Adrian Rogers - The Word of God
Be finding First Peter chapter 1, First Peter chapter 1, in a moment, we're going to read verses 23 through 25. We're continuing this series of Bible studies entitled, "Kingdom Authority". And I have been so blessed as we are discovering kingdom authority learning how to get under it and then, to exercise kingdom authority in our own lives. I've told you when you were born again, you were born to win. God does not expect you to be defeated by the world, the flesh and the devil. God saved you and then God gave you dominion. God means for you to rule on this Earth as kings and priests and to have dominion.
But we have taught you and hope to teach you through this entire series that we can never be over those things that God has put under us until we're under those things that God has put over us. Remember that. We can never be over those things that God has put under us, until we are under those things that God has put over us. That is, God does not give kingdom authority to rebels. If you have a rebellious spirit, no wonder God cannot trust you with kingdom authority. Last week we talked about the lordship of Christ, when the King is supreme.
Today we're talking about the Word of the King, the Word of God. Now Peter is describing the Word of God beginning in verse 23 and he tells us how we were saved through the Word of God. First Peter chapter 1 verses 23 to verse 25, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible. By the Word of God," underscore that, "by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever, for all flesh is as grass and the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which the Gospel is preached unto you".
The Lordship of Jesus and the Word of God stand together. The Word of the Lord and the Lord of the Word are inseparable. Now, here the Bible calls itself, "The Word of God". I wonder, what is your relationship to the Word of God? Some despise it. There are those who literally hate, they despise the Bible. There're none like that here today unless you've come to make fun, and if you have, may God have mercy on you. But there are others who deny it. They say, "I just simply don't despise it, but I don't accept it. I don't believe it is the Word of God". There're others who distort it. They claim to believe it, but they twist it, as the Bible says in Second Peter 3 verse 16 they, "Wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction".
Then there're some who dissect it. They claim to believe it, but they read it more like a math book rather than a love story. They can split a theological hair into 16 equal divisions, but they don't seem to get the message of the Bible. They're ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. But I suppose the greatest danger in this crowd are not those that deny it, those that despise it, or those that distort it, or those that dissect it, but the problem with many of is that we disregard it. We disregard it. We say we believe it, but many spend far more time with the newspapers and television than you do with the Word of God.
You don't understand the Bible, many could not name all the books of the Bible if you gave them $1,000. Yet, we say that we believe it. We wonder why we don't have more kingdom authority in our hearts and in our lives, could it be that we do not listen to the words of the King who wants to give us that authority. These hath God married and no man shall part, dust on the Bible and drought in the heart. Now, look at the Scripture today. And I want you to notice four things about the Word of the King; four things about the Bible. And I pray that these things will be emblazoned upon your heart.
First of all, the Bible is the incontestable Word of God; incontestable Word of God. No contest, no controversy, no denying it, the Bible is the Word of God. Look at it here in this verse, First Peter chapter 1 verse 23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God". Now, it is not the word of man, it is the Word of God. How was the Bible written? Well, you're in chapter 2, go back to chapter 1 and look in verse 10. It speaks of the prophets in the Old Testament who were writing about salvation.
And it says in First Peter chapter 1 verses 10 and 11, "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or by what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow". Now this verse says that the Old Testament prophets prophesied because the Spirit of Christ was in them, the Holy Spirit was prophesying through them. The Bible, though it had human penman, was not written by men, it was written by the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible is the Word of God.
Now let me tell you something very interesting. There are many, many descriptions for the Bible, but the best description that I can think of, and God's favorite description for the Bible is the Word of God. Now, if you think about that. God, Himself, calls the Bible the Word of God. Let me just give you a few representative verses, and I could give you hundreds of them. Acts chapter 4 verse 31, "And they spake the Word of God with boldness". Romans 10 verse 17, "So faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God". Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17, "And take the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God". Hebrews 4:12, "For the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a twoedged sword". First Thessalonians 2 verse 13, "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye receive the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God".
Over five hundred times in the first five books of the Bible, God says, "This is My Word". Over a thousand times in the prophets, God says, "This is My Word". Over four thousand times in the Old Testament, the Bible is alluded to as, "The Word of God". Forty-four times in the New Testament it is called, "The Word of God". "Now, wait a minute Pastor, why are you saying that over and over again? I accept that the Bible is the Word of God". Friend, if you really believe that the Bible is the Word of God, if you really believe that when the Bible speaks, God speaks, it's going to have some incredible implications in your heart. Let me give you some. For example, if it is the Word of God; that means that it's absolutely perfect doesn't it? It's absolutely perfect. I mean, can a God of truth speak error?
Put this verse down, Second Timothy chapter 3 verse 16, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God". The word Scripture means holy writings. "All Scripture," not some, "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God". That means it is the breath of God. Jesus Christ when He was tempted by Satan to turn stones into bread, said in Matthew chapter 4 and verse 4, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". So He is saying that the Scripture, the written Scripture has come out of the mouth of God, it is given by inspiration of God. It is absolutely perfect.
The writer of Proverbs said in Proverbs chapter 30 in verse 5, "Every word of God is pure". Now, if the Bible is the Word of God, the incontestable Word of God, then think what that means. Did you know that Jesus and the Bible are not identical, but they are inseparable? Did you know that God gave the same name for Jesus that He gave to His book? He calls His book the Word of God, we've seen that, but now write down in your margin, Revelation chapter 19 and verse 13, it speaks of Jesus coming in power and great glory and it says this, "And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God".
Now, what is the Bible called? The Word of God. What is Jesus called? The Word of God. A man and his word may be different but Christ and His Word are not different. I'm not saying that Jesus and the Bible are identical, what I am saying however, is that they are inseparable. Let me show you how, how Jesus and the Bible are so much the same, both have come from God. Galatians 4:4 tells us that Jesus came from God, "God sent forth His Son". Second Peter 1 verse 21, "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost". The Son of Man came from God, He, Jesus came from Heaven above, the Word of God came from Heaven above. Both live forever.
Jesus is alive forevermore, Revelation 1:18, "I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore". The Bible lives forever, First Peter 1 verse 25, "The Word of the Lord endureth forever". Both are unchanging. Jesus can never change, Hebrews 13 verse 8, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever". The Word of God will not change. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 18, "Till Heaven and earth pass not one jot nor tittle shall in any wise pass from the law". Matthew chapter 5 verse 18. Both the Lord Jesus and the Bible are light in a dark place. Jesus said in John chapter 8 verse 12, "I am the light of the world".
The Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 105, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path". Both are absolute truth. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the truth". Jesus said of the Bible in John 17 verse 17, "Thy Word is truth". Do you see what I'm showing you? I'm telling you that God calls the Bible the Word of God, God calls His Son the Word of God, and the things that are true about Jesus are in many ways true about the Bible. And therefore the Word of God has awesome power. The Bible says in Hebrews 4:12, "For the Word of God is quick and powerful".
The word quick is the word zoon. It's the word we get zoology from, it means it's alive. And powerful is the word inergues, it's the word we get energy from. The Bible is alive and it is vibrating with power. One man was translating the Bible putting it in different translation and he said, "As I got into the Word of God and studied it," he said, "I felt like I was rewiring a house without cutting off the main switch". There's the power, power in the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12, "The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword".
I want you to understand this as we're thinking about kingdom authority. And the first point is this. The incontestable, incontestable Word of God. We cannot refuse it, we cannot deny it, we cannot distort it, we cannot dilute it, we must bow before it if we would have kingdom authority. Secondly, not only is it the incontestable Word of God, it is the incorruptible Word of God. Look in First Peter 1 verse 23, "Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God". Now, what does it mean when it says it is, "The incorruptible Word of God"? It means there's no taint in it, there's no blemish in it, there's no corruption in the Word of God.
Do you know how I know the Bible is the incorruptible Word of God? It's stood up under so much shoddy preaching. You think about it. You think of all of the silly things that have been said in the name of the Bible and yet the Bible stands. Atheists have railed against the Bible, agnostics have smiled cynically at the Bible, liberals have moved Heaven and Earth to disprove the miracles of the Bible, materialists have ignored the Bible, radicals and false cults have twisted the Bible, and yet it is the incorruptible Word of God.
A former pastor of this church, Dr. Robert G. Lee, said something wonderful and I want to quote it verbatim. He said concerning the Bible, "All of its enemies have not torn one hole in its holy vesture, or stolen one flower from its wonderful garden, nor diluted one drop of honey from its abundant hive, nor broken one string on its thousand stringed harp, nor drowned one sweet word in infidel ink". Don't you love that? You see, the Bible, the Bible is the incorruptible Word of God.
You say, "Well, Pastor what if modern science disproves the Bible"? You have nothing to fear from science. Just give the scientists time, maybe one day they'll catch up with the Word of God. And I want to tell you something, if a scientist says something good about the Bible, that doesn't give me any more faith in the Bible, just a little more faith in the scientist. The Bible is the incorruptible Word of God. It is the incontestable Word of God. It is the incorruptible Word of God.
Now here's the third thing: it is the indestructible Word of God; the indestructible Word of God. Look in First Peter 1 verse 23, the Bible says of itself that it, "Lives and abides forever". And then First Peter 1 verse 25 says that, "The Bible endureth forever". The Bible is not the book of the month. The Bible is the book of the ages. Now, it took 1,500 years for the Bible to be written. It spanned some 30 generations. And the Bible was completed more than 2000 years ago. But yet, it is a fresh and living reality today. I read the Bible and it spoke to my heart. It was food and nourishment to me. I read the newspaper also, it did very little for me. How fresh, how wonderful is the Bible. Century after century people have tried to burn it or bury it. And the kings of this Earth have set themselves against it. And, the public schools in America seem to be dead set against it. But it's still the Word of God. It endures forever.
There was a Roman emperor. He was a wicked, ungodly man. His name was Diocletian. And he lived in the 3rd century. Diocletian hated the Word of God. And he just could not stand the Bible. And he made a war against the Bible. Bibles were destroyed, Christians were put to death and tortured for the faith, and Diocletian decided that he would strut a little so he burned a Bible and over that Bible he erected a monument and he said, "Extincto nomene christianorum". Latin. In English, "The name of Christian is extinct". That was his monument built on the ashes of the Bible. That's 303. However in 325, Constantine was enthroned and he made the Bible the infallible judge of truth to all the empire.
Now, I want to tell you this folks, there've been plenty of people who've pronounced the Bible dead, but the corpse has outlived the pallbearers. Remember this: the Bible lives and abides forever; the Bible is incorruptible and it is indestructible. It cannot fade; it cannot decay. Jesus said Matthew 5:18, "Not one jot, not one tittle shall fail from the law till all be fulfilled". And the knawing tooth of time and the foul breath of decay and all the prognostications of the scientists and Carl Sagan and all of the rest of them, can have their say, but here in this century, this book, the Word of God is the most widely circulated book in all of the world. It has endured the centuries. Thank God for that. People have tried to push it over. They told a man one time, we want you to build a wall that can't be pushed over, that won't fall.
So he went to work and he said, "I've done it". Said, "I've built a wall that is four feet high and five feet wide". And he said, "If they push it over, it'll be a foot higher than it was before they pushed it". And friend, that's the way the Bible is. It just seems like that the more that they work against it, the more it grows. It is the incontestable Word of God. Friend, I want you to know it is the incorruptible Word of God. I want you to know it is the indestructible Word of God. And now I want you to learn finally that it is the indispensable Word of God; it is the indispensable Word of God.
Look if you will in First Peter 1 verse 25 now of this text. And verse 25 tells us, "But the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word by which the Gospel is preached unto you". Now, let me just talk to you a little bit about how the Word of the King works in the church and in the world. First of all, it provides the church's message. What is the message of the church? The Gospel. And where do we get the Gospel? We get the Gospel by the Word of God. And the Bible says in First Peter 1 verse 25, "And this is the Word by which the Gospel is preached unto you".
Now, the Gospel doesn't need to be rethought, it needs to be retaught. And the message of the church is the Gospel. You couldn't say anything better about me that would make me feel better than to say Adrian Rogers lives a clean life and is a Gospel preacher. We are to preach the Gospel. There're other people who can preach the Gospel better than I can but nobody can preach a better Gospel than I can because there's only one Gospel and you get that Gospel out of the Word of God. And we don't need a new and a modern Gospel for a new and a modern age. The Word of God, the Word of the King provides the church's message. Have you got that?
Now what else it does, it prescribes the church's method. The message is the Gospel. What is the method? The method is the preaching of the Gospel. "And this is the Word," First Peter 1 verse 25, "which by the Gospel is preached unto you". Did you know that in many churches preaching is going out of vogue? Many people are saying, "Well, we don't want to hear preaching anymore. Give us plays, gives us dramas, give us pageants, gives us concerts". And those things all are fine. We do them here. They all have their place. But it is splendid nothing without the preaching of the Word of God. And no church will ever grow and prosper and be a New Testament church until the pulpit is central and the Gospel is central in the pulpit.
I was reading a church article written by a man who was a leader in his denomination. It was written in the church newspaper and this is what he said. Listen to this, "But that thing called preaching that we do on Sunday morning, I think is finished. I think that people will gather at the temple let's say, about every other week or once a month and on Easter and Christmas". He's just saying they're not coming anymore and preaching is finished. But I want to say this, that preaching the Gospel is not obsolete and it is not optional. And Vance Havner has well said, "My Bible does not say how shall they hear without a brass band, but it says, 'How shall they hear without a preacher".
We must, with a certain sound and a clear voice, articulate the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Word of God. It provides the church's message, the Gospel, it prescribes the church's method and that is the preaching of the Gospel. Let me give you some verses. First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, "For the preaching of the cross is to them which perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God". Listen to First Corinthians 1 verse 21, "For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe".
There is no substitute for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And because it provides the church's message, and because it prescribes the church's method, it provides the churches members. Look if you will in First Peter 1 verse 23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God". Now, a New Testament church must have a regenerated membership. To be born again is not optional, it's fundamental to having church membership. The church is a family and you get into a family by being born into a family. And in order to go to Heaven you must be born again. And if you're not born again you'll not see Heaven. If you're only born once, you'll die twice. The first death is the physical death, the second death is eternal death. But if you're born twice you can only die once. You can die physically but you cannot die eternally and you must be born again.
And Jesus told Nicodemus, "You must be born again". Well, how are you born again? Well, look in verse 23, the Bible says, "Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God". I've been preaching long enough to know that my illustration, my stories, my outlines don't give life. But the Word of God impregnates with life. You are born again by the Word of God. There is life in the Word of God. There is life-giving force in the Word of God. He says it's like a seed. "Not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible". A seed has a germ of life and that seed produces life that is inherent in the seed. And when the seed of God's Word gets into you and the Spirit of God breathes upon that then life comes forth.
That's the reason Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 63, "The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life". "The words that I speak unto you". Folks, this book is the Word of the King. It is the Word of the King. It is different than any other book. These words are alive. The Bible is, "Quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword". Hebrews 4:12. It gives life. That's the reason the apostle Paul spoke in Philippians 2:16 of his preaching as, "Holding forth the Word of Life". There is power in the Word of God. Any church will be a powerful church that makes much of the Word of the King. And we can never have Kingdom Authority, speak with authority, preach with authority, witness with authority, live with authority until we get under the authority of the Word of God. It is the incontestable Word of God.
Friend, it is the incorruptible Word of God. It is the indestructible Word of God. It is the indispensable Word of God. I hope you believe that. Do you? Now, if you believe that, if you believe that, if you believe it is the Word of the King, and you want kingdom authority, then you better hear what the King is saying and you better get under that authority because if you don't get under it, you will never be over those things that God wants you to be over.
I was reading an article by Billy Graham and I want you to listen to what he says. He's talking about Biblical authority in evangelism. And it's a lengthy article but I'm going to read from it. He says, "No one who once heard Jesus could ever again be the same. And what was the secret of this Master-Teacher? How did He hold those crowds spell-bound"? And then he quotes this, Matthew 7 verses 28 and 29, "'And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at His doctrine for He taught them as one having authority.'"
And then Billy Graham gives this testimony. He said, "In 1949, I had been having a great many doubts concerning the Bible. I thought I saw apparent contradictions in Scripture. Some things I could not reconcile with my restricted concept of God. When I stood up to preach, the authoritative note so characteristic of all great preachers of the past was lacking. Like hundreds of other young seminary students, I was waging the intellectual battle of my life. The outcome could certainly affect my future ministry. In August of that year, I had been invited to Forest Home, a Presbyterian conference center high in the mountains outside Los Angeles. I remember walking down a trail, tramping into the woods and almost wrestling with God. I dueled with my doubts and my soul seemed to be caught in the crossfire".
Now listen to this, "Finally, in desperation, I surrendered my will to the living God revealed in Scripture. I knelt before the open Bible and said, 'Lord, many things in this book I do not understand, but Thou hast said in Galatians 3:11, 'The just shall live by faith.' All I have received of Thee, I have taken by faith. Here and now by faith, I accept the Bible as Thy Word, I take it all, I take it without reservations. Where there are things I cannot understand, I will reserve judgment until I receive more light. If this pleases Thee, give me authority as I proclaim Thy Word, and through that authority convict me of sin and turn sinners to the Savior".
Then he went on to say this, "Within six weeks we started our Los Angeles crusade which is now history. During that crusade I discovered the secret that changed my ministry. I stopped trying to prove that the Bible was true. I had settled in my own mind that it was. And this faith was conveyed to the audience. Over and over again I found myself saying, 'The Bible says,' I felt as though I was merely a voice through which the Holy Spirit was speaking. Authority created faith, faith generated response, and hundreds of people were impelled to come to Christ. A crusade scheduled for three weeks lengthened to eight weeks with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance. The people were not coming to hear great oratory, nor were they interested merely in my ideas. I found they were desperately hungry to hear what God had to say through His Word. I felt as though I had a rapier in my hand and as though the power of the Bible was slashing deeply into men's consciences leading them to surrender to God. Does not the Bible say of itself in Hebrews 4:12, 'For the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' I found that the Bible became a flame in my hands. That flame melted away unbelief in the hearts of people and moved them to decide for Christ. The Word became like a hammer breaking up stoney hearts and shaping them into the likeness of God. Did not God say in Jeremiah 5:14, 'I will make My words in thy mouth fire,' and, 'Is not My word like as a fire and a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?'"
And then he went on to say, "It is my conviction that the preaching of the Gospel is to be authoritative if it is to produce conviction of sin, if it is to challenge men and women to walk in newness of life, if it is to be attended by the Spirit's power, then the Bible with it's discerning, piercing, burning message must become the basis of our preaching. I use the phrase, 'the Bible says,' because the Word of God is the authoritative basis of our faith".
Don't you like that? No wonder God has used Billy Graham. So many times I've heard him say, "The Bible says, the Bible says". and he is appealing to the Word of the King. What I'm saying is this, that the Word of the King provides the church with its message, the Gospel. It prescribes the method, the preaching of the Gospel, and it produces the membership. It is the Word of God that causes souls to be saved. You're born again by the Word of God. When you hear the truth of the Gospel, that, my friend, inculcates faith in your heart and in your life.
And I'm telling you if you want to believe you can believe because God will give you faith. And don't you ever say, "Well, it's not my fault that I don't have faith. Some people can believe and others cannot believe". The Bible says in Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God". Your problem is not intellectual. Billy Graham said, "When I surrendered my will I got it settled". Your problem is in your will. You don't have intellectual problems if you don't believe the Bible, you have moral problems. Your problem comes not out of your head, but out of your heart.
The Bible says in Hebrews 3:12, "Beware, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief". The Bible, the Word of God, inculcates faith in your heart, and if you want to know, you can know and your heart will respond to the Word of God like your eye responds to light when your eye is right, and your ear responds to sound when your ear is right. Your heart responds to the Word of God when you're ready to hear the Word of God. Would you open your heart today? Would you say:
Lord Jesus, I believe Your Word. I believe it when it teaches that You are the Son of God. I believe it when it teaches that You died upon the cross for my sin. I believe it when it teaches that You rose again from the dead. I believe it when it teaches if I will believe on You and trust You, You will save me and You said in Your Word, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,' and I do believe; Acts 16:31. I do trust You right now with all of my heart, once and for all, now and forever I receive You as my Lord and Savior and I stand upon Your Word.
Where are you going to get assurance? Where are you going to get assurance? You're not going to get assurance from your feelings. I got saved as a teenage boy but I didn't have assurance because I was looking into myself for that assurance. Sometimes I thought I was saved and sometimes I thought I was lost. I can remember stopping on the corner of 39th street and Calvin Ave. in West Palm Beach, FL on that corner a block from my girlfriend's house, the lady I'm now married to, and a block from my house. I'd walked Joyce home. It was a summer night, the stars were out in Florida. I was miserable. I did not have assurance. I wanted assurance. I began to pray; by then I had learned what the Gospel was all about.
I didn't bow my head, but I looked up into the sky, not out of arrogance, but I wanted to look into the face of God. And I said, "God, I don't know whether I'm saved and the devil is trying to make me doubt it or whether I'm lost and the Holy Spirit has me under conviction, but I know I don't have peace". And I quoted back to Him the Word of God that said in Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved". And I said, "God, this is Your Word. And right now, once and for all, now and forever, I'm going to stand on Your Word". And I looked up into the heavens and I said:
Lord, now, if I have never received You, I receive You this moment. Right now. If I've done it before, this won't take it away, but I'm driving down a peg right now. I'm standing on Your Word. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, save me. Thank You for doing it. I don't look for a sign, I don't ask for a feeling. I stand on Your Word.
And when I said that a river of peace began to flow in my heart. From that moment on I've had the blessed assurance that He lives in me because I stood not on my emotions, not on my good life, but on the Word of God. Jesus said in the Bible in John chapter 5 verse 24, "Verily, verily I say unto you 'He that heareth My Word and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.'"
John says in First John 5 verse 13, "These things have I written unto you that, 'Believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that you have eternal life.'" It is written that you might know. Friend, I'm telling you this, the Bible is the incontestable Word of God. It is the incorruptible Word of God. It is an in, indestructible Word of God, it is the indispensable Word of God. It produces the church's members. And when the Bible is preached, the Word of God is the seed that causes salvation. And God sent me here today to tell you that.
Would you bow your heads in prayer? While heads are bowed and eyes are closed, friend this is the Word of the King, not the word of the preacher, but the Word of the King, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. If you want to be saved, I want to help you to get saved right now. Would you just pray right now this prayer? If you're not absolutely certain that you're saved, you might be like I was on that street corner and you want to get it settled. Why don't you pray this way?
Dear God, I know that You love me and I know that You want to save me. Jesus, You died to save me. You promised to save me if I would trust You. I do trust You. I confess that I'm a sinner. I confess that my sins deserve judgment but I need mercy. I want to be saved. Thank You, Jesus, for paying for my sin. Thank You. Thank You that You took my sin to the cross. Thank You, Lord. I believe that God raised You from the dead and now by faith, I trust You. I receive You into my heart as my Lord and Savior. Once and for all, now and forever. And Lord, because You died for me, I'll live for You. And help me never, ever to be ashamed of You. Give me the courage to make this public, in Your Holy name I pray, Amen.