You’ve Heard Enough to be Saved

For “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”

If I were solely preaching a message of salvation to the unsaved this morning, I would just preach John 3:16 where he declares, God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on him will not perish but instead have everlasting life, and we’d be done. This is as complete a message of salvation as you can possibly have. God’s gift. God’s grace. God’s promise, and plan of restoration and redemption all in one concise verse of scripture. I needn’t add anymore. But for the rest of us, I’m including Romans 10 because it not only speaks to salvation, but speaks to process. Once saved, what’s next?

I sincerely pray you don’t come to church Sunday after Sunday to be saved again and again. If you are, please know that’s just a trick of the enemy. Think about it. When many of you came, you already had accepted Christ in your heart. You may not have had working knowledge of how salvation worked, or understanding of what was required; but you were all in. You accepted him on the word of someone you knew and trusted. You accepted him by faith. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians says, we are saved by grace through faith. Meaning, the Lord granted you unmerited favor in the form of an introduction, and by faith you believed. You displayed some action indicating you wanted to be on the Lord’s side. You made a definitive decision to try Jesus; sight unseen. Excellent decision by the way.

So you don’t need to come to (or watch) church to be re-saved every week. That’s not why we do this. We do this every week because you do need to come by every now and again to fortify your faith; not reestablish your salvation. While your salvation may not waver, our faith often does. What we’re doing is helping each other increase our faith. Roman 10:17 states, Faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

And let’s refrain from oversimplification of what that statement means. We often ascribe the dissemination of faith filled words exclusively to a pastor; saying it’s their job. But the dissemination of the Word of God flows from the will of God through whoever or wherever God decides it should come. And that could be you!

The Apostle Paul’s admonishment to put on the whole armor of God wasn’t given to clergy only. Every believer must be adequately attired to go to battle for the Lord. Everyone must gird themselves with truth, adorn themselves with the breastplate of righteousness, protect themselves with the shield of faith, cover themselves with the helmet of salvation, and arm themselves with the sword of the Word. But that’s not all. Everybody has to shod their feet with the preparation of Gospel of peace. That’s the Gospel that provides the message of the saving grace of God through Christ Jesus. Somebody shout, “It must be the shoes”.

Faith is not just an intellectual assent, it is an activity that requires action, and produces results. Faith is activated by serving. Faith is nurtured and cultivated by sharing and caring. Your faith is increased by planting seeds of hope, and harvesting the bountiful fruit of the Spirit from your assigned field of endeavor. Don’t be duped into believing you’re not ready, not good enough, not called, not appointed or anointed. You’ve heard enough to be saved when you got here. Now it’s time to act on what you know.

And I bet you’re saying I don’t feel like I’m ready, I don’t think I can do it. And that’s just what the Enemy wants. The devil is not afraid of what you think, or how you feel because he can work on changing all that. One day you feel strong, and the next day weaker than ever. One day you think you have it figured out and the next you’re confused again. That’s where he wants you to stay, because he can manipulate that. But the devil fears what you know. That’s why he fights so hard to block your personal fellowship with the Lord. He doesn’t want you to get to know him, because that bond cannot be broken or destroyed. What I know about Jesus is not up for debate. What I know cannot be changed, challenged or defeated. You can’t make me doubt Him cause I know too much about Him.

The child of God must rely solely on faith. The Lord told Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. And certainly we must. But what is faith? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of the unseen. It is the fruitless efforts of the deeds done in cooperation with the leading of the Holy Spirit that you are awaiting to come to pass. In other words, it is that period of time between planting a seed and seeing it break through the surface. You may not see it now, but it’s coming. It was planted long ago, but don’t despair, God’s promise is on its way.

Child of God, when you come to God you must come in faith for according to the Hebrews 11:6, without faith it is impossible to please God. To constantly come to church hoping to be saved over and over again is a declaration of doubt and faithlessness. Don’t you believe God? If He says you’re forgiven you are forgiven. But what if I fail time and time again. His grace is sufficient for that too. The same faith it took to accept salvation is the faith you need to accept forgiveness. Then as you fellowship with Christ and his saints, you build on that faith, trusting for more power, more authority and more stamina to defeat all the tricks of the Enemy. Yes we all need more faith…but you’ve already heard enough to be saved! Just believe.