September 27, 2026 Elder Josh King - "Salvation in Christ Alone"

Again, very thankful to be gathered with y'all this morning.

We have been attempting to preach through a series of sermons that talk about the problems or conflicts that people have when they don't believe in predestination election, and uh when we are asked about uh what we believe and people don't understand that, and we have attempted to preach thus far on some of the reasons that people have struggled with.

Uh the fact that some of the things that we've already mentioned is that uh biblical predestination and election is not widely and properly taught.

People simply don't like the doctrine.

Uh this doctrine conflicts with people's idea of what free will is.

And last Sunday we attempted to speak on the fact that uh they don't understand what is man's responsibility in regard if, okay, well, if God uh does uh his sovereign will, then what responsibility does man have?

And we mentioned last Sunday specifically about the difference between sonship and discipleship.

Sonship or becoming a son or daughter of God is 100% the operation of God.

That is not man, that is, man doesn't choose that, man doesn't do that, man is passive in that.

But discipleship is what we are called to do by way of teaching and educating.

That's what a pastor is called to do.

I am, as a pastor, as a preacher of the gospel, I am not called to make sons and daughters of God.

I cannot do that.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, Father God, can do that operation.

Uh I am called to make disciples.

And by the way, that is also the calling that has been placed upon the church is to make disciples.

Y'all will know that uh in Matthew chapter 29, it's often referred to as, I'm sorry, Matthew 28, it's often referred to as the Great Commission, Matthew 28 verse 19, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

Matthew 28:19

Well, you understand that that commission is not a commission to go and make sons and daughters of God, because man is not able to do that.

In Sid, that commission is a commission of discipleship.

It's exactly what it says here.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations.

Well, the only person that I can teach as a pastor is someone who's already a son or daughter of God, and therefore I can come alongside of them and disciple them to teach them how to follow God better.

But I'm not teaching them to be a son or daughter of God.

God has done all that.

Uh, this morning I want to dive into probably one of the most important subjects that I've ever taught on.

That uh as we have been going through this series in my studies, my mind has been sparked to make something very, very clear as we go through this study.

That, you know, it may not be clear in a lot of people's minds, you know, Brother Josh, what is the difference between what Prince Baptists believe and what other faiths believe?

And I don't really understand the distinction there.

And, you know, and sometimes Prince Baptists are even referred to as, you know, hyper-Calvinist or even cult-like, because, you know, I just don't understand how y'all handle or understand the gospel.

Well, I want to share with you a story that uh Elder Danny Wisner, I want to retell it in my own words.

Uh I'm not trying to repreach Brother Danny's sermon, but when Brother Danny was here at our church just a few weeks ago and preaching, he relayed to us a story about a coworker of his.

And uh I found something phenomenally interesting in that story that Brother Danny, in that simple story that he shared, it made very, very clear the distinction of what you and I believe and what we believe the scriptures teach as compared to our brother, other brothers and sisters in Christ that do not believe in predestination election.

So let me briefly re-explain the story.

So Brother Danny shared that he had a co-worker of his who was a lady.

She was a black lady, doesn't matter, but he said she was a very strong Christian lady that he worked with.

And this lady was sharing with Brother Danny about the fact that her daughter, and I don't remember if she was eight, nine, ten, twelve, but she was a young girl, that uh she loved the Lord.

That uh she read her Bible, that she studied, she prayed the most beautiful prayers, and that she uh communicated to her mother on a regular basis just how much she loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and that she loved the church, and that she and that this young lady obviously loved the Lord.

Well, so this lady was sharing with Brother Danny that because she knew that he was a preacher, she said, Well, how can I get my daughter saved?

That was the question of this lady because she came from another faith and order.

And brother Danny, that just struck him because in his mind he understands that that young lady is already born again.

That that young lady is already bound for heaven.

That young lady is already a daughter of the king by the intervening grace of the Holy Spirit.

That is why she loves the Bible.

That is why she loves Christ.

That is why she loves her mother so deeply, and that she is not fearful to communicate those things.

And so, as this, and again, I'm not trying to retell Brother Danny's story per se, because again, I'm not doing it justice.

Y'all please go back in our archive and read and re-list to that sermon.

But what it so struck me about what Brother Danny said was, is that this young lady, when when this lady relayed the story to Brother Danny, you know, he's thinking in his mind, you know, amen.

She's my sister.

She's born again, she loves the Lord.

But this lady, being of another faith and order, thought it necessary for her daughter to walk an aisle and pray a prayer in order to become saved for heaven.

Her mother was worried about her eternal salvation.

And brothers and sisters, that little simple story is so telling because that in and of itself is the difference in what you and I believe the Bible teaches about salvation and what many other faiths and orders believe about salvation.

So, let me go on and say this.

Well, Brother Josh, what would you have that young lady to do?

I would have that young lady to join the church.

She should join the church, she should be baptized.

Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

What I want you to understand is that we as print-baptists would want that young lady to openly and publicly profess the Lord Jesus Christ and be obedient to him in baptism and joining the church so that she can be a public professing Christian.

We would want her to do that 100%.

I'm not dissuading that at all, but what I'm trying to convey to you is we already understand, and Brother Danny understood, that that young lady who was 8, 9, 10, 12, however old she was, she was already born again and bound for heaven as a finished work and operation of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

And that man had nothing whatsoever to do with that.

But now, what are you and I supposed to do as a parent, as a pastor, as a Christian witness?

What are you and I now supposed to do?

We are supposed to come alongside of that lady and young lady and disciple her.

Teach her how to follow the Lord better, instruct her to help her grow up and mature in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not making sons and daughters to heaven.

That is the operation of God alone.

We are making disciples.

We are helping the sons and daughters of God to understand that, to enjoy that, to walk in that more.

And so that is where this lesson comes out of.

You know, Brother Josh, if I believe the way you do in predestination election, then I would see no need to preach the gospel.

I would see no need to witness.

I would see no need to share that with other people.

Yes, we need to share that with other people.

You know, that young lady who is obviously a child of God, who obviously loved the Lord Jesus Christ, where does she need to be?

In the church.

She needs to be growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Her mother needs to be discipling her and coming alongside of her.

That is the obligation of the pastor to teach and train her and to help her mother and for her mother to be her discipler and to come alongside of her.

That is our burden.

That is our desire.

That is our mission, you understand.

It is not our mission to create sons and daughters of God.

God does that.

It is our mission to create disciples.

Well, who do we create disciples of?

We don't create disciples of lost men and women who do not know the Lord.

You and I create disciples of people who already are sons and daughters of God by God's grace.

The title of my message today is Salvation in Christ Alone.

Salvation in Christ Alone.

I want to share with you this morning that, because I absolutely want to give credit where credit is due, again, we've already quoted Brother Danny's illustration.

Elder Michael Goens, who is one of our very able elders among the Primitive Baptists, and he is a wonderful writer.

And he wrote a long article that, and the title of his article, and please go look it up online, is Christ the Only Mediator.

Christ the Only Mediator.

In other words, Christ is the go-between, you understand, between God and man, right?

He is our, yes, Christ, I'm sorry, yes, the Father elected, or Christ, the Father chose us.

Christ came down here and became our mediator.

He became the God man.

He suffered and bled and died.

And then he rose again to have victory over death and hell.

And then, so he purchased salvation for us.

And then the Holy Spirit, by his sovereign operation, the wind bloweth where it listeth.

So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

Thou hearst the sound thereof, canst not tell whence it cometh.

So is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

God sovereignly makes sons and daughters of the King.

We don't do that.

So this morning I want to I want to read a couple quotes and I want to dive into this.

And some of this is taken from Brother Michael Gowens Christ, the only mediator.

So Brother Gowens quotes a minister from a long time ago.

His name is Samuel Richardson.

And he wrote an essay in 1647.

And the title of Samuel Richardson's essay was Justification by Christ Alone.

Justification by Christ Alone.

Well, what is justification?

When you go to the courtroom and you're accused of a crime, and you know you're you're go in and you're held a you have a are confronted by a jury of your peers, and they find you totally innocent.

That you know, this man is free of wrongdoing, he was falsely accused, you know, and they find you just.

You are released, you are free, you are innocent, you don't have any of the charges that are applied to you.

Well, the problem with that is so so that is being justified means being absolved from guilt or punishment.

Well, brothers and sisters, you and I are guilty.

You and I are sinners.

You know, you and I are totally depraved, we are sinners by birth, and we are sinners by choice.

Well, how is it that you and I can be declared just or absolved of sin or free of guilt or innocent in the sight of a righteous God?

How is that even possible?

You understand?

Like I am, brothers and sisters, I am a sinner.

And you are a sinner, not only by birth, but also by our own choice.

Well, how is it that you and I can actually stand before a righteous God?

How is that even possible?

It is because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

That Jesus Christ was a son of God, and he was totally sinless, and he died on my behalf and on your behalf and in our stead, and he paid the penalty for my crimes.

And so he is our redeemer.

Christ alone is our justifier, you understand?

He did the work of redemption, he purchased my redemption.

So when Father God looks at me, a son of God, he doesn't see that I'm a righteous person by my deeds and my actions and my works.

Instead, what he sees is the shed blood of Jesus Christ on me, and then he says, That is a righteous son of mine.

You ladies, when the Lord looks at you, he sees, that is a righteous daughter of the king.

Why?

Because you have the shed blood of Christ on you, and Christ's blood is acceptable to the Father.

Amen?

And that is the only way that you and I are justified or declared innocent or righteous in the sight of an Almighty God.

And by the way, that is the gospel.

The gospel is not an invitation to be saved, the gospel is a declaration, it's a proclamation of what Christ has already accomplished.

What he's already done.

This is the work that Christ has already done.

Father God gave Christ the elect an innumerable number that no man can number.

Christ died for the sheep.

He died for all those electric.

He died for every single one, and he will redeem.

Matthew 1.21, thou shalt call his name Jesus.

For he shall save his people from their sins.

Christ has not attempted to save the sheep.

Christ is not wanting to save the sheep.

Christ is not desirous to save the sheep.

Christ has 100% already past hence saved every sheep because he was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world.

Father God gave him that number.

Christ died for them.

The Holy Spirit will born them again before here in this life.

He will do that.

But Christ has saved everyone.

Christ is the Redeemer.

He is the justifier.

That is the gospel.

It is a finished work.

It's done.

Now.

Well, Brother Josh, where does our faith come in?

Where does the church come in?

Where does witnessing and preaching come in?

If God has done all the work.

God, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus Christ are the only ones that make sons and daughters of the King.

What is the job of the preacher and the witness and the church and the evangelist is to make disciples or followers of Christ of the sons and daughters of the king.

Our mission field is the born-again.

Because those are the only people that have ears to hear and eyes to see, you understand.

The lost of the world doesn't see it, doesn't recognize it, doesn't want it.

They're not seeking after God.

Well, Brother Josh, this young lady that Brother Danny was talking about, she was obviously seeking after God.

Sure she was.

Because she was the daughter of the king.

That God had already made her one, you understand.

Well, what's your mom's job?

What's the preacher's job?

What's the other uh older brothers and sisters in Christ's job?

It's to come alongside of her and make her a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ, to help her grow up in the Lord.

The Lord has already implanted the knowledge in her heart and her mind, right?

He's already saved her in heaven.

Well, brothers and gossips, where did the church go wrong?

Where did the church get off of the rails?

And where did the church start trying to make sons and daughters?

It's a little bit before the time that the Baptist split.

They thought that it was the church's job to get people to have a conversion and a statement of faith.

And you come all the way now to today, and you people believe that people are saved and born again to heaven by what?

By hearing the gospel, i.e., a witness or a preacher sharing the gospel, the good news, and then that individual accepting that, having their own personal faith or belief, as it were, accepting that, and that those two things, the sharing of the gospel by a witness, and the accepting of a person by faith, and then those two things they believe are the very means by which they are born again and saved.

That is 100% biblically incorrect.

That is not the means by which they are made sons and daughters of the king.

The means by which a person is made an eternal child of God is by Christ alone.

It's by the Holy Spirit alone.

It's by God alone.

He does all of that work.

That is why our salvation is secure.

Now, well, brother Josh, why are we supposed to have faith in?

Why are we supposed to come to church?

So that you and I can be better disciples of Christ or followers of Christ.

You and I are not supposed to stay babes in Christ and ignorant in our knowledge of Him.

You and I are supposed to mature in the Lord and grow up into Him and walk in Him.

So the preacher's job is to help teach and preach and comfort and instruct.

What about parents?

What about the evangelist?

It is to share the gospel and again, and you and I don't know who is or is not.

You and I do not know who is or is not sons and daughters of the king.

Amen?

We don't.

I'm telling you honestly, I would have believed that the thief on the cross was going to bust hell wide open.

If I were to look at his life, if I were to estimate him, me as a man looking on him, that's not a son of the king.

That would have been my estimation, and I would have been 100% wrong.

Because you know where the thief on the cross is today?

He is in heaven with Christ.

Why is he in heaven with Christ?

Because God showed him grace and God born him again.

Now, did the thief the thief on the cross was a son of the king, but was the thief on the cross a disciple of Christ?

No, he was not.

The thief on the cross here in this life failed in his discipleship, you understand, right?

He never walked with the Lord in his, he literally was dying on the cross as a result of his own sinful actions, right?

So the thief on the cross never walked with Christ in a godly way here in this world.

Instead, he was the opposite, but God showed him grace.

So let me read this quote by Samuel Richardson, written in 1647.

The title of his essay was Justification by Christ Alone.

He wrote, we are justified by Christ alone and not by our believing.

He says, We grant that God has decreed the end and the means, and whatsoever God has decreed shall unavoidably come to pass.

That's true.

But we deny that faith is any means of our redemption, justification, and salvation.

Stop right there.

But we deny that faith, our faith, mining on your own personal faith, is any means of our, and this is talking about eternal, our eternal redemption, justification, and salvation.

Minding your personal faith that you and I walk with, that I call on you to have, that the evangelist or the gospel witness calls on a person to have.

You need to repent and you need to follow Christ, you need to have faith in Him, and we should preach those things.

But you understand that the having a faith or the following of Christ is not what makes you a son or daughter of the king.

And it is only a son or daughter of the king that can actually hear that spiritual call.

You see that?

Lost people don't hear that call now.

So our our uh Is our faith a means?

Yes, it's a means of discipleship.

It's a means of following Christ, but it's not a means of our eternal salvation.

Is the church and the preaching and the gospel witness?

Are they a means to an end?

Yes, but they're not a means to eternal salvation.

They're a means for people to be better followers of Christ and to grow in grace.

And to have, so is a believer who is ignorant about all the things of salvation, do y'all think that, and they're worrying and they're pining about the security of their salvation and they don't really know how to follow Christ?

Do they have all the comfort and the tools and the teaching and the instruction that they need to be a proper disciple of Christ?

No, they don't.

So that is the purpose of the preacher and the witness and the church is to come alongside those sons and daughters to help them to grow in grace.

But we're not making them go to heaven.

See, when Brother Danny was relaying that story about the young lady, that mother, in the faith and order that she grew up in, in her mind, her little daughter was lost in going to hell.

And her mother saw that her daughter had an interest in Christ, but in this lady's mind, her daughter was lost and going to hell because she doesn't understand that she thought that the means of her daughter's salvation was her daughter walking an aisle and praying a prayer and joining the church and acting for Christ to come save her.

Because literally, I think I think Brother Danny's quote was something to the effect that when the older lady told her daughter that, you know, you need to accept Christ so that you can be saved, and she said, Well, I already know him.

She did already know him, brother and sisters.

Now, so she doesn't need to know him anymore to go to heaven, but does she need to know him better to grow in him?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Let me finish Brother Richardson's quote.

We deny that faith is any means of our redemption, justification, and salvation.

Nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ is the means of our salvation.

Stop.

That is the difference, brothers and sisters.

In what primitive Baptists believe and what other faiths and orders believe.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Trinity, the Godhead, is the only means of human beings' salvation in this world, and it is a sovereign operation by God alone, and God did that all himself.

Man had nothing, absolutely nothing, zero, what to do with that.

Well, Brother Josh, what are some of the ramifications of that?

Well, some of the ramifications of that are there has literally been people in this world that have been born and died, and a missionary never went to them.

He never brought, a Bible was never brought to them.

If they have literally been born and died, and uh, and again, the word of God was never preached to them.

And well, Brother Joshua, you're telling me that you believe that there are people like that that have never heard the gospel, never heard a preacher, that are actually going to heaven.

Yes, 100%.

God's hand is not too short to save.

He is not dependent on me the preacher or you the witness or the evangelist or the missionary.

God will save every single one of his sheep.

Amen.

He has not lost a single one ever in the history of this world.

Christ never tried to save anybody.

He 100% saved every one of his children.

Stop.

That is a fact according to the Bible.

And that is what Primitive Baptists believe now.

Okay, brother's gospel.

Well, if you believe that, then I don't see why you need to witness.

You know why I need to witness?

Because I want those people who have never heard about Christ to hear about Christ.

I want the young lady who loves the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want her to grow up in the Lord and become a spiritually mature lady in the Lord who honors the Lord even more.

You understand?

I want those sons and daughters of the king that are wandering around in the old fallen earth of Babylon out there.

I want to pull them out of Babylon and give them the truth and give them the understanding and come alongside of them and teach them to be disciples.

Again, the great commission.

Go ye therefore into all the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, teaching them to follow Christ, to observe all things that I've commanded you.

That is our calling, that is our motivation.

We want folks out there to not be ignorant.

What was Paul's heart's desire in Romans chapter 10 for the Jews?

Romans 10 · chapter mention

He looked out among his nation and he saw some of the Jews, and he saw that they had a zeal of Christ.

It's just like this little girl.

Paul looked out on some of his countrymen and he said, I believe that was a child of God.

I believe that was a daughter or son of a king.

But you know what they're doing?

They're out, they're just so busily working in the Jews' religion and they're working ignorantly.

They don't know what they're supposed to do.

And I want to save that one earthly, timely.

I want to save them to a knowledge of Christ.

Because they're trying to work their way to heaven as a Jew, and I see them, I believe them to already be born again, and I want to tell them, look, friend, Christ has already done that for you.

You don't have to work for your salvation.

That's the gospel.

That's the good news.

But many of our other brothers and sisters think that they're trying to save souls to heaven.

That's not what we're called to do.

We're called to make disciples.

Nothing but the Lord Jesus Christ is the means of our salvation.

There are means that are necessary to the revealing and enjoying the comforts of our salvation.

As the Holy Spirit and ministers to reveal it, and faith to receive it, also there are fruits and effects of the love of God, as faith, love, and obedience to Christ.

Yet these are no means of salvation.

See, our faith and our love, all these fruits of the Spirit and the minister's call and they don't save us to heaven.

But they are means by which you enjoy that.

Brothers and sisters, I'm here to encourage you today in the Lord.

To strengthen you today in the Lord, to teach you in the Lord.

I'm not here to make you sons and daughters of the king.

I'm not here to make anybody on the sound of my voice or my.

I will never save a human being to heaven.

You know why?

I don't have to.

Because Christ has saved every single one of those.

But you know what my job is as a minister?

I want to teach people the knowledge of God that are already sons and daughters of God so that they know him better, they glorify him better, and they walk with him better.

Primitive Baptists believe that Christ alone is the only mediator between God and men.

Salvation is through his finished work accomplished, his cross and his resurrection.

Turn, if you will, to John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

John chapter 19.

John 19 · chapter mention

We begin reading in verse 28.

This is when uh Christ was on the cross.

John chapter 19, verse 28.

John 19:28

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

Now there was a vessel set full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon Hyssop, and put it upon Hyssop and put it to his mouth.

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished.

And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.

This is at the very point when Christ died on the cross.

This is the very point when Christ died on the cross.

And then he said, It is finished, and he gave up the ghost.

He died.

He physically earthly died.

Why did he say it's finished?

Because he won the victory.

He lived the perfect, sinless human life.

He never once denied the Father.

And then he died.

He died.

So therefore, he perfectly was the sacrifice.

It's finished.

And so now he goes to be with the Father, and in three days he's going to be resurrected, and now he has victory over death and hell.

He sits on the right hand of the Father of God.

So he became the perfect sacrifice for all of God's elect children.

He finished the work.

Well, Brother Josh, what about those people that believe that Christ died for everybody without exception?

Every single man, woman, and child.

Those people also believe that this finished work that Christ did is just being wasted on millions and millions of people.

Oh, Christ died for you.

But you know what?

You're not redeemed.

You're not saved.

You're not going to heaven because you didn't choose him.

You didn't, by your means of faith and by the gospel witnesses means of a preacher, you didn't accept that, so therefore, Christ's salvation on you is lost.

That's not true.

There's not a single blood, a drop of Christ's blood has been wasted.

He redeemed every single one of his children.

So Christ did not make the election.

Christ did not make God's people savable.

Christ saved God's elect people.

Hebrews, by the way, this is what I want you, I'm going to read a few scriptures here in short order, but what I want you to see in these is I want you to see God's work and that man doesn't have an operation in this.

In Hebrews chapter 9, look beginning in verse 11.

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 9, beginning in verse 11, we read, but Christ, being come a high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained a eternal redemption for us.

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention

Stop.

The language here does not say that Christ tried to save us, that Christ offered salvation to the masses, and 50% of them turned him down.

That's not what he says.

It says that Christ, that this is, you understand that this is Christ's work.

This was his mission, and his mission is finished.

That Christ entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

For if the blood of bulls and goats, the blood of bulls and of goats and of the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

I want you to stop right here.

Do y'all notice in the language of the King James Bible that Christ has never offered himself to man?

Christ did not offer his finished work to sinful individuals.

You and I who were trespassers against God.

Christ offered his finished work up to the one who was offended, to God Almighty.

That's what the language says.

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God?

Christ did not offer himself to sinful man.

Hey, I want you to accept my salvation that I bring, and then therefore you can be your own redeemer and save you by the choice of the means of your faith in me.

You can save yourself.

No, that is not what the Bible teaches.

Instead, Christ offered himself to God because God had already elected and called out an innumerable number that no man can number, the elect, the sheep.

God chose them, and then Christ came down to this earth and he lived a sinless life and he finished the work of redemption and offered himself to God as a sacrifice on their behalf, and therefore that's why Christ sits at the right hand.

And when God looks at me and you, who are sinful people, you and I are justified in the sight of God, made right, absolved, pure, holy, innocent.

Why are you and I pure and holy and innocent?

We know we're not, but we are in the sight of God.

Why?

Because Christ finished the work.

He justified every single one.

Verse 15, and for this cause and for this reason that Christ did all this, he is the mediator of the New Testament.

That by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Christ finished the work.

He did it, he accomplished it.

He didn't try to do it.

And the means of our salvation is not mine and your faith or the gospel witness or preacher.

It's Christ Himself.

Now, let me give you one more, and we're going to try to close this out here very quickly.

Turn me to Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

We're going to pick up in verse 1.

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, this is like the heir of a father, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.

But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.

And you notice that the child is passive in all this.

Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

We were fallen children just like everybody else in the world.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, like we were, the God man, Emmanuel, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Stop.

So God had to send his son to be a man and to do what we couldn't do to be the God man and to fulfill the righteous requirement of law in order to redeem us.

And he did all this so that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The child, the recipient, had no work involved in that.

The work is done between Father God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

You and I don't have a say in the matter.

To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son unto your hearts, crying, Abba Father.

In other words, because God has chosen you and Christ has redeemed you, his called children, he sent forth the Holy Spirit into you to write his laws and his commandments into your heart and into your mind.

The preacher can't do that.

The gospel witness can't do that.

Mom and dad can't do that.

Now, can mom and dad and the preacher and the witness come alongside of the work of the Holy Spirit and agree with it and be a means of comfort, be a means of teaching, be a means of instruction, be a means of helping them grow?

Sure.

But they can't give it to them.

I can't teach you to be sons and daughters of God.

But I can help a son or daughter of God be a better disciple of Christ.

That's my calling.

And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit, capitalist of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father, Daddy Daddy.

Wherefore thou art no more servants but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Let's bring all this to a close.

I want to give you one more quote.

This is a quote actually from Brother Gowens.

And brothers and sisters, this quote is what so struck me that is the very essence of the difference between what primitive Baptists believe and what other faiths and orders believe.

It's the essence of what Brother Danny was trying to convey, talking about the little girl and his mother.

He says, but this gospel and man's believing response to it is not the means by which an individual becomes a child of God.

The gospel and man's believing response to it is not the means by which an individual becomes a child of God.

In other words, the the gospel preaching, the gospel witness in man's believing response doesn't make us a child of God.

Instead, what is it?

It is the means by which a child of God becomes a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And by the way, that agrees with Scripture in 2 Timothy 1, verse 10.

2 Timothy 1:10

2 Timothy 1 and verse 10.

We learn in the Bible the very reason of the gospel.

Like what is the what is the purpose of the gospel?

2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 10.

2 Timothy 1:10

Well, I'll back up to verse 9.

God, which is in the previous verse, verse 9, who has saved us, so God did that work of saving, and called us with a holy calling.

God did that work.

And he did all this not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, again, sovereign operation of God, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest or seen by the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

The purpose of the preached gospel is to bring life and immortality to your attention.

So, in other words, if I'm a gospel evangelist, let's say I'm of another faith and order, and let's say I'm gathered together in a giant football stadium of 5,000 people, and I'm preaching the truth out of the Bible, okay?

And then at the end of that thing, they have an altar call, and then let's say there's 50 people that come up and quote unquote make a decision for Christ, okay?

So, in truth and in reality, what actually transpired there?

What actually transpired?

So let's just say from a mathematical number that 30 of those decisions were 100% genuine.

Let's just say 20 of them, you know, maybe they didn't understand or maybe they were following everybody else.

Let's just say 30 of those decisions were 100% real and genuine in every way.

Well, what happened?

Could the Holy Spirit have decided decided to there's there's a handful of sons and daughters of God that have never made a decision to follow Christ, that they have been pricked in their Their heart by the preaching of the truth, so much so that they feel convicted of their sins and they want to follow Christ better, and therefore they made a decision?

Absolutely, that could have been the case.

But you understand that the preacher and his gospel call and actually them walking an aisle and and praying some kind of prayer that did not save those 30 individuals to heaven and immortal glory, they were already saved to heaven and immortal glory.

You understand that?

If they would have left that stadium and never walked an aisle and prayed a prayer and got in a car and died in a fire and car crash, those people would be in heaven today.

Now, well Josh, was it right that they made a decision for Christ and want to follow him better?

Yes and amen.

And if you give me the opportunity to preach to 5,000 people, I'll do the same.

Because you know what?

I want to call out all the sons and daughters of God to walk in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, you understand?

That is the gospel call.

I am called to make disciples of all nations, to teach them how to serve and follow God better.

And I say amen and praise the Lord that those people made a decision to follow Christ better.

But they didn't make a decision to save themselves to heaven.

Instead, what they did is this little child of God, son or daughter, by their faith, made a decision to now follow Christ better.

The gospel brand.

So when the preacher preached the gospel in that stadium, those sons and daughters of God, those 30 people, it brought the eternal life that they already had within them by the sovereign operation of God and the Holy Spirit.

It brought it to their attention, you understand.

It brought it to light.

And now they want to walk in it better.

And amen, and they should.

Just like the young lady that Brother Danny talked about.

Should she join the church?

Should she follow Christ in a public way?

Yes.

Should she be baptized?

Should these 30 people be baptized?

Yes.

But it doesn't save them to heaven.

It just makes them, hey, these people are declaring that, look, I believe that God, by his grace, has saved me.

Now I want to make a decision for the Lord to follow him better and to be an active disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes and amen, and we all should do that.

That's why we preach the gospel, brother and sister.

There are people that believe that the church is the mediator of salvation.

That there's no, by the way, that's what the Catholics believe, that you must go through the church to be saved.

That's not the case.

There are many Protestants that believe that the preached word and a person's personal faith are the means of their eternal salvation.

That is not the case.

What is the means of our eternal salvation?

Christ alone, Almighty God, his finished work.

That is the gospel.

That is the means of our eternal salvation.

Now, the preached word in a person's personal faith and the church, what are they means of?

They are means of discipleship, not sonship.

They are means by which people grow and are encouraged and walk with the Lord better.

They are means of discipleship and not sonship.

Christ alone saved.

The gospel is just a declaration or proclamation of his finished work.

I want to close this morning with one more quote by an old Baptist elder who has long since gone on.

Elder Wilson Thompson lived in the 1800s.

Elder Wilson Thompson said, in regard to the use and effect of the preached gospel, Elder Thompson held, with a majority of old school Baptists, again talking about the preached gospel, that it is not the means of imparting spiritual life to the dead sinner.

It doesn't do that.

That as no means can be used to give life to one literally dead.

A person, a lost, reprobate sinner, is literally dead, spiritually dead.

That's the death that Adam died in the garden, because they didn't physically die.

They spiritually died.

That the preached gospel is not the means used to give life to one who is literally dead.

Even so, no means can be used to give eternal life to those that are dead in sins.

Did y'all get that?

There is no means of man, no preaching, no witnessing, no gospel, no program, no prayer, no sacraments, no nothing.

There is no means of man that can be used to make alive a dead man.

It is impossible.

That as temporal means are used to feed, nourish, and strengthen living subjects.

You get that?

What is the gospel?

What is the preaching?

What is witnessing?

What is the word of God?

What is the church?

It is the means by which the living are nourished, are built up, or instructioned, are instructed, or spurred on, or held accountable, all the above.

But it's for the living.

Our mission field is to the living, is to the sons and daughters of God.

And again, you and I don't know who all those are.

So you and I are to proclaim it to everyone.

But we understand that, like those 30 that are genuinely respond, the only ones who genuinely respond are the ones who are already alive and made alive by the sovereign operation of God.

They're already sons.

So all temporal means are used to feed, nourish, and strengthen living subjects and not dead ones.

So the preaching of the gospel is the medium through which God is pleased to instruct, feed, and comfort his renewed or born-again children.

And not by which he gives life to the dead sinner, whom the capitalist spirit alone can quicken.

That the gospel is the proclamation of good tidings of great joy to those who have a hearing ear and an understanding heart to receive it.

This is the work of God.

So the fact that you and I believe in predestination election.

But Josh, why do y'all preach?

Why do you teach?

Why do you witness?

Why do you proclaim the gospel?

Because it's the means by which God's children are pulled out of this fallen world, made, again, not to heaven.

God's already done that.

But to give them knowledge, to give them understanding, to give them comfort, to give them hope, to give them direction, to give them truth in the midst of a fallen world.

And I want all of God's children.

Do I want all of God's little children out there just mumbling, bumping around, being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine and everything that the world throws at them, that their families, their marriages, their finances, their lives are just in shambles by all the lies that the devil and the world has taught them?

No, I want to help as a pastor, and I want you as a mother and a father and an uncle and a witness to come alongside them and to help rescue God's children out of this fallen world.

Here and now in time on this earth.

I can't save them to heaven, but I can help come alongside of them and be a brother in Christ and come around them and give them the truth.

These are all the means of discipleship, not of sonship.

So, Brother Josh, what's this whole message about today?

The very thing that primitive Baptists believe in this world that is so very different than all these other faith and orders, is that we are not trying to save anybody to heaven.

We can't.

God has already done that.

But did y'all know that our witnessing, our evangelizing, our gospel preaching, we have great encouragement that you know why?

Because I'm not preaching to all lost sinners that have, that I know for a fact, have no interest whatsoever in what I'm sharing.

You understand?

But there are sons and daughters of God, lost sheep, that are bumbling about in the world.

Those are the ones that will hear what I have to say, that are interested, that are seeking.

And you know what?

That actually guarantees us to have some level of success.

You mean, Rojash, that there are already sons and daughters of God out there that just want to hear the truth and hadn't heard it yet?

Yeah.

You mean I might find some of those at the grocery store or the gas station or in a men's rally or whatever.

Yes, absolutely.

You may come across some of those.

Praise God.

And when you do, what a wonderful thing it is.

How beautiful are the uh the feet of those that proclaim the gospel.

To those people who you are bringing the gospel, truth, and the witness to them that didn't know it before.

You are beautiful to them.

Why?

Because you look like Christ.

Because you come heralding the gospel.

You come heralding the truth, you come heralding the truth in a fallen world that they hadn't heard before.

And to them, you are beautiful.

Oh, thank you, brother.

I hadn't heard that before.

That changes everything.

Yes, it does change everything.

Go ye therefore into all the world, baptizing them.

You and I are supposed to do that.

But we're not saving them to heaven.

God's already done that.

Because all how, because you know, if it was my job as a preacher to save people to heaven, then I need to go quit my secular job.

And 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I need to be praying for souls, and I need to not stop.

I need to be like the most uh rabid bulldog in the world, and I need to never stop until every single family member that I have, every single friend that I have has made a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and I need to be the most rude bulldog in the world and never stop and never relent until I get them into heaven, because otherwise their salvation would be on my shoulders, and I can't bear the fact that their blood would be on my hands, and therefore I must work diligently.

I must wear my body and my mind and my life out to save them to heaven, because if I believe that way, then that's the way I should be acting.

But I don't believe that.

I believe that's the work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ and Almighty God.

My job is to come alongside and help inform and instruct and comfort and bandage those believers who've been beaten up in the world and point them in the right direction and walk along them with a road like Christ walked with the disciples, to be yoke fellow with them.

And yes, I 100% need to do a better job of doing that.

And I need to be, I need to be like Paul and have a burden for those people.

But this morning, this whole message was all about one thing showing you the difference.

This is why we evangelize and why we witness and how we witness.

And it is absolutely different than the way that the world evangelizes and witnesses because they think they're saving people to heaven.

We think that we're instructing sons and daughters of God to glorify the Lord better.

I hope this has been an encouragement to you.

I want to ask Brother Don if he would come up and help us close in a word song.

The church doors are always open if you desire to unite with the membership of our church.