamb of God (Heb. 10:1-14). The servants at the wedding were instructed to set before Jesus six water pots of stone. Six is man's number (Rev. 13:18); God made man on the sixth day (Gen. 1:26,27). The water pots of stone represent man's stony heart (Ezek. 36:26). In that day, water bottles as a rule were made of skins, but Jesus specified water pots of stone-six of them. The servants were then commanded to fill them with water. It was not necessary that Jesus have these containers filled with water in order to produce the wine; He could have filled them with wine without either the servants OR the water; but it is the will of God that His servants fill human water pots with the water of the Word (John 15:3; Eph. 5:26). (Still water in the Scriptures represents the Word, while running water denotes the Spirit in action-John 7:37 ff.) The servants filled the six water pots to the brim, "And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast." This was done, and "when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine" he pronounced it to be far better than the wine served at the beginning of the feast! (The "best wine" is a symbol of our salvation by grace.) This miracle caused the disciples to believe on Jesus (John 2:11), and that is the only way for a sinner to become a Christian: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). Are YOU a believer on the Lord Jesus? If you are, we will meet at the heavenly marriage which will soon take place in the sky. Revelation 19:7 says, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." I plan to be present at that marriage, and if you are not ready, God grant that this shall be the day and the hour in which you will receive the Lord Jesus and be saved! 3. Salvation is likened unto the WIND. Nicodemus could not understand how he could be born again. He asked Jesus, "How can a man be born when he is old?" Jesus explained the new birth by saying, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). In Scripture, wind often refers to the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost there came the sound of a rushing, mighty wind (Acts 2:2); the Spirit of God filled the whole room, and those who waited there were all baptized in the Holy Ghost. Nicodemus was a master in Israel and he knew the Old Testament well. He understood what Jesus said: "The wind blows . . . you hear its sound; but you do not know whence it comes nor where it goes. So is one born of the Spirit." Spiritual birth is all of the Spirit, and is no more to be understood by man than man understands the wind. The new birth is to be received by faith, with. out seeing or understanding the workings thereof. We cannot see the wind, but we know that it exists; we know it is with us, even though we can not explain it. Just so, I have never seen God. But I have heard God speak in an audible voice. I have never touched God in the same sense that I touch my loved ones; but nevertheless, I believe God. I received Him by faith, and I know He exists. I also know that He has worked a miracle in my heart and life-and He will do the same for any and all who will believe on Christ as Saviour and Lord. We cannot see the wind-but we DO see the results of its power. So it is in the spiritual realm. Even if you are a sinner, you have surely seen the results of the Spirit's presence in the lives of some of your family or friends. I do not believe there is an unbeliever on earth who could truthfully say he does not know someone who lives a godly life, someone who lives so differently from others that the only way to explain the difference is God and God's salvation! You may not have the love of God in your own heart, but even so, you have seen the results of God's love in the hearts of others now haven't you? Of Course you have! Some of you who read these lines may have said, "If I could be like Mother, or like Dad, or like some other Christians I have known, then I would like to be saved." Well, YOU CAN BE! Why do you want to be like them? It is their unusual way of life. They have something in their daily living which the masses of humanity do not have. You see the difference in their habits, in their friends, in everything about them -and because they are not like the "run of the mill" you desire to be like them. You would like to get from life what they receive as a result of their Christian living. What makes them so different? It is the Spirit of God who moves within them-whom we cannot see, but whom we can receive even though we see Him not; and when we receive Jesus by faith, without seeing, then the results of His Spirit working in our hearts and lives can be seen. The Holy Spirit is in the world today to convict men of sin (John 16:7-11); He is in the world today to call men to Christ (John 6:44). He is in the world today to "birth" souls into the family of God. Have YOU been born of the Spirit? If not, then you are lost-it makes no difference how good you may be nor how good you may live. "Ye must be born again" if you would enter the kingdom of heaven.Without it you can't get there and that is a fact! So just stop kidding yourself and continuing to live a lie that lie will put you deep in hell forever! Listen!...Have you ever felt the call of God's Spirit? Have you ever felt that you should become a Christian? If you have felt the call of the Holy Spirit, and yet you have rejected Him, then please repent NOW and be saved, for tomorrow may be everlastingly too late! No soul can come to Jesus except the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, draw him (John 6:44), and the most dangerous thing anyone can do is to turn down the wooing and calling of the holy Spirit. 4. Salvation is compared to THE HEALING OF THE ISRAELITES when they were bitten by fiery serpents in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6-9). Listen! When Nicodemus asked Jesus, "How can these things be? How can an old man be born again?" Jesus replied, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the: world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:14-16). Familiar as he was with Old Testament Scriptures Nicodemus knew the account of how the Israelites had murmured against God and against Moses, and God sent fiery serpents among them. The people were dying by thousands from the snake bites, when Moses called unto God for a remedy and God instructed him to make a serpent of brass, put it up on a pole, ". . . and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (Num. 21:8,9). Listen!..Nicodemus understood what Jesus said; the eyes of his understanding were opened and he was born again, just as the Israelites were healed of the poison from the serpents' bites. We know from Genesis 3:14 that the serpent is a symbol of sin. Brass speaks of divine judgment as in the brazen altar described in Exodus 27:2. The brazen serpent was a figure of Christ in the image of sinful man-Listen!He who knew no sin was made sin for us, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Cor. 5:21). What healed the dying Israelites? Was it some power in the brass? Was it the healing virtue of the pole upon which the brazen serpent was placed? Was it the Israelites' ability to look upon the serpent of brass? No, it was none of these things. FAITH healed the Israelites-the same kind of faith that will today keep a sinner out of hell! God's servant Moses called upon God for a remedy for the dying people. God told him what to do, and Moses obeyed the Lord's command. He made the serpent of brass and lifted it up on a pole (foreshadowing the cross on which Christ would be lifted up-John 12:32); he then gave the people God's command that they "look and live." Those who believed God did what Moses said-they looked and were healed. They did not ask for an explanation; they believed they would be healed by looking. They did not say, "Moses, I do not understand how looking at a serpent of brass lifted up on a pole can help me." They simply believed the Word of God and did what God's man told them to do, without asking for any explanation. They were healed-they lived! The efficacy was not in the pole, nor in either the brass or the serpent. IT WAS IN THEIR BELIEVING: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). You may say, "Dr. Davy", I do not understand how that could help me. I do not understand how anything so simple could change me from a drunk to a sober gentleman, from a liar to a truthful person, from a blasphemer to a lover of God, from a thief to a man of honor, from a harlot to a lady!" You do not HAVE to understand it, my friend-JUST BELIEVE GOD, and the miracle will take place! Then you will see the results of that miracle in your life. Listen! Dear Friends! There was a time in my life when I could not have been any worse a sinner than I was....and as hard as I tried I couldn't change my condition.....until I surrendered my life fully to Christ at the foot of the cross and trusted him to perform the miracle that my life needed....and you know what!... he did! Just like Lifting up a serpent of brass on a pole and telling dying men and women to look upon that serpent and live, seems a small thing-but it worked! And the reason it worked was the fact that it was God-ordered. What GOD orders always works; it MUST work! It worked for me and it will work for you! Listen! It pleases God to save all who will believe on His Son for the remission of sins (John 3:16-18, 36; 5:24; Acts 16:31; Rom. 10:9,10-and many others). Moses said to the dying Israelites, "LOOK-and live!" The blessed New Testament-especially the Gospel of John-says to you and to me, "BELIEVE-and live!" It made no difference how near dead the Israelites were, if they looked at the serpent of brass they were immediately healed. In parallel, it makes no difference how deep in sin anyone may be, if that one will look to Jesus and believe on Him, he will be saved! If you are not already saved, believe on the finished work of the Lord Jesus; receive His shed blood for the remission of your sins this moment. I beg of you, To LOOK-AND LIVE! 5. Conversion is likened unto LIVING WATER. John 4:6-42 gives one of the most beautiful and most understandable accounts of salvation in all the Word of God. John 1:12,13 pictures salvation as a birth. John 2:1-12 gives the account of a marriage: Christ "manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed on Him." John 3:1-13 sets forth salvation as illustrated by the wind-and Nicodemus was saved. John 3:14,15 gives reference to the brazen serpent on a pole-when the Israelites who believed were saved And now in our present passage, we find Jesus sitting beside Jacob's well as a woman comes to draw water-a woman whose conversation with Jesus changed her from a home-wrecking harlot to a house to house missionary! When Jesus left Judaea and traveled toward Galilee, the Scripture tells us that "He must needs go through Samaria." Now it was not imperative that He travel that particular route in order to get to Galilee-but the business of Jesus was that of saving souls He came into the world "to seek and to save that which was lost," and He knew that a poor, sinful woman would come to Jacob's well that day. He made it His business to travel that route in order to give the plan of salvation to her and make it possible for her thirsty soul to receive the water of life. That was the reason "He must needs go through Samaria." Weary and worn from traveling, Jesus sent His disciples into town to buy bread; and while they were gone, He sat upon the side of the well to rest His tired body. As He sat thus, a woman with a water pot appeared on the scene, coming to the well to draw water. In that land it is very unusual to see a woman come to draw water alone; it is the custom for them to come by twos, threes, or even as many as a half-dozen at a time. But this woman came to the well alone. She was a sinner-and in a spiritual sense all sinners are alone-"without Christ . . . strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). This particular woman was alone because she was so sinful and such a home-wrecker that she did not have a friend who would be seen in her company. According to John 4:28 it seems likely that her only friends were men. It was the custom for women to come to draw water in the early morning, but this woman came in the heat of high noon when no one else would be near the well. Perhaps the other women in the community railed on her, it may be that they had even threatened her; but whatever her reason, she came for water at a very unusual time-and she came alone. As she neared the well, Jesus opened the Conversation. He said, "Give me to drink." The woman was arrested by His words, and she answered in Surprise, "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." Jesus replied, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water!" "IF THOU KNEWEST . . . !" Ignorance of God's wonderful salvation has damned many poor souls and many are ignorant of this wonderful salvation simply because we who are believers have allowed golden opportunities to slip through our fingers! We have been silent when we should have been talking for Jesus. We have been idle when we should have been carrying the good news that Jesus saves. Jesus never let an opportunity pass; He was always seeking lost souls. This poor Samaritan woman was so human, so like people today. She immediately asked, "Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence hast thou that living water?" She was thinking in terms of buckets and ropes-of man's limitations. She then began to make human comparisons; she asked, "Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us this well?" (Jesus could have started a hot religious argument right then and there-but He was not trying to prove a religious point; He was seeking a soul.) One of the greatest needs among God's people today is to stop splitting hairs over dogma, doctrine, and creed, and point men to Jesus! We need to stop bickering over who is greatest, or who is right and who is wrong; we need to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ to this dying world. Jesus did not answer her question as to whether or not He was greater than Jacob, nor did He take time to explain to her HOW He would draw the water. He pressed home to her the need of salvation! He laid before her her need for this living water. He had already told her that if she would ASK, He would give her living water; and He was trying to get her to ask for it. His greatest task was not in producing the water-but rather in creating within the woman's heart a desire and a thirst for it! The hardest thing soul winners face today is getting sinners to stop long enough to hear the Word of God, and to create within their hearts a desire for God-a thirst for the living water and for salvation. A desire to be saved comes only by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). In answer to her questions, "With what will you draw? Are you greater than Jacob?" Jesus said, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Christians have a wonderful story to tell to thirsty souls! We have the story of redeeming grace and satisfying love-a message to stir the hearts of needy sinners and create within them a desire for God. We need only to get the message to them often enough to bring them face to face with the emptiness in their hearts-an emptiness which only God can fill. Are we faithful in giving out this message? Are we looking daily for opportunities to tell lost men and women the story of Jesus? Or are we permitting such opportunities to slip past us? The words Jesus spoke to the poor, sinful Samaritan woman were the most unusual words she had ever heard, and she said, "Sir, GIVE ME THIS WATER, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw!" The desire for living water had been created in her heart-she wanted the water, she asked for it but (as in the case of the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-22) she lacked one thing. There was one step more to be taken before Jesus could put within this thirsty soul the living water of salvation: She must confess to Him the sin in her life. Jesus knew she was a great sinner. He knew that she had already been married five times, and that she was even then living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus KNEW all that-but she must be willing to confess it to Him before she could receive the living water. Knowing her besetting sin, He said "Go, call thy husband, and come hither." Her answer was, "I have no husband." Then Jesus said "Thou hast well said . . . for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly." When a sinner is willing to come clean with the Lord, that sinner is ready to be saved! "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom 10:10). When Jesus told the woman exactly how many times she had been married, and that she was even then living with a man to whom she was not married, she immediately realized that she was in the presence of a very unusual Man-a Man who could see into her heart and know every hidden secret of her soul. Listen! Christ is the same today! He knows every secret of your innermost being-and even the hairs of your head are numbered! (Matt. 10:30). Jesus is the One with whom you have to come, and He is the One before whom we must all stand. Those who receive Him as Saviour, He will confess before the Father; but those who reject Him as Saviour He will deny before God the righteous Judge. When Jesus made known to this woman the secret sins of her dark life, she immediately exclaimed, ''Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet." (But in order to be saved, a sinner must believe that Jesus is more than a prophet.) So He led her a step further. She asked Him about the place of worship. She said, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." But Jesus would not be sidetracked. This poor woman was not ready to worship; she needed salvation. (The devil is using this same old scheme today. Tens of thousands are joining churches; they may even attend church faithfully each week-but they have never trusted in the shed blood of Jesus for the remission of their sins.) Jesus told the woman in a nice way that she was ignorant. He said, "Ye worship ye know not what! . . .But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." The woman then confessed that she knew that Messiah would come, and that when He DID come He would be called Christ and would "tell us all things." Sometime in her life-perhaps in childhood-someone had instructed this poor, sinful woman that Jesus the Messiah would come to save His people, and she had not forgotten the story of His coming. Then Jesus said, "I THAT SPEAK UNTO THEE AM HE!" She then remembered that the Messiah was to "tell us all things," and that He who was speaking had just told her all the secrets of her dark, sinful life. At this point, she threw down her water pots and ran joyfully into town, telling the people that she had just met a man who had told her all that she ever did. "IS NOT THIS THE CHRIST?" she exclaimed. The words of Jesus brought light to her darkened soul. Jesus gave her living water, and she confessed, "This is the Christ!" In other words, "This MUST be the Christ-for no one BUT the Christ of God could have such knowledge." And when she confessed Him thus, He saved her soul! (Rom. 10:13; I Cor. 12:3). Now let me sum up this wonderful account, so that we may see it clearly: A poor, sinful, fallen woman met Jesus at Jacob's well, and Jesus said, "Give me a drink." ". . . faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10:17); and the powerful words of Jesus began that instant to break in on her sin-darkened soul. She did not understand why a Jew would ask a hated Samaritan for a drink, and Jesus continued, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." Even though she did not understand these precious words, they cut deep into her soul. She asked Him how He proposed to get the water, and if He were greater than Jacob. Jesus did not discuss the "how" of obtaining the water, but rather continued giving her His words of life (John 6:63). He said, "Whosoever drinketh this water (water from this well) shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Such words as these this poor woman had never heard before! She had never heard of water that would quench thirst forever, springing up in one's soul to give everlasting life. She thirsted for this water and asked Jesus for it. But the sin question must be faced, and so He led her step by step into the knowledge of salvation: "Go, call thy husband!" He did not ask her if she HAD a husband, nor if she had ever had a husband. He simply said, "Go call your husband." Those words struck conviction to her heart as she remembered her scarlet sin-and she humbly confessed to Jesus, "I have no husband." (The Word of God will likewise convict of sin today. Before one can be saved, that one must be willing to confess to God-not to man-that he IS a sinner. There is no holding out on God, for He knows our every secret.) When the woman admitted her life of sin, Jesus told her exactly how many husbands she had had in the past, and that her present man was not her husband. These words drove conviction deeper and deeper into her heart-but she again tried to change the subject; she became very "religious" and asked where Jesus thought was the proper place to worship. He then told her frankly that she did not know what she was talking about; that God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth. She admitted that she knew the Messiah would come, and that He would "tell us all things." His next seven words brought saving faith to her heart: "I THAT SPEAK UNTO THEE AM HE!" In other words, "I am your Christ. I am your Messiah; I am your Saviour. Receive me, and I will save you." She believed every word Jesus uttered. She questioned Him no further. She had no more doubts about this Man to whom she was talking. She was convinced that she was in the presence of the Christ of God. Joyfully she threw down her water pots and ran into town, telling the glad news that she had found the Christ; and through her testimony "many of the Samaritans of that city believed on Him!" (John 4:39). Now, JUST WHAT DID THIS SAMARITAN WOMAN DO TO BE SAVED? There is only one Bible answer: SHE BELIEVED THE WORD OF GOD. She believed what Jesus said. ("Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my Word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life"-John 5:24.) "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (I Pet. 1:23). Read I Corinthians 15:1-3; Romans 1:16; Ephesians 2:8,9; and Romans 10:17. Believe what you read, receive the Christ about whom you read, and you will surely be saved! That is God's promise-and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). You will note that this woman did not promise to quit her meanness, she did not promise to "turn over a new leaf," she did not promise to join the church and be baptized, nor did she promise to "do the best she knew how." She simply believed the Word, and by so doing she was born again by the power of the Word she believed. It makes no difference how far in sin you may have gone nor how wicked you may be. It makes no difference how long you may have been living a sinful life-if you will simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, believe God, you can be saved -and you WILL be. 6. Conversion is spectacular-the wonder of all wonders; but it must be received by faith, APART FROM SIGNS AND WONDERS. There is a beautiful portrayal of this in John 4:46-54. (Please read all the verses contained in this passage.) Mark 12:37 tells us that "the common people" heard Jesus gladly, but the elite spurned and rejected the humble carpenter from Nazareth (John 7:48,49). But in the verses we are to study just now, one of these noblemen DID come to Jesus. His need was great, he was desperate: His child was at the point of death! Jesus had just returned to Cana of Galilee (the place where He had performed His first miracle). At Capernaum lived a nobleman whose son was very ill-sick unto death. I do not doubt that this father had tried all the doctors in that area and had given his son the best of medical care; but in spite of all effort the child was dying, and the father was desperate. John 4:47 tells us that the nobleman heard that Jesus had returned to Cana. Who delivered the message I do not know-perhaps one of the servants in the nobleman's house, perhaps someone who had attended the meetings where Jesus had wrought miracles of healing and of salvation. At any rate, he heard that Jesus had returned to Cana, and he immediately went to Him for help. There were no fancy introductions when this man met Jesus; there was no wasted time. He immediately made his request known: "My son is at the point of death," he said. "Come to my house and heal him, ere he die!" Jesus replied, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." In other words, "If I do not call down fire from heaven, change water into wine, or transform a stick into a serpent, you will not believe." But this father had no time to ask for signs and wonders-he was pleading with Jesus: "If you do not come to my house and heal my child, he will surely die! He is sick unto death, and you are my only hope!" Listen!...That is the kind of faith that saves! That is the kind of faith that makes living sons out of dying sinners! Forget the signs, the wonders, the spectacular -and only believe. Jesus said to the nobleman, "Go thy way; THY SON LIVETH." "And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way." He did not ask any questions, he did not ask for a feeling nor a sign. He simply believed what Jesus said! And beloved, what is even more amazing about this man is the fact that he did not even return home until the next day! How do I know that? Verses 51 through 53 tell us, "And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to mend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house." That nobleman had spent the night in Cana of Galilee. Why was he not in a hurry to get home to his sick child? It was only about four miles! He was not in a hurry because he knew that the boy would recover. He knew this because Jesus had said, "Thy son liveth," and he believed what Jesus said. (I believe that he spent the night in Cana in order to hear Jesus preach and teach for he Jesus had just saved his son from death) Listen! This man had the kind of faith that keeps souls out of hell! There was no doubt in his mind about his child. Jesus had said the child was well, and the father accepted that as a literal fact. Jesus promised that if sinners will come to Him, confess their sins and call upon His precious name, He will save "to the uttermost" those who come unto God by Him; but to get some people to believe those simple words of truth is sometimes next to impossible! They want to see signs and wonders; they want a chill or a thrill; they want to see lights or hear voices. Oh Ye! Of Little Faith! Salvation is the greatest miracle on this earth. Salvation is the greatest thing that can happen to a soul-but salvation comes only by simple, childlike faith in God. It is not worked up, lived up, fired up, nor prayed up. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: Which were born . . born of God" (John 1:12,13). The nobleman believed and received the Word of God (Jesus), and his son was saved from death. John 4:53 tells us that the entire family and the servants were saved-"his whole house." They were: all saved-but all were saved alike: By believing the Word. Sinner friend, if YOU will believe and receive the Word of God, YOU will be saved, too. The Word is the Seed which brings life to the soul. The Word brings faith which receives the grace of God. We are saved by God's grace alone-not through our own efforts nor by anything of ourselves. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). 7. Salvation is likened unto BEING DELIVERED FROM PARALYSIS (John 5:1-16). After the healing of the nobleman's son, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. As He entered the city and traveled toward the temple area He passed by the pool of Bethesda. Five porches had been built around this pool, and in the porches lay a multitude of impotent folk-sick people. Some were blind, some were halt, some were withered-and they waited for the moving of the water. "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had" (John 5:4). There was, by this pool, a poor paralyzed man who had been thus afflicted for thirty-eight years. Jesus saw him and asked him if he wanted to get well. The man confessed to Jesus that there was no one to help him into the pool when the water was troubled, "but while I am coming," said he, "another steppeth down before me." "Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And IMMEDIATELY the man was made whole, and took up his bed-and walked . . ." (John 5:7-9). This man had confessed to Jesus that he had no help and therefore could not be healed. But when Jesus spoke to him, he seemed to forget that he had no help-he even forgot that he was paralyzed. AND HE AROSE AND WALKED! Why did he arise? Because he believed the words of Jesus. Jesus said to him, "Rise . . . and walk," and the power of those words gave him faith to stand on his feet-something he had not done in thirty-eight years! Faith put the man on his feet, but the words of Jesus had given him the faith to rise. Some of you who read these lines have said, "I would like to be saved-but I cannot believe, I cannot have faith. I have been a sinner so long that it is hard for me to receive Jesus for salvation." But dear sinner, will you look again at this dear man? If HE could believe, then surely you, too, can believe! For thirty-eight years he had been helplessly paralyzed. For thirty-eight years he had been a hopeless cripple. He lay on a little straw mat, or cot, patiently waiting-helpless, seemingly hopeless, and sure to die. Then Jesus came along, looked tenderly at him, walked over to his little cot on the floor and asked, "Wilt thou be made whole? Do you really want to be made well? Do you truly want to walk?" In essence the man replied, "I am paralyzed, and therefore I cannot get into the water when it is troubled. I have no one to help me into the pool, and Someone else always gets there ahead of me." But this man forgot that he had no one to help him when Jesus said, "Rise!" The power of that word gave him faith to be immediately made whole. He stood on his feet, took up his bed-and walked! Listen!....This poor paralytic could have said to Jesus, "Mister, you surely must be a stranger around here! Have you not heard that I cannot rise up and walk? Can: you not see that my whole body is paralyzed?" But thank God, the man did not argue nor ask questions. He heard the Word, he believed the Word-and he stood upon the Word. Afterward Jesus said to him, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. From that statement we would assume that the man's condition had been the result of sin-whether on his part or that of someone else the Scripture does not say. ALL SPIRITUAL paralysis is caused by sin. All sinners are spiritually blind and spiritually paralyzed. But if you are a sinner and you really want to be made whole, then by faith rise up and receive the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, and He will save your soul. Ask no questions! Make no excuses! Jesus loves sinners-He died to save them. His invitation is simply, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. . . Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out" (Matt. 11:28-30; John 6:37). You just simply come to Jesus, and in your own words tell Him that you want Him to save you-and He will save you now! 8. Salvation is likened unto BREAD. As bread gives life to the tissues of our physical bodies, just so the Bread of Life brings life to our souls. It would be well if you would read the entire sixth chapter of John in this connection. In John 6:48 Jesus said, "I am that bread of life." In John 6:53-58 He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. . . This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." After Jesus spoke those words, "many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." Turning to the twelve, He asked, "Will ye also go away?" And Peter answered, "LORD, TO WHOM SHALL WE GO? THOU HAST THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE!" Now what does all this mean? What does it mean to eat the flesh of the Son of God, and to drink His blood? What great eternal truth was Jesus teaching when He spoke these tremendous words? He said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:1,14). Listen!...The Scripture is plain: The Word of God was in the beginning with God-and more-THE WORD WAS GOD! Jesus wrapped' the Word in flesh and brought the LIVING WORD down to man. When we receive the Word of God into our hearts, we are actually taking the Lord Jesus into our very being. His flesh and His blood are the living bread which brings life to the soul. Do We not take bread into our bodies in order to feed the flesh, and the life-giving vitamins in this bread keep the flesh from dying. The same is true in the spiritual realm: We take the Word of God into our hearts. The Word of God is JESUS. By receiving the Word we receive Jesus. When we receive the Word, - Jesus comes into our hearts in the Person of the Holy Spirit, and we actually receive the divine nature of God into our very being. Thus we eat of heaven's bread-the Lord Jesus. Please read John 5:24; - Romans 8:9-16; Ephesians 5:30; and II Peter 1:4. Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again if he would see the kingdom of God: "Except a man be born of the SPIRIT . . . .Listen!" If I must be born of the Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God, then - I want to know how this spiritual birth comes about. Jesus makes this plain in the Scripture we are discussing: "The WORDS I speak, THEY are spirit." We hear the Word, receive the Word, we literally take the Word into our inner man; and then the power of the Word bursts forth into life within our hearts. The moment we receive the Word of God into our hearts, we are born of the Spirit; but that is not all: The split moment we receive the Word of God we are - also united to the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:12,13). Through the power of the Word and through the operation of the Spirit, we become "bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh" (Eph. 5:30; Gen. 2:23,24). Praise God!..This truth is too marvelous for words, too wonderful to be understood-but it is true! And it all happens through the power of the Word. Conversion from sin unto salvation is the greatest miracle this old world has ever known. Being born of the Spirit is God's most wonderful miracle-and yet it must be received by simple, childlike faith. 9. Salvation from sin is likened unto being SNATCHED FROM THE VERY JAWS OF DEATH. (Read John 8:1-11.) Jesus was teaching an early morning Bible class in the temple, when a group of men brought a woman into the temple and set her in the midst of the assembly. The spokesman for the group then said to Jesus, "This woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?" According to these men, the woman had been taken in the act of adultery, and by the Law of Moses those guilty of adultery were to be killed with stones (Lev. 20:10). It seemed that Jesus was "on the spot"-and in reality, He was, for He had been preaching that He loved sinners, that He was in the world to seek and to save the lost; but He had also been telling the people that He had come down from God the Father-the God who certainly honored Moses and the Law of Moses. Therefore, if Jesus said, "Stone her," what would the people say of His preaching? If He had come to save sinners, would He permit a sinner to be stoned to death? On the other hand, if He were from God as He claimed to be, could He deliberately ignore the Law of Moses? But Jesus knew the answer: Silently He stooped and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He had not heard the accusers. But they kept right on asking: "So when they continued asking Him, He lifted up Himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!" Again He stooped and wrote on the ground; but as He wrote the second time, the men slipped out one by one, leaving Him alone with the woman. "When Jesus had lifted up Himself, and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (John 8:10,11). I do not know what words Jesus wrote on the ground-the Scripture does not say; but this I do know: Whatever He wrote was the Word of God! it convicted the men of their sins, drove them from the temple, and brought the truth of salvation to the woman accused. Her sins were forgiven and she was saved. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." As the finger of Jesus wrote, the dear frightened woman read what He was writing; as she read His wonderful words, they brought the knowledge of salvation to her sin-darkened heart and she received Him as Lord. "Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost" (I Cor. 12:3). How did this woman know that she was in the presence of the Lord Jesus? Why did she call Him "Lord"? There is only one reasonable answer: What she knew about Jesus she learned through the WORDS He wrote on the ground! Oh, the power of His precious Word! The Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 1:16). The life of the poor fallen woman could be summed up as follows: She fell into sin, she was brought into the presence of Jesus and her accusers demanded her death-so she feared. But in Him whom she feared, she found a friend! Through the words of that friend she found forgiveness, and she walked away from the temple, looking toward a bright future. That is salvation! Every sinner is in the same category with this woman at the time she was brought to Jesus, although besetting sins may be of many species. But ALL have sinned; therefore all are sinners and all deserve hell. The wages of sin is death -but thank God, just as did the woman taken in adultery, all sinners can find forgiveness at the feet of Jesus if they will only believe in His precious Word. 10. Conversion is likened unto THE OPENING OF BLINDED EYES. All sinners are spiritually blind; they are blind until they are converted, and then their spiritual eyes are opened. There is a beautiful picture of salvation in John, chapter 9. Please read the entire chapter. The account centers around a young man who was blind-both spiritually AND physically-until he met Jesus. Jesus spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle, and anointed the young man's eyes. He then told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. Because of his blindness, this boy could not see Jesus; but he heard the WORDS of Jesus, he received the words and he obeyed them. When he did so, his eyes were opened: "He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing!" (John 9:7). This caused quite a stir in the community among his kinsmen and the Pharisees. ". . . the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind . . . until they called the parents of him . . . and asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? How then doth he now see?" The parents refused to answer, sending them to the boy himself, and he told them how it all happened. The Pharisees then said to this young man, "Give God the praise: we know that this man (Jesus) is a sinner." The boy replied, "Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I Was blind, now I see!" After that bold statement, they cast him out of the synagogue. But- "Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? (The young man) answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him" (John 9:35-38). That dear boy was saved that second! But HOW was he saved? Just as all other Sinners are saved: He believed the words of Jesus; and by believing the Word, saving faith came into his hungry heart. Listen!The reason the masses today are going to hell is that they are spiritually blind. "If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them" (II Cor. 4:3,4). If the unsaved could see what lies ahead for them, if they could see the eternal damnation that awaits them, they would come to Jesus and be saved; but the devil has them blinded. Jesus is in the eye-opening business-and if you are lost, let Jesus open your eyes and save your soul right now. Do as the blind boy did-believe His Word, obey His Word, and...... you shall be saved. 11. Conversion is likened unto A DOOR. The wonderful picture of the Door to heaven is portrayed in the tenth chapter of John. Jesus begins this great message on salvation by saying: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber I AM THE DOOR: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture" (John 10:1,9). Jesus is the door to salvation. He is not ONE of the doors (plural); He is THE door-the ONLY door. Notice the words of verse 9: ". . . By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." The door through which we enter salvation is not a prison door, but a door to freedom. In Christ we have liberty and freedom to go into the green pastures of His grace, where we will find an abundance of food and drink. We might also take note that a door-such as the door of our own home-is not simply a means of entrance, but it is also a means of protection; for the closed door stands between us and danger from enemies without. The same is true in the spiritual realm. Jesus is our entrance into salvation-but that is not all: He is also our protection from enemies without: "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4). Thank God for the door! Have you by faith entered in? Are you saved? Are you "going in and out, finding pasture?" If not, may God grant that this be the day you realize your lost condition and come to Jesus. If you will only come and make known your desire to enter in, He will open the door of salvation for you and will with joy receive you! 12. Salvation is "THE WAY-THE TRUTH-THE LIFE." We often hear Thomas referred to as "doubting Thomas." Perhaps he WAS doubting Thomas-but I thank God for him! We find part of his story in John 14:1-6. In the thirteenth chapter of John, Jesus told His disciples that He would be arrested, tried, convicted condemned-and crucified. This message broke their hearts, and they were sad and despondent; but Jesus said to them, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Fathers house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me" (John 14:1-6). Thank God for Thomas! He wanted to know where his Lord was going; he wanted to be sure he could find his way to that place. II Peter 1:10 warns us give diligence to make your calling and election sure . . . ." In other words, "Be sure-KNOW that you are saved." Do you, dear reader, know that you are saved? Do you know that you are a born again, blood-washed, redeemed child of God? If you do not know, you had better find out before you die. You had better find out right now-for tomorrow may be too late! If we plan to go to a certain place, there must be a way to that place. If we would travel in that way, we must first KNOW the way. We must know the: way to heaven and travel in that way if we expect to get there. JESUS is the way-there is no other! "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). It matters: not what men may say-the man Christ Jesus is the one way to heaven. Jesus is not only the way to heaven-He is also the TRUTH concerning the way. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). "Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Rom. 3:4). If we would be in that number "when the saints go marching in," we must hear and obey the words of Jesus. To Nicodemus Jesus said, "Ye must be born again. . . . Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." In Luke 13, verses 3 and 5, He said, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish!" But thank God, the same Jesus also said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. . . Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out!" Hear His Word, believe His truth, and receive His message-"and thou shalt be saved." If we would journey to a certain place, we not only must know the way, but we must also have LIFE in order to make the journey. (Dead people have to be carried.) All sinners are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1; Rom. 6:23; I Tim. 5:6). All sinners are carried about by the devil and by "divers lusts and pleasures." In order to go to heaven where Jesus is, one must first be raised from the dead and given life. Jesus is that life, and when we are saved we are literally raised from the dead. Ephesians 2:1 tells us, "You hath He quickened (made alive), who were dead in trespasses and sins." The eleventh chapter of John tells of the raising of Lazarus-a true picture of the sinner before and after conversion. Lazarus was sick unto death; all sinners are sick unto eternal death. Lazarus could not be cured by the doctors and medical treatment of his day; no sinner can be cured by man's remedies; he must die unless Jesus heals his sin~sick soul. Had Jesus been present, Lazarus would not have died but He was not there, and Lazarus was dead when He arrived. Having been in the tomb for four days, his body was beginning to decay; all sinners are slowly decaying in the rottenness of sin. Lazarus was bound hand and foot; all sinners are bound by the fetters of sin. Lazarus was enclosed in a tomb of stone, sinners are shut off from God by stony hearts (Ezek 36:26). But Lazarus came forth alive when he heard the words of Jesus saying, "Lazarus, come forth!" Dead, decaying sinners come to life when and if they hear the life giving words of Jesus....Come Unto ME! When Lazarus came forth from the grave, he was bound with grave clothes, and Jesus said to those who stood by, "Loose him, and let him go!" When a poor sinner comes to Jesus, desiring deliverance from the shackles of sin, Jesus will freely deliver him and break away the cords and chains of iniquity which - have kept him spiritually bound....only Jesus Can Set Us FREE! Through the powerful, penetrating words of Jesus a dead Lazarus was brought forth from the grave, delivered from corruption and loosed from the bonds which held him. Any precious sinner can be just as miraculously delivered from the deadness of sin, the corruption of iniquity, and the bonds of the devil, when he hears and obeys the words of Jesus. To Thomas Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, - and the life. NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER BUT BY ME." There IS no other way. All other ways inevitably lead to hell, it makes no difference how inviting and beautiful they may sound or be. All other ways are sidetracks of the devil, and they end in hell. No man-whether he be white or black , rich or poor, - learned or ignorant, elite or scum-bum, Baptist, Methodist, Holiness, Catholic-NONE can come to the heavenly Father but by the Lord Jesus Christ. In closing, I ask you one more time, ARE YOU SAVED? If you are not saved, do you WANT to be saved? If you really want to be saved, you CAN be-right now. Just tell Jesus that you are a sinner, that you are sorry for your sins, and ask Him to have mercy on you and forgive you. He will surely do so this very moment! God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18). When God promises in His Word that He will do something, He will do it, for He cannot deny His Word. I John 1:9 declares, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Romans 10:9 promises, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Those are God's precious promises, and His promises are true. You can depend upon what God's Word says; you can live by what it teaches, and you can die resting on its truth. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead; confess to Jesus that you are a lost sinner, and call upon His name for forgiveness. He will save you-and you will know it! Salvation is of the Lord. Jesus is the Bread of Life; the Water of Life; the Light of the World; the Resurrection from the dead; the Door to heaven; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who saves. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!" (Acts 16:31). Won't you come to Christ right now and with simple child like faith just say LORD I BELIEVE! I Repent of my sins and Dear Lord come into my life life right now! If you will or have e-mail me today and let me know you did. I love you just as Jesus does and I want to be the first to welcome you to the Kingdom Of God and have the opportunity to fellowship with you here on the internet and invite you to join this missionary church and ministry that is reaching out to a lost and dying world in over 200 nations of the world. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as his servant I am not ashamed to let you know that we need your love gifts and support for our work among the lepers and the poor on the world mission fields and ask you to send your best gift this week!  What ever you send will be used for the Glory of the Lord and the work of the cross and God will bless you in abundance for your kindness, joyful giving and love for the work of this ministry and the cross of Christ. Just think of it! You can help feed a starving child in India this week or put a bible in the hand of someone who is hungering for the word of God, or help spread the word of God by helping us train young men for the mission fields of India and elsewhere. Write me won't you please and let me know we have been a blessing this day to you and send us your prayer and healing request so that we may place them on our mission prayer alter and pray each day for you and your loved ones!  Great healing is coming through this wonderful Jesus ministry and I want you to get your prayers answered so as God's preacher and healer I want to lay my anointed hands on your prayer request so that God will heal and lift you up! Thousands more are coming to this site to receive God's blessing. Why not tell everyone you know how to get to this site and help us spread the Gospel and find workers for the mission fields. God will bless you for all you do to help in anyway you can! Thank You Jesus!