The Great Hindrance To Salvation
Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
(Loyal Pastor of First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana for over 42 years)
There are two salvations—the salvation of the soul and the salvation of the
life. The word "salvation" means "salvaging." God wants to salvage our soul for
Heaven and our life for service. The first is regeneration, which is done solely
by the Holy Spirit. It is not of the flesh; it is not of man. The second is
conversion, which is taking a soul that has been saved and converting its use so
that it may be recycled for its original purpose and fulfill the will and
purpose of God.
In salvation the will is involved. Revelation 22:17, "And the Spirit and the
bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Since the will
is that which chooses Christ, the right desires must be created so that the
right choices will be made. This is frightening because we decide on the basis
of what we think we need, Consequently, our "needer" must be in order.
Matthew
5:6, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled." Most people use a carnal decision-maker to satisfy carnal
appetites in looking for a church. Now if the appetite were spiritual, the
decision would be so much easier. It is not difficult to satisfy carnal
appetites in the church. If you have an appetite for carnal music, you can find
it easily, even in churches which call themselves fundamental. If you want a
carnal church program which appeals to the flesh, you will have no problem
finding that. Of course, the dangerous thing here is that the decisions
that affect us for life and eternity are often made because our appetites are
carnal. For example, we choose a church because it is friendly, because we like
the choir, because the preacher has a good vocabulary, with little or no thought
about the power of the Holy Spirit in the services or the zeal for souls or the
standards of separation, In other words, we choose an institution that is going
to affect our entire lives and, yes, our eternity, on the basis of satisfying
our carnal appetites.
One of the most important things that a Spirit-filled pastor has to do is to
lead his people to have the proper appetites. They must be taught and trained to
hunger and thirst after righteousness. Then, they can be filled. Then it is
important that the pastor satisfy that spiritual appetite with spiritual food. For a congregation to be fed and trained property, the church member's "needer"
must be in good repair and the Pastor's "feeder" must be in good repair. When
the church member enters the church auditorium and is properly prepared for the
service and hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and the pastor is walking
in the Spirit and is properly prepared, then his food will satisfy the appetites
of his people.
Our God reminds us, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end
thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12). For an unsaved man to use his
carnal nature in seeking the way of salvation is so dangerous! This is why his
loved ones and friends should bombard the throne of grace pleading for God to
work on his appetite and to give him a desire for the real Gospel so that real
Gospel can satisfy that spiritual desire, Psalm 19:14, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be
acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer." A good synonym
for the word "meditation" here would be "appetites."
"Let the words of my mouth
and the 'appetites' of my heart be acceptable in thy sight." Now notice
Psalm
37:4, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of
thine heart." When the child of God delights himself in the Lord, God will give
him his desires. Now the meaning of this passage could be twofold-that God
supplies the desires and then He also supplies the filling of those desires. He
first supplies what to want and then He supplies what you want.
This same thing could apply to Philippians 4:19, "But my God shall supply all
your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." My God will supply
all your needs. Perhaps it means He will supply the appetite or the presence of
the needs, and then He will supply the fulfillment of those needs.
Now look at Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy, and rind grace to help in time of need." Notice
especially the words, "grace to help in time of need." This could mean grace to
be helped. It also could mean grace to help others. In other words, when we come
to the throne of grace, He will help us, and He will also give us grace to help
others in their time of need.
It is so vital that any leader be not only a need-filler but a need-maker. It is
so easy for carnality to seek spirituality, both in the salvation of the soul
and in the salvation of the life. Now in the case of the salvation of the soul,
if the unsaved man has the proper appetite, it will be because his friends and
loved ones plead with God to give him the right desire for the true plan of
salvation. Then once a person is saved, as far as his soul is concerned, the
salvation of his life will depend on his walking in the Spirit so that God will
not only fulfill his needs but provide his needs; that is, God provides the
proper appetite so that He can provide the proper satisfaction and fulfillment
of that appetite.
Of course, one of the great secrets to this is found in John 15:7, "If ye abide
in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you." When we enter into His Word and His Word enters into us, when we
enter into Him Who has entered into us, when we abide in Him Who abides in us,
and we live in the Book that lives in us, then we will have the right appetites
and consequently seek the proper fulfillment of them. When a person gets out of
the Bible, his desires will be wrong. Notice in the last part of that verse that
when we do abide in Christ and His Word abides in us, we can ask what we will
and God will give it to us! The reason is, God knows that if we abide in Christ
and His Word abides in us, our wills will be sanctified and our wills will be
synchronized with His will. What a safeguard is the Word of God!
The world is filled with Christian people who have ceased to abide in Christ and
have neglected to let the Word of God abide in them and have left spiritual
churches for unspiritual ones, left spiritual music for carnal music and have
actually become worldly behind the facade of seeking the will of God. "I prayed
about it," they say, but that's premature! It doesn't say pray and then abide in
Christ and then let His Word abide in you. The abiding in Christ and His Word
abiding in you come before the prayer. Young people say, "I prayed about it, and
I believe I am to marry him," or "I prayed about it, and I believe I am to go to
a certain school," or "I have prayed about it, and I believe God wants me to go
into a certain profession." Oh, the folly of thinking that God will lead in
answer to our prayers when we do not abide in Him and His Word does not abide in
us! We come back to the old answer—the Word of God! When we walk with spiritual
giants of the past, travel down spiritual paths with them and learn of their
proper decisions, we are more qualified to want that which is best so that God
can give us a blank check or a carte blanche that we may ask what we will and
receive it. Unless we abide in Christ and His Word abides in us, we will not
have the spiritual depth to seek what we need or the spiritual discernment to
know the supply when we see it.
John 7:17, "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether
it be of God, of whether I speak of Myself." Notice here that the "do" comes
before the "know." This is still another way to avoid the hindrances to the
salvation of the soul and to the salvation of the life. We must do what we know
to do. If we do what we ought to do, we will know what we ought to know. In
other words, only when we obey God's commandments and His will can we know His
Word.
There are two parts to the will of God. There is the "where" of the will of God,
and there is the "what" of the will of God. We spend far too much time trying to
find the "where" instead of the "what." We are supposed to do what God wants us
to do, and we are supposed to do it where He wants us to do it. These are the
two parts of the will of God. In a college, students are always wanting to know
the will of God. What they usually mean is, they want to know where they are
supposed to go to serve, but to them, the where is more important than the serving. All over this world missionaries and full-time Christian workers are in the very
place that God wants them, but they are not doing in that place what God wants
them to do. The "where" is fine, but the "what" is wrong. I would rather be
doing what He wants me to do in the wrong place than doing the wrong thing where
He wants me to be. Now ideally a person should be where God wants him doing what
God wants him to do.
The emphasis here is that the what comes before the where. We spend our time
trying to find where we should be first and then find what we should do there. Our first priority should be to find what we should do and do it. Then we should
find where we should do it, If God wanted me to be in California, I would rather
be in Maine doing what God wants me to do than in California not doing what He
wants me to do. I would rather be soul winning in the wrong place than be in the
right place and not be soul winning.
God is a God of divine order, and if our priorities are in order, we can have
the appetites that God wants us to have.
John 15:1-7, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch
in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth
fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean
through the Word Which I have spoken unto you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye,
except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in
Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do
nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is
withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it
shall be done unto you."
Now notice God's divine order. Open your Bible to that passage in John 15:1-7.
Circle the word "fruit" in verse 2 and write a (1) beside it. Circle the word "purgeth"
in verse 2 and write a (2) beside it. Now circle the words "more fruit" in verse
2 and write a (3) beside them.
Now circle the words "abideth in me and I in him" in verse 5 and write a (4)
beside them. Now circle the words "much fruit" in verse 5 and write a (5) beside
them. Now circle the words "My words" in verse 7 and write a (6) beside them. Now circle the word "ask" in verse 7 and write a (7) beside it. Here is God's
divine order. The goal is to arrive at verse 7 to where God can trust us to ask
what we want to ask because He knows our appetites are spiritual enough to where
He can give us a blank check.
How do we get to this place to where our appetites are proper and God can trust
them? We get there according to the order mentioned. First, we bear fruit. Second, we are purged or separated. Third, we bring forth more fruit. Fourth, we
abide in Christ. Fifth, we bring forth much fruit. Sixth, the Word of God is
open to us. Seventh, our appetites are so spiritual that God can trust them. Notice several things about this passage.
1. Fruit comes immediately after salvation.
It also comes before separation. When a person is saved, he may not know what is sinful and what is not. Perhaps
he has not heard preaching or read spiritual literature, but he does find out
that he is a sinner, that sinners are lost, that the virgin-born sinless Christ
died a vicarious death for him and was raised for his justification, and that if
he would trust Christ and what Christ did for him, he can be saved. A person may
do this and be genuinely saved and not know that some of his habits are wrong.
For example, not long ago I was soul winning and won a lady to' Christ. She was
so happy. She had the assurance that she was saved. I and she were about to shout,
She said, "Wait a minute. " She ran into the" kitchen, got a bottle of liquor,
opened it, poured some for me and, some for her and said, "Praise God! Let's
drink a toast to My salvation!" Does that mean she wasn't saved? Of course not. No doubt: she was genuinely converted, but she did not know enough about right,
and wrong to be purged or separated. She asked me to come back and talk to her
husband. I did go back, and that night he was saved. Actually, she about won him
to Christ before I got there. Now she was a soul winner, but she was not yet
separated.
The woman at Sychar's well who came to Christ immediately ran back to the city
to witness for Him.
2. When God sees a Christian bearing fruit, He purges him.
In other words, God
convicts him of that which is wrong, and he becomes separated.
3. This separation now enables him to bring forth more fruit. Preachers who preach
you cannot win souls until you are separated are wrong. However, you can't win
more souls until you are separated. Separation follows fruit bearing, but it
precedes more fruit bearing.
4. After more fruit bearing, a person comes to the place where he abides in
Christ.
In other words, he walks with God and lives with God, and Christ is his
life. Then God honors him by allowing him to bear much fruit. Notice now that we
have three fruit bearers: some bearing fruit, some bearing more fruit and some
bearing much fruit. Here is a church having a soul-winning night. Different
people come. Here is a person who is not separated. He is a new Christian, but
he has been told that even new Christians should witness. He comes to bring
forth fruit. Sitting beside him is a Christian who has learned what is wrong and
has separated himself from the world. He comes soul winning that night to bring
forth much fruit. Sitting beside him is a Christian who has not only been
separated but he is abiding in Christ. He not only refrains from doing that
which he should not do, but his entire life is built upon that which he should
do. He walks with God. He comes to visitation to bring forth much fruit.
Isn't that wonderful? God enables every Christian who so desires to bring forth
fruit!
5. It is noteworthy that every other thing on God's list of growth in grace has
to do with fruit bearing.
First fruit, then separation, then more fruit, then
abiding in Christ, then much fruit. It looks like the entire Christian life is
built around some degree of bearing fruit.
6. Much fruit is followed by the understanding of the Word of God.
That takes us
back to our original passage. Notice again John 7:17, "If any man will do His
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of
Myself." Once we have done His will; that is, the bringing forth of much fruit,
we can then know the Word of God. It is interesting that the Word of God follows
the much fruit.
7. Then comes asking what we will.
Notice the word "will" in John
15:7. That takes us back to the beginning of this chapter. Since our decisions
are made by the will, we need to have a sanctified will. This will can be so
sanctified when we have brought forth fruit, become separated, brought forth
more fruit, lived in Christ and walked with Him, then brought forth much fruit,
and abided in the Word of God. Then our will is sanctified! We will know our
needs and our appetites so we can come to God and freely ask what we will, and
He is assured that we will ask for the right things. So we must create the right
appetite in the sinner for the first salvaging. This is done by preaching to
him the Word of God and pleading with God to give him the right appetites. Then
we must create the right appetite in the saint for the second salvaging. This
likewise is done by the Word of God, but that Word can only be understood after
we have done what He tells us to do.
Because of this, any one of us in a place of leadership--whether it is a pastor
leading a church, parents leading a child, a teacher leading a class or a
principal leading a school-must lead our followers to have the proper appetites
so that their will can choose the proper fulfillment of those appetites. This
means we should stress to them again and again to obey the command of God, do
what He says to do, and once you have done what He says to do, then live in the
Book, for He will reveal His truths to you.
Not long ago someone was talking about our teenage bus kids at First Baptist
Church. Now I love these young people very much, and I am very proud of them. Someone who noticed the bus kid's zeal (brought about because the church and
God's work is new to them) compared this zeal with the seeming complacency of
the young people in our church who have grown up here, and said, "I believe the
bus teenagers will turn out better than our own young people who have grown up
in the church." I told them that could not be true, for we have taken young
people for many years and taught them to go soul winning and to do what God says
to do. We have bathed them in the Word of God. They have been taught the Bible,
and though it may become routine to them, the Bible is still there! The Word is
hidden in their hearts, and their appetites have been created by obedience to
the
Word and knowing the Word. This sanctifies their will, and in the long run,
they have the best chance to be doing what God wants them to do where God wants
them to be.
More Life Changing Sermons by Dr. Jack Hyles:
Do you know for sure that if you died today, you would go to Heaven? You can know! Click Here to find out how!
"I am an old-fashioned preacher of the old-time religion, that has
warmed this cold world's heart for two thousand years."
—Billy Sunday
