The Secret Is Salvation - Bro Samuel Howell 1-4-2026

This is the best life, ain't it. I was thinking

about that daring the move of God that we were having.

Just now, this is the life. I love, every minute

of it. You can be turning to the Book of Luke,

were looking at chapter eighteen. I certainly miss my pastor,

and I dare say that every preacher of Bethel misses

him probably more.

You know, we're happy to take on the burden.

The pastors asked us to to be ready by no

means of my saying we don't want to preach. It's

an honor and a privilege to do this for the

Lord and to help our pastor out. I'm glad that

he can take some time off, because he's dedicated nineteen

probably twenty years of his life here preaching more times

than I have in my life than I probably who knows,

ever will who knows. But the man has a burden

for the people, So it's all right for the man

of God to get some rest. Uh. Pushing the way

he does, he's got to be tired, you know, they say.

I've heard it said in my whole life that they

say preaching for thirty minutes is equivalent to an eight

hour work day, And just a little bit that I've pushed,

and that's probably fifteen twenty minutes when I go home

war out, stomach hurting. And this man pushes for an

hour solid for souls with all his mind, that he

pours his heart and soul into it. And I love

and appreciate him, and we certainly miss him. How many

love your pastor? I sure do love him. But we'll

be looking at Luke chapter eighteen and verse eighteen, be

reading through twenty three here, but right here in Luke

chapter eighteen, verse eighteen, it says, and a certain ruler

asked him, saying, good Master, what shall I do to

inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, unto him, why callest

thou me good? None is good save one that is God.

Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not steal,

do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and mother.

And he said, all these things have I kept from

my youth up now. When Jesus heard these things, he said,

unto him, yet lackest thou one thing, See y'all, that

thou hast just sell all that thou hast distribute unto

the poor, and that thou shalt have treasures in heaven

and come follow me. And when he heard these he

was very sorrowful, for he was very rich. Let's lift

our hands today and ask God to help us here

tonight or this morning. Lord, we ask you right now

in the name of Jesus, God, God, I need your.

Help, Lord, I need your touch. Lord.

We asked that you wouldn't meet us God in the altar. God,

pour out your spirit upon all flesh. God, up in

our hearts to hear the word. God, up in our

ears to hear.

God.

Let our minds be cleared, Lord, so we can focus

on the word.

Lord.

Set our hearts free in minds and souls and bodies

free from all distractions. God, Let us I have one

purpose what and be in one mind and one accord?

God, and meet us in the altars.

Lord, and we'll be sure to give you all the

praise and the honor and the glory.

Lord.

It all goes to you, Lord, every bit of it. Lord,

and we thank you for it. Lord, and your name

we're asking. We pray, Amen and Amen. Turning over, so

here we got our main text. Here is gonna be

Luke Chapter eighteen, verses eighteen. But I want to look

real quick over here in Ephesians Ephesians, chapter two, verse

eight and nine, it says, for by grace you are

saved through faith and not yourselves. It is the gift

of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

And on the way home from work Friday, I made

up my mind that usually I love to listen to music.

Usually i'm going to work, I listen to music. I'm

coming home from work, I'm listening to music. It's just

something that we grew up doing on two hour drives

with lead either listen to preaching or music for two hours.

So it's just something that's been instilled in us. But

I just said, you know what, I'm gonna put tradition aside.

I'm gonna sit here and just kind of think and pray,

and anybody knows where Him's extension is.

I was driving right there.

I got about halfway down the road, and the Lord

spoke this thought into my heart. The secret is salvation.

The secret is salvation. Now, this rich young ruler, no doubt,

was a smart man, because he was a ruler at

a young age, and he'd achieved a lot at this age,

he'd achieved wealth.

He would had became a ruler at a very young age.

So, no doubt he had a good head on his shoulders,

No doubt he had a good sense of responsibility. And uh,

in order to be a ruler, you gotta be you

gotta be a smart man, no doubt. I mean, we

we all see it in our day and hour, the

evidence and the the uh, the I can't think of

the word, but the importinance of.

A good leader.

We have a good leader here at Bethel, and we

find that he is a smart man, and he is

a knowledgeable man, and he strives to do better. And

this young man he had strived to achieve things. He

had spent his life doing things the right way. Right there,

it says that he kept all the commandments. So he

spent his entire life making sure that he had all

his teas crossed and all his eyes dotted. So whenever

Jesus tells him now lack, it's one thing, no doubt

it had to been a gut punch to him, because

this man, at a very young age, had always tried

to do things perfect. He'd always tried to do what

his mom and dad said. He'd always tried to follow

every commandment That's why whenever Jesus said, keep my commandments,

he was quick to answer him. He said, I've kept

them all. All of these have I kept from my youth.

But Jesus said, you lacked something. And I know this

had to been a gut punch to anybody that had

spent their life making sure that they've done everything the way.

They were supposed to.

I know for me, if I stride my entire life

to try to do something and then somebody comes and

tell me, but you miss one thing so you don't

receive it, you miss one thing so you don't get

a pay raise, I know it would hurt me to

realize that I've spent all this time and now I

can't achieve this. This man spent his entire life, and

then Jesus says, you can't achieve this. But the secret is,

young rich Ruler, is salvation. First of all, that's the key.

Put away all your good works. It's not about your

good works. It's not about the good that you've done

in life. It's not about your accomplishments. It's about salvation.

You can do all the good you want to in

this life. You can do everything you know to do.

You can read your Bible and pray every day, but

unless you have salvation that it doesn't profit you nothing.

You cannot commit adultrey, you cannot kill, you cannot steal.

But that's not salvation.

Salvation is finding it all to a prayer and kneeling

down and asking God as repent to saying, Lord, forgive

me God, I need you.

Lord.

What's the secret while I'm telling you today? The secret

to the blessings of God and salvation. He's always had

this solution to all his problems. He became rich, he

became rich, he achieved that, he conquered that, he had

the solution.

He's a ruler.

He accomplished that, but eternal life, he can't understand.

How to get it.

Jesus tells him keep the commandments, but he answers quickly.

He says, I've already been keeping them, mister perfect, if

you will, just hurt his worst, not mare. Somebody just

told him he ain't measuring up. You can strive with

all your might and with all your heart and all

your mind, your soul and body to do things the

way you said, the way you're suppose, But unless you

have salvation, you have nothing.

It's not in your good works, that's what it says.

And Ephesians there it says something about I just forgot here,

but about not boasting, yeah right here, not of works

like any man should boast. God's not gonna let you

get to heaven on your works, because then whenever you

get to heaven, you will say it not because of you, Lord,

it's because of the good idea.

It's not enough.

I don't care how many times you think you feel

the Lord, how many times you think you finally got something.

But unless you have salvation, you have nothing. You can

keep every commandment of God, but unless you have salvation,

you will never receive the Holy Ghost. You can pray

for his fifty years. Lord, fill me with the Holy Ghost.

But Pastor preached the message first thank first. First thing

first is get saved. Second thing gets sanctified. Then after

that comes the Holy Ghost. Don't skip salvation. You can't

skip salvation. God won't give that which is holy into

the dogs. He won't put that clean thing into a

dirty vessel. Jesus said that lack is one thing. You

may be doing everything you know to do, following every commandments,

every morning, every noon to night.

You're reading and praying. Perhaps you're fasting a meal.

Fastings good, but unless you're doing it for the right reasons.

If you ain't doing it for the right reasons, then

it profits you nothing. You can fast all you won't

until you become threadbare. But unless you're doing it for

the right reason, all you're doing is starving yourself. If

you go into with a with a with a wrong

mode of saying that I'm gonna receive something. Now, I

know you can go into something expecting. But if you

go in there saying I'm doing this because I won't this.

I'm gonna fast because I want God to give me this.

But my brother Jesse said, you don't really want to

do all the work. You don't want to follow the Bible.

You skip past salvation. You say salvation is not for me.

Salvation is just just another thing for me to do.

But you have to do salvation. You have to first

find salvation. You have to first to what God said.

The secret is salvation. You wonder why you ain't pertaining

the blessings of God. You wonder why you ain't received

the blessings of God. You wonder why you ain't received

the holder goes. You wonder why you ain't got a

peace of mind? You wonder know why you ain't? What

I tell you the secret to it all. It's salvation.

I just said in Revelations two and five.

Therefore, from whence thou art falling and repent and do

thy first works? Over there are folks like to use.

There's a saying that folks like to use. As we

get you got somebody got the apple cart ahead of

the of the horse. And that's what happens. If you

skip past salvation and you move on and you say,

I've kept the commandments, I've done everything God told me

to do.

But unless you pray, you've done nothing.

Unless you kneel at an altar and say, Lord, I'm filthy, God,

I need your help, God forgive me. You will not

achieve that which you hit that emptiness and you feel.

Inside good works.

Won't feeling up falling the commandments, won't feel it up

that's good.

I'm not this and that whatsoever.

But unless you have salvation and you do what God

tells you to do, and your obedience to Him and

you repent, good work gonna get you to heaven. It

takes godly sorrow. With repentance first I don't really know

how else distress it. But if you're not achieving the

things that you're wanting, if you got a strong desire

in your heart for something you it's something that you

wake up every morning and saying, I'm missing something, but

I'm doing everything. It's because you most likely have not

received salvation. You have not received salvation. I had a

friend at work yesterday, don't I don't count it as

a coincidence here, but yesterday, the first thing after the

Lord pastor texted texting.

Me and brother would around.

I think it was eight thirty somewhere around there, and

I got to work at seven thirty, and I didn't

know I was gonna be preaching, but I knew what

God had helped me dealt with me about. And this man,

the first out of his mouth, I said, good morning,

how are you? And he said good, how are you?

And I said I'm doing great, That's always my response.

And he says, I have a question for you, and

I said, all right, what is it?

He said? Why are you so happy?

He said, why is it that every morning you come

in with a smile on your face? Why is it

that every morning you're not mad at anybody. Why is

it that every morning you seem like you you're you're

happy to be here. And my answer was, God, that's why.

The secret is salvation. I didn't tell him that, but

I knew what God had been dealing with me about.

The secret is salvation.

To it all. You go to bed at night, you wonder,

why do I not have peace?

I'm reading and praying, I'm doing everything God told me

to do. But why is it that I don't have

this peace? The Saint of God's talk about? Why is

it that I don't have this shore?

The Saint of.

God's talk about. I'll tell you the secret is salvation.

The solution is salvation. Salvation will be sufficient to find you.

You need it.

Him and his wife just recently split up, probably what

three or three weeks ago or so, maybe.

Twenty five years. It's all gone.

Just he don't understand why they just twenty five years

together is a long time to decide. All of a sudden,

you're you're done and you're through. And he went on

to say, I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. And

he said, I guess God hates me. He said, I guess,

He said, I pray every day. I wake up in

the morning, the first thing I do is pray. The

last thing I do is pray. And I told him,

I said, don't blame God for your problems. I said,

the fact is you're probably not doing everything you're supposed

to do. I said, God not the cause of your pain.

I said, it's yourself and the devil. I said, don't

blame God. I said, unless you find yourself in a

worse situation. And I know this man, he doesn't really

speak English, but he probably don't understand much. But I

wanted to take the time to warrning because we no

matter the problems that we find ourselves in, it is

not God's fault.

No matter whenever we find.

Ourselves up against the wall, it's not God's fault. Whenever

we find ourselves in a trap, it's not God's fault.

It's your own fault.

You're the blame. You're the cause of it. If you

find yourself not receiving the Holy Ghost, it's not because

God didn't want to give.

It to you. It's you. You're the blame. You're the cause.

It's because you have not salvation, or you're slipping.

Up and doing something that you know not to do.

It's not God, it's you, Oh God, Jesus.

Don't ever blame God for your problem. Don't ever say God,

you're to blame for this. It's the fact that we

don't spend our time with God. God went through through

a lot of pain, giving his only son for us.

He made a sacrifice. We must make a sacrifice. There's

three things God Jesus told the rich young ruler to do.

First he said, sell everything you have. Second he said

give it unto the poor, and third, follow me. That

is the steps that Jesus requires every one of us. First,

sell out, then give everything to him. Then secondly follow him.

Unless you sell out everything, You sell out your desires,

you sell out your craven you sell out to that

one thing, and you continue to hold on unless you

first sell out. And then after you sell out, you

lay yourself down in an old fashioned halt your repair,

and you say, Lord, all of me, God of empty

my heart, Lord of empty my.

God desires, Lord all of me, Take all.

Of me, and then you, first you pick up you

last sleep, you pick up your cross, and you follow

after him.

Sell out first, then give all, then follow with all.

Unless you follow God with all your heart. It's very

important that we follow God with all our heart, that

we eat, sleep, breathe, and we survive by the word

of God. Is honestly amazing to me that eternal life

can be received by just following one book, by just

following and doing whatsoever this book says, that's not much

to ask for this world, and the devil off asks

for a whole lot more than Jesus does.

Jesus only adds for your soul.

Oh, the devil, he sits there and try to take everything,

including your life. But Jesus laid down his life for

you and gave us the rule book to follow and

the sop book to follow, and say do it by

the book.

To in her eternal life.

All we have to do first sell out, secondly give all,

and then thirdly follow Jesus. That's not much. That's not much, really,

It's it's that simple.

Sell out.

Why wouldn't you what else you're gonna do? What do

you got to lose? I don't understand why anybody in

this world would choose Hell over heaven.

You got two choices, why not choose the better.

If I go to the buffet, I see something I

like and something I don't like. I'm not gonna say, well,

I just not gonna eat anything more than likely. I'm

gonna choose what I like, Choose what you like. Choose

what's better for you. What's good for you. Heaven is

far better. Salvation was sufficient. Salvation was the solution to

its problem. But he wasn't willing to.

Give it all. He wasn't willing to sell out. He

worked hard for them accomplishments.

You just can't get past the fact that you say,

I've been doing all this.

You probably get down, not angry.

He say, I've already done all that, But yet there's

something in your heart that you have not done, because

if you have done it, you would have received of him.

Don't get angry with God, says He's angry with the

wicked every day. His anger far surpasses your anger. You

may say I've invested too much in my good works.

I've spent too many years doing it this way where

the pastor.

Like using a phrase, reset the mindset.

It's time you reset, and you say, and you have

an awareness, Hey, this is not worked. My good works

is not worked. The way I'm doing it is not worked.

It hasn't benefited me nothing. I'm the same man I

was thirty years ago. Yeah, I might be acting a

little bit better, I might be talking a little bit better,

but yet I'm the same in my heart. The secret

was revealed on the cross some hundreds of years ago.

Jesus revealed the secret to us whenever he died on

the cross. Salvation is the ticket to life, everlasting. Salvation

is the key to your happiness. Salvation is the key

to your joy. Salvation is the key to sanctification. First salvation,

then sanctification. There's so many people in this world that

they get that twisted up that they thank you. All right,

I got saved. Now let me feel Lord, fill me

with the Holy Ghost. You first had to be sanctified.

First come sat second comes sanctification. That was the trap

that I had fallen into. Yeah, I got saved, but

I would always after I prayed out immediately, Lord, fill

me with the Holy Ghost.

Lord, fill me with the Holy Ghost. Lord. I need

the Holy Ghost. But yes, the.

Lord sanctified or saved me, but I had to be sanctified.

I had to be fully consecrated to God. The Lord

had to know for a fact that once he gave

this holy thing that it wasn't gonna be tainted. You

can pray and ask God to save you, but don't

forget to ask Him first to sanctify you, to set

you free from all that.

I know that's part of sanctification.

But ask God to sanctify you inward and outwardly. Brother Jesse,

come to the piano. It's joy unspeakable and peace of mind.

Salvation is the secret to all your problems. It's the

secret to a rough not sleep. It's the secret and

the peace of mind when you go to bed every

night knowing that should the Lord come or call Lord,

that I'm ready, whatever the time, whenever my time is, Lord,

that I'm ready.

It doesn't matter how good you works is.

You have to sell out, give all, and then follow Jesus.

Let's all stand.

I hope today that someone realizes that if you find

yourself in a rut, and you've been stuck there for

some odd years, especially at Bethel, where the presence of

God shows up every service, it's not that God doesn't

have it for you. It's not that God doesn't want

to give it to you. It's for all. It's for

every age, every size, whatever it is, your whatever fits you,

it's for you. But first salvation. You can study the

Word of God, you can know the book better than

you know yourself. But unless you have salvation, that's nothing.

Salvation is the most important. It's not in your good works.

I don't care how long you've been in the way.

You're being raised up on the church pew your entire life,

hearing all kinds of preachers preach. You know their names,

you know their families. You know every church across the

hole in this movement. You know every saint of God

in the church. You be the best employee your boss

has ever had. You do everything you know to do.

That's nothing. You're not getting to heaven on your works.

You're not getting to heaven on your worth ethic. You're

going to heaven by salvation, by sanctification and the purifying

of the mind and the soul and the body. Let's

all come and find a place to pray and search

our hearts. I search my heart, said, Lord, save me

first again. Sanctify me, Oh God, and feel with the

Holy Ghost