The average person when asked, "what must I do to be saved?" will answer, usually, "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." But isn’t there more involved than that? We shall see as we take this plan and simple study together. Let us see the true condition of every person when born into this world. We read in Psalm 51:5, "Behold I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." That verse of Scripture used to worry me a lot as a child. I kept wanting to know, "why was I born in iniquity and why did my mother conceive me in sin?" We must turn to Genesis for the answer. Let us read Genesis 2:7, "And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Now verses 15-17 in Genesis, third chapter:

And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Then In Genesis 3:1-7:

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

That sin of Adam and Eve brought death, spiritual death, which is separation from God. Darkness came between man and God because of that sin, and in God’s sight the soul of that man died. Now you can understand Romans 5:12, "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned."

From the time that Adam and Eve sinned, death entered. Sin and death have always been linked together. Sin earns death. Every person born into this world from Cain down to now, has been born in sin. "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Understand that we are not born in sin because of anything we have done, but because of what Adam and Eve did when they transgressed the Word of God. "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none that understandeth, There is none that seeketh after God: They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable; There is none that doeth good, no not so much as one" (Rom. 3:10,11).

So that means that a person could keep all the Ten Commandments, could live morally, never lie, never steal, live as pure as a lily and die and go to Hell? That is what God says. None of us has anything to offer God, in the way of goodness. I know it riles some people to tell them that they are unrighteous, unholy and defiled when they come into this world, but that is exactly what God has said about everyone of us. There is no use to get angry with the preacher.

You can’t change the Bible. You can, but you had better not. You are not to sit in judgment upon it, but let it judge you. So you stand unclean, unholy and completely rotten when you come into the world. God says so!

Then you ask, "Is there any hope for me?"

Yes, there is plenty of hope, and it is found in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

When Jesus died on the cross, all of our sins were nailed to Him. Not only the sin of Adam, but all sins -past, present and future.

Now you raise the question, "What about a little baby that has been born in sin. Suppose it dies, where will its soul go?"

If that little baby dies before reaching the age of accountability, which is the age to know right from wrong, that baby’s soul will go to heaven. Why? When Jesus died on the cross He died for the sin of which that little baby is guilty, the Adamic sin. Since that baby inherited that sin, and knows nothing of that sin and does not know that it is guilty before God, if it dies, it will go to be with Jesus. That is God’s grace extended to that little baby. Understand, the baby does not go to heaven because of anything it has done, nor because of anything you have had done to it. That baby goes to heaven because of what Jesus did for it on the cross.

You immediately ask, "Then there is no need for me to have my baby sprinkled?" Of course not. And furthermore, it isn’t taught in the Bible. That is a dangerous practice. Why? Because you cannot MAKE anyone a Christian, and you are liable to lead that child to believe later on in life that it is saved because of what you did for it. Thus you take Christ completely out of the picture, and claim that Jesus was able to die for sin, but not for ALL sin. If Jesus did not die for the sin of which that little babe is guilty, then He did not die for any sin. It was the sin of Adam that brought Jesus into the world. It is that sin that the baby is guilty of’, and it was atoned for by Jesus on Calvary.

Where did we get the idea of sprinkling infants? It came from the paganism of the Chaldeans. It was practiced long before Christianity came into the world by Christ’s offering. It was brought over into the Roman Church and included in its program. It was never heard of or practiced in a New Testament Baptist church. We practice only what is taught in the Word of God. There is enough in the Bible that we are told to do, without adding some pagan worship to it.

But suppose the child doesn’t die? Then there will come a day when that child will reach the age of accountability, and know that it is a sinner. That child will know that Jesus died on the cross for him, and that he is a sinner before God. Until a child does know this, he cannot be saved.

How old does a child have to be before knowing this? I do not know. We do not know the age. But when that child comes to know that he is a sinner, and that Jesus died for him, then something will take place. That child will either become a child of God, or a child of Satan. Suppose that child says, "I will not trust Jesus now, but will a little later." What happens? That child at once does three things.

First—chooses Satan as the father of its soul. John 8:44:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.

We see from this that we are not born into the world as a child of God, neither are we born as a child of the Devil. We are born into the world, in "sin." It is the Adamic sin. But Jesus has atoned for that sin, and therefore the child does not have to be born a child of God at birth, for the grace of God has taken care of that sin. This kills the idea of the "Universal Fatherhood of God" theory.

And neither are we born a child of Satan. We become that, by rejecting Jesus as the Savior of our soul. So we cannot blame God for what we are! If we are lost, it is because we refused to accept Jesus; if we are saved it is because we by faith accepted Jesus in our hearts.

Second—when that child rejects Jesus, he comes under the wrath of God. We read in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the WRATH OF GOD ABIDETH ON HIM."

Third—that child comes under the sentence of condemnation. We read in John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

This is the condition of everyone reading this who has not trusted Jesus as a personal Savior. Let me now answer some questions. Who placed you in the hands of Satan? Who put you under the wrath of God? Who placed you under condemnation? Just one person. You yourself. The latter part of John 3:18, "He that believeth not is condemned already." So it is not a question of your goodness or meanness; not a question of your morality or immorality. It is YOUR UNBELIEF.

Is there any hope for a person who has rejected Jesus Christ? Yes. Your first rejection may not be final. The Holy Spirit may call you once to come to Christ, or He may call you many times. This is the reason I plead with you to trust Jesus, the very moment that you know you are a sinner and lost before God. You cannot say you don’t know you are a sinner, because it is for that very reason that the Holy Spirit has been sent. Listen to John 16:8-11:

And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

When I know I am a sinner, "What must I do to be saved?" The Devil has built a bulwark around God’s plan of redemption! Let us consider just a few of the things that the Devil has added to God’s plan of salvation. Here are some things you do not have to do to be saved:

You don’t have to PRAY to be saved. I have never understood why a person would think they had to ask God for something which He has been offering them for over nineteen hundred years. You don’t ask for salvation, you take it. Salvation is a gift, not something you work for or ask for. Suppose I offered you a twenty-dollar bill, and you were in need of it. I tell you the only thing you have to do to get it is to come and take it. You start for it, and then suddenly stop and fall to your knees and commence to cry, "Brother Gibson, give me that twenty dollars!" I would think you had suddenly gone berserk. What do you think God thinks of a person who begs for salvation? It is offered, so just TAKE it and you have it.

You don’t have to get a SECOND BLESSING to be saved; you don’t talk in unknown tongues to be saved. The fact of the matter is, there is no such thing as unknown tongues mentioned in the Bible. The translation in the Greek is "other languages." You don’t have to get RELIGION to be saved. You don’t have to be GOOD to be saved; not get BETTER; not REFORM. You don’t have to be BAPTIZED to be saved; nor JOIN A CHURCH; nor HAVE FEELING; nor DO GOOD WORKS. You don’t have to LEARN A CATECHISM to be saved; nor take COMMUNION; nor be CONFIRMED. Neither do you have to be TWELVE YEARS OLD or have your FEET WASHED. After all the above propaganda, the marvel to me is, that as many people are saved, as are saved.

Did any of the above-mentioned things die for you? Of course not. Do they have blood in them? Of course not. Then how will you explain Hebrews 9:22? "And according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."

It’s all in the BLOOD OF JESUS!

You ask, "THEN WHAT MUST I DO?!!

It is so simple that the smallest child may know what to do. Let us read Acts 20:21, "Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."

You notice two words, "Repentance and Faith." Which comes first? Repentance! Repentance means literally, "a change of mind or attitude toward God, toward Christ, toward sin and toward self." When you do this, you are ready to turn to the One who can save your soul.

There is a word which never should have been carried over . into the plan of salvation. That word is "believe." So many think that if they "believe" in Jesus that they will be saved. We know this is not true. Let me illustrate what I mean. The Bible says, "he that ‘trusteth’" in Jesus is not condemned. To TRUST is one thing, and to BELIEVE is another. You can BELIEVE without TRUSTING. Too, you can BELIEVE without REPENTING, but you cannot TRUST until you REPENT! [For a full discussion of this subject, read Faith and The Faith by T.T. Eaton].

Many believe that Jesus is the son of God, but believing that, they are on the road to Hell. Hell is full of people who have died believing that Jesus was the Son of God. The word is not believe—but trust.

Often I have illustrated it to an audience by the use of a chair. I take a chair that I have never sat in and place it in front of me. I look the chair over. I examine it thoroughly and am convinced that it is able to hold me. I believe that it will. Yet I still remain on the platform. So with a lost soul. They hear about Jesus, and they examine Him and come to know that He is able to save them, and they believe sincerely that He can. But they still remain in their sin. I examine the chair again and find it is well constructed and is able to do, I believe, what it was built to do. But I remain on the platform! So with the unsaved, they examine the Bible and find from it that God is able to hold them. His Son, that He gave to die on the cross, is well able to do that for which He was sent—to save sinners! But the unsaved man, believing all of this, is still lost.

Using the chair I ask the question. What am I going to have to do if that chair is to hold me? Immediately the answer is, "Trust it." So I leave the platform and step onto the chair. Now the chair is able to hold me because I have trusted it. The plan of salvation is that simple.

Here is Jesus Christ. He comes to you and says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth (trusteth) in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." The moment you commit yourself to Him, He will save you. So it makes no difference what you believe about Jesus—have you TRUSTED HIM?

Now I could not commit myself to the chair until I left the platform. So with the unsaved. You cannot TRUST Jesus until you repent and are willing to leave the old life. So you see you can believe without repenting, but you cannot trust until you do repent.

Isn’t it simple? Yes, you reply. Then, why don’t you trust Him right now as you read this? May I close with this passage from Romans 10:9-11:

Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth (trusteth) on him shall not be put to shame.

Don’t turn your back on Jesus any longer. Settle NOW the destiny of your soul. May God help you to do it, is my prayer for all you who read.