9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

As the Lord allows, this coming Lord’s Day morning, July 28^th, I will continue my series on Bible Doctrines with the first of five messages on the Doctrines of Salvation!

These five messages will conclude this series. Next, I am planning a series of sermons from the first eleven Chapters of Genesis. I hope you will begin now to read over (and over and over) these Chapters and take note of issues and questions about which you would like to study. You input is always appreciated and will be most welcome.

For this week, I want to focus on “the basic of the basics” about the doctrines of salvation… i.e., that salvation is only found in the Word of God.

Christians have always believed that the Bible is the one and only sufficient guide to God’s plan of salvation. All one needs to know to be saved is contained in the pages of scripture, and what one needs to know to be saved is found nowhere else but in the scripture!

Surely… surely… surely, this is the most vitally important of all Bible Doctrines. Whether or not one is saved is the most important issue in life and how to know the answer to that question is the most important thing one can settle.

And, as the Lord allows, I intend to settle it for you over these coming five weeks.

God’s living and holy Word is infallible and always accomplishes that for which God sends it out. This is true because God chose to decree it to be so. His Word may not always accomplish what you or I want it to do at a particular moment, but it never fails to do what He has decreed that it will do.

The Bible is truth. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Therefore, it is the truth about salvation. If one is to be saved, they must be saved the way the Bible says one must be saved. Or, they will not be saved.

Salvation is a gift of God and cannot be produced, (or even helped along) by human works. We cannot earn God’s favor, His mercy, His grace, or salvation.

He has decreed to save His people and the way He has chosen to do that is by exposure to His Word. When God decreed anything, He decreed it and the means by which it will come to pass. This is also true of salvation.

And the means by which He has chosen to save sinners is that they come to hear the plan of salvation given in Scripture.

In our focal passage, please carefully and prayerfully think through three specific ideas: God’s Plan, Promise, and Process of saving sinners.

Pray that the Lord will use this sermon to bring unsaved people to saving faith and to give life-long assurance of salvation to those of us who already know Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!