Men Want To Buy Salvation

Acts 15:1, “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.” Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

I would like to read a wonderful quote to you from Dr. Bob Jones Sr. (1883-1968) ...

“Men want to buy salvation. That is what is the matter with the world now. It is trying to find the means by which it can earn something that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to give away. The average man has an idea something like this: The angels are keeping the books up in Heaven. If he does a good deed it goes in one column. If he does a bad deed if goes in another column. When he dies the angels will add up the columns. If the good outweighs the bad he will go to Heaven. If the bad outweighs the good, he will go to hell. That is the idea the average man has. But that isn't so. You don't go to Heaven for doing good deeds and you don't go to hell just because you do something bad.

As a matter of fact, if you are a sinner you can't do good deeds. The Bible says that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” The Bible says that though I give my body to be burned and do many other things and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. It may do somebody else some good. You might give this college a million dollars and be a sinner and die and go to hell. It wouldn't do you one bit of good as far as your salvation is concerned to give this college a million dollars. It might do somebody else some good. It profits me nothing to do good deeds if I am not righteous. The verse doesn't say it won't profit anybody else. It profits me nothing, even if I give all I have and then let my body be burned.”

...all this is talk about a man's earning salvation. You can't earn it. You can't pay for it after you get it! You can't buy it. Nobody could buy salvation except Jesus, and He paid for it with His blood. You can't buy it; and it is a cinch you can't steal it! Now, if you ever get it, you must get somebody to give it to you. And I can tell you Who can do it. I found Him when I was eleven years old and He gave me eternal life. There are millions on earth to whom Jesus has given eternal life. 

...If you think you can buy it, you don't have it. “In my hand no price I bring,” is the testimony of every saved person. “All my righteousness is as filthy rags,” is the language of a man who knows God. You can't earn it. You can't pay for it. Nobody has it for sale. If you could pay for it you couldn't buy it. God is the only One who has it, and He has never sold it. “The wages of sin is death.” The devil pays the wages. You can buy death. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” but “The gift of God is eternal life.” —Dr. Bob Jones Sr., “Things I Have Learned: Chapel Talks,” page 217-220; Bob Jones University Press, ©1945

Amen and amen! I love the simplicity in which Dr. Bob Jones Sr. writes. He doesn't mention anywhere in his entire book that you must “turn from your sins” to be saved. This heresy of “repent of your sins” to be saved is foreign to the Scriptures. I heard the audio sermon of Pastor Marty Herron shamefully preaching this very heresy, at the Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana on November 17, 2019. Ladies and gentleman, you don't have to “repent of your sins” to receive God's free gift of eternal life. That is exactly what the Bible teaches in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” If a person must repent (turn away from) of their sins to be saved, then it cannot be a gift. 

I heard Pastor Herron in person, while attending the now spiritually defunct Harvest Baptist Church on Guam for a year in 2014, say from the pulpit to several hundred people on a Sunday morning: “It is not enough to admit that you are a sinner, you must also turn away from a lifestyle of sin to be saved.” Pastor Herron is not saved! You just heard Dr. Bob Jones Sr. say it himself: “...If you think you can buy it, you don't have it.” I love something that Pilgrim's progress author, John Bunyan (1628-1688), said:

“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” [emphasis added] —Evangelist John Bunyan

The increasingly popular fallacy of Lordship Salvation combines, confuses and confounds sanctification with justification, casting stumbling blocks before the people, so that they cannot be born-again. Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life, without ever being born-again. This is what Seventh-Day Adventism is all about. Tragically, Dr. Steve Pettit (president of Bob Jones University since 2014) teaches the same Lordship Salvation garbage as does Miss Ellen G. White. They are both hellbound heretics!

Folks, Jesus said that He spit the church of Laodicea out of His mouth. The Lord didn't even want to mention their name, because it disgusted Him so much! Revelation 3:15-16, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” I can't think of anything more lukewarm than these neo-evangelical churches today, like the Harvest Baptist Church on Guam, who straddle the fence between a free grace Gospel and Lordship Salvation. 

On their website Harvest superficial claims to believe in a free grace Gospel, but on their KHMG 88.1 FM radio station they promote Pacific Garden Mission's Unshackled, Bob Jones University's The Daily Platform, and Moody Bible Institute (who publish Dr. John MacArthur's Calvinist books). All of the ministries I just mentioned teach hardcore Lordship Salvation, which is not the Gospel of free grace! The Lord absolutely rejected the lukewarm compromising of the Laodicean church. If the Lord made a big fuss over their lukewarm attitude toward works, how much more then does God make a fuss over the Gospel?

Men want to buy salvation. That is the title of my article. That is what Dr. Bob Jones Sr. rightly said in the intriguing quote I shared with you. Men want to buy salvation! And if they don't outright frontload the Gospel, by requiring some form of payment (works) to obtain salvation; then they'll rearload the Gospel, by requiring some form of payment (works) to prove that you really have it. This is a false plan of salvation, which cannot produce the new birth.

I heard Charles Lawson, pastor of the Temple Baptist Church in Knoxville, criticizing Pastor Jack Hyles, accusing him of leaving off repentance. Kindly said, Pastor Lawson speaks as a fool, and has no idea what he is doing theologically. Charles Lawson is a stinking Calvinist! Here is what Brother Hyles actually believes:

Lordship salvation would make salvation a trade or a deal or maybe even a bribe. It would take away the simple reception of Christ for eternal life and would become God giving us something if we give Him something. God would say to us, “You give Me something; I'll give you something. We will trade, and you will be saved.” Salvation is not my giving God something and God giving me something; salvation is God giving me something and my receiving it. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Lordship Salvation” (chapter 11 from his book: “Salvation Is More Than Being Saved”)

Dr. Jack Hyles 100% correctly and Biblically states concerning repentance:

“Repentance is not some little silly, 'I'm sorry.' Repentance is not simply a fear of God. Repentance is not a monk fasting and afflicting his body in a monastery. Repentance is not remorse because of sin's consequences. Repentance is not penance performed before the pope as you kiss his toe... Repentance is not being sorry for what I've done wrong. It is not confessing one's sins to a priest. It is not just conviction of sin. It is not the signing of a pledge of abstinence. Repentance is that thing when you come before God and see yourself as you are, and see Him as he is, and say with Isaiah 'Woe is me, for I am unclean!'” —Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001), a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon, 'THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADETH TO REPENTANCE!'

Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) offers these excellent helpful words on repentance:

“There is no promise in the Bible to those who partially believe on Christ. The promise is to those who believe on Him. We cannot trust Jesus 90% and something else 10%; we must fully trust Him, Him alone and nothing else, for salvation.  

Since Jesus did not use the word 'repent' in telling Nicodemus how to be born again, then we must reach one of three conclusions. First, repentance is not necessary to salvation; second, repentance is necessary for salvation and Jesus didn't tell Nicodemus how to be saved; third, repentance is necessary to salvation and is included in the word 'believe' which Jesus did use time and time again in this chapter. The correct conclusion, of course, is that repentance is necessary to salvation and is included in 'believe.' A man cannot trust Christ without repenting.” —Pastor Curtis Hutson, 'Repentance: What Does The Bible Teach?'

May that finally lay to rest the debate over repentance and Lordship Salvation. Lordship Salvation is of the Devil, a counterfeit gospel. Repenting of one's sins to be saved is not taught in the Bible. You simply come to God as a needy sinner, receiving Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins, believing that He was buried, but three days later raised up from the dead! Men want to buy salvation, but you cannot, because Jesus is giving eternal life away for free “TO THEM THAT BELIEVE” (1st Corinthians 1:21b).