5.11 - CAN A MAN BE SAVED OUTSIDE OF THE CHURCH?

CAN A MAN BE SAVED OUTSIDE OF THE CHURCH?

Once again, friends, do I appreciate fully the presence of such a fine audience. I am reading to you just one verse, Ephesians 5:23, "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body." I want you to let that text register with you because it embodies the idea that I expect to develop tonight. So once again for emphasis let me read: "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of the body." I have suggested for consideration a question which is discussed by many people. Can a man be saved outside of the church as well as within it? I believe this question should demand your serious consideration. Perhaps religion is unlike any other matter in one respect. I doubt if there is a man living, in what we call an intelligent land, but has some idea and opinion about religion. And, as a rule, the less he knows about the Bible, the louder is his expression of his opinion. I really think that we ought not to express our opinion about things concerning which we know practically nothing. If a man were to call upon me for an opinion regarding some problem about which I knew nothing, I think propriety would suggest that I refrain from giving him one. So anxious is the world to hear the opinions of men that it is not at all infrequent that we find in the papers the views of some great man upon religious topics. Mr. Edison, for instance, used to be called upon thus to express himself, likewise, Mr. Henry Ford and others prominent in various fields. Clarence Darrow, an agnostic and an opponent of God’s truth, carried great weight in his expression of his opinion. It is not uncommon to hear opinions expressed about everything. As a sample of what I have in mind, this is heard—viz., "There is nothing whatever in a name. It makes no never-mind what name you have."

I do not believe a man would say that about anything else in the world except religion. I almost shudder at any boy or girl, man or woman, making such a thoughtless statement—nothing in a name? Well, all of us know that a good name is the greatest asset any person can have. It is better than great riches. Another such casual remark is that "one church is as good as another." Just what does such an expression portray to a Bible student? It is certain that the one who so says is almost wholly ignorant of what the word of God teaches. Men who know the truth, and have a right to speak, are never guilty of such a foolish expression. My friends, do you candidly think that God Almighty is back of all the churches in this land when they differ in origin, in doctrine, and in practice? With the distinct understanding that all denominations are purely of human origin, I would subscribe to the statement that one is as good as another or that one is as bad as another. But if you refer to things sacred and things found in the Bible, all such expressions are absolutely foreign to anything that God Almighty ever authorized. Many people will say: "Well, it doesn’t make any difference to me. I would just as soon join one church as another." Friends, if I were in the "joining" business, I might say the same thing. But let me announce to you that which may startle some who are not familiar with Bible teaching. I never "joined" any church in all my life. And yet this is the seventh time I have held meetings in Nashville. People have favored me with their presence and I have been free to tell them time and again that I never joined the church in my life. You have a right to ask why. I answer: I have regard for God’s Word and respect for His teaching. And I know that neither God nor Christ nor the Holy Spirit nor any man inspired ever said one word on earth about anybody’s "joining" any church. Such an expression is not in the Bible from beginning to end. I am not offering criticism upon those who have done so. They did it ignorantly and in unbelief of the truth, and there’s a possibility of pardon at the hands of God for so doing. You might ask: "If you never did join the church, are you a member?"

Certainly I propose to be, and have so claimed for a number of years. And then the question naturally comes: "How did you become a member, if you never did join it?" Every gospel preacher has illustrated. I became a member of the church of the Lord, God’s family, just as I became a member of my earthly father’s family. Now if you can figure it out how it was possible for me to become a member of the Hardeman family and yet never join it, I think the light of truth will begin to dawn upon you. I do not hesitate to tell you that forty-seven years ago—and then some I was born into my earthly father’s family of flesh and blood, and the very minute, the very second, that I opened my eyes to the light of God’s physical day, I was then and there a member of the Hardeman family. I became a member of the church of the Lord, my heavenly Father’s family, the very same way—that is, by a birth, not of flesh and blood, however, but by a birth of "water and of the Spirit." "But water does not mean water." Now let me ask why does anyone say that? Why does not God mean what He says? If He does not, how can you tell what He means? Let us not tamper with God’s Word and try to evade it to save some human theory. All such remarks as I have suggested but demonstrate the lack of familiarity with the Bible on the part of those who talk so loosely and so flippantly about things sacred. Friends, can a man be saved outside of the church as well as within it? Suppose you pass down any of the streets of Nashville and ask passers-by a question of that kind. I believe I am safe in saying nine out of ten possibly will say: "Why, sure, a man doesn’t have to become a member of the church in order to be saved. The church never did save anybody." That is just as common as can be, and lots of good moral people are thoroughly sold on the idea that salvation is not in the church and a man can be saved as well without it as within it. Just what do they mean by that? When a man makes that statement, he thinks the church is some human denomination; and when he says he can be saved without becoming a member of it, he is telling a wonderful truth. I think a man can be saved outside of a denomination. There is no argument with me about that, but when you reverse the statement it brings on more serious thought. Can a man be saved in a denomination? There is no doubt about his being saved outside of one, but the serious question is: Can a man be saved in a denomination? It certainly is in order now to ask: ""Why did God send His Son from heaven to earth, to suffer, sorrow, bleed, and die a shameful death that he might establish the church, and after having so done, it makes no difference with a man’s salvation?" He can be saved without it as well as within it. Don’t you see the consequences of a statement of that kind? But, someone will doubtless say: “I don’t believe the church saves anybody." Well, I don’t either. There are three questions that ought to challenge attention. First, who is the Savior of mankind? And, of course, the answer is Jesus, the Christ, and there is salvation in none other. Christ is the Savior. Now, the second question: when is a man saved? Well, here is the answer, and you dare not gainsay it—when he hears the gospel of God’s Son, believes it and obeys it. Christ said in his farewell message to mankind: "He that believeth [the gospel] and is baptized shall be saved." Now, never mind your opinion; you know that is what Christ said. The third question is: where does Christ save? You heard me read: "As the husband is the head of the wife, so Christ also is the head of the church, and the saviour of the body." Lord, what do you save? “I save the body." But what is the body? Colossians 1:18 : "He is the head of the body, the church." Where is salvation? In the church of the Lord. Who saves? Christ does. When? When we obey his gospel. Friends, those are simple questions and the answers are complete. The progress of all the centuries cannot set them aside. They will confront every generation that is born upon this earth. Let us consider our question from another angle. If a man can be saved outside of the church as well as within it, that is equivalent to saying that he can be saved without the merits of the blood of Christ. But apart from the blood of Christ, there is absolutely no salvation. Now I raise the point: where did the blood of Christ go? In Acts 20:28 Paul addressed the elders of the church and he said to them: "Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the church of the Lord, which he purchased with his own blood." Now, I ask you, what became of the blood that coursed the veins of the Son of God? When that Roman soldier injected the spear, that blood freely flowed. Christ shed his blood, and it went into the purchase of the church of the Lord. Now, I ask, how much of the blood of Christ went to the purchase of the church? Every particle of it. Therefore, if I ever get the benefit of the blood of Christ, I must get that benefit where the blood went. I wonder if I could illustrate what I am trying to put across to you. Suppose that I had just ten dollars and that I went to the store and bought this coat. I put every penny of my ten dollars into this coat; none of it went anywhere else. Does it not follow that if I ever get the benefit of that ten dollars, I must get it out of this coat? There it went and its benefit can be had nowhere else. I surely would be uneasy about myself if I could not understand that. Now, friends, where did the blood of Christ go? Into the purchase of the church. "But," says one, “I can be saved outside of the church." Then you have no need and no benefit whatsoever from the blood of Christ, and you are saying that sins may be forgiven without the blood of Christ, and Paul specifically says that without the shedding of blood there is no remission. That did not and could not refer to any blood save that of Jesus Christ because the blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away sin. I want you to hear it. That is not nearly it. That is it, and no man can argue otherwise. But again, if a man is saved by the blood of Christ, it follows that he must come in contact with the blood. And, hence, I raise the point: just where can I meet the blood of Christ and have it applied as the Bible suggests? Let me read to you from Rom. 6: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Now watch it. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Where do we get the blood of Christ’ The answer is: "In his death." How do we get into his death? Now Paul said: We are "baptized into his death." There the blood was shed and there the contact is made. "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death." There we meet the blood, and then come forth from the watery grave to walk in a new life, and we can then truly sing, "I’ve been redeemed by the blood, I’ve been washed in that fountain filled with the precious blood of the Son of God." Hence, I am a newborn babe; I have been born again of water and of the Spirit into the family of God and the blood of His Son has cleansed me from all sins. But again, the church and the kingdom are one and the same. If a man, therefore, can be saved outside of the church, that means that he can be saved outside of the kingdom of God—that is, he can be saved without pledging allegiance to, or bowing in submission to, the King of kings and Lord of lords. But since there are just two kingdoms on earth—1. e., the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil, it follows that if a man can be saved outside of the church, he can be saved in the territory of the devil, and that is nothing short of an insult to every truth found in God’s Book. What do you think about all this now? Once more, the church of the Bible is called God’s family. If a man can be saved outside of the church, he can then be saved in the devil’s family, because there are just two families on earth. Friends, where is salvation? Do you think that God has children in the devil’s family? When a man talks about one’s being saved outside of God’s family, he is preaching the doctrine of the devil, and he is encouraging membership in the devil’s family. Does God have any children outside of His family? Can a man be saved while yet in the family of the devil? Friends, when I talk about the church, please remember that I am not talking about some human organization, some little narrow, swivelled-up, penned-off denomination with a human name and a man-made creed that has to be revised and amended every time a great meeting of that body is assembled. I have no reference to any such whatsoever. The church of the Bible is not a distant relative to an imitation of anything that looks like a human denomination. Hence, when I ask, can a man be saved outside of the church, I refer to that institution over which Christ reigns as head, in which his spirit dwells, and of which every child of God on earth is a member. Hence, there is no salvation outside of the church of our Lord. "As the husband is the head of the wife, so Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of the body." He does not propose to save anything that is not a part of the body. But again, all Christian people in this world are in God’s family, in the kingdom of our Lord, in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If a man, therefore, can be saved outside of the church, it follows that he can be saved and yet not become a Christian, and this is contrary to everything the Bible has to say. But, again, every spiritual blessing is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Draw a circle representing the church of which he is the head. Every blessing of a spiritual nature is on the inside and there is not one on the outside. If, therefore, a man ever partakes of any spiritual blessing whatsoever, he must pass from the outside to the inside of that circle or the church. How is a man transferred? I know what the world says about it. I am told by human denominations that if a man believes the Lord Jesus Christ, he by that alone passes from without to within. But, friends, let me tell you one thing—viz., there is not a standard translation of the Bible on God’s earth that ever did suggest that a man believes into Jesus Christ. The Bible does declare that a man is baptized into Jesus Christ and into his death. That which the Bible does not say is what denominations believe. That which the Bible does say is what they do not believe. Isn’t that strange? I do not envy the POSITION of a man who so teaches as he stands to give an account in the last great day. It is a mutilated gospel that does not proclaim all the terms laid down by the Christ himself as to entrance into the family of God. Over and over and over, in every case of conversion in all the Bible under the reign of Christ our Lord, souls believed what the apostles taught. They turned from their sins, they acknowledged the Christ, and of them it is specifically said they were baptized into Jesus Christ. That makes a man a Christian; that constitutes a new birth; that passes any man from the outside to the inside, where all spiritual blessings are. He is now a member of God’s family, a citizen of Christ’s kingdom; he has been washed in the blood, and hence is a member of the church of Christ. Many people there are who think they can be saved upon their uprightness of moral character. To themselves they may correctly say: “I don’t cuss; I don’t He; I don’t bear false witness; I don’t commit adultery; I don’t steal; I think I am all right." Then they take the opposite side and begin: “I tell the truth; I provide things honestly; I pay my debts; I am philanthropic in nature; I am public-spirited; I help move forward all civil and righteous causes. Of course, I will go to heaven when I die." Let a man of Nashville, of whom all such can be said, die, and at the funeral I will almost guarantee that any denominational preacher would wax eloquent and finally say: "Methinks that I can see the spirit of this good man bid good-by to things terrestrial, take its flight and wing its way beyond the sunset’s radiant glow, and today, while his body lies here, he is with that angelic host in the glory land." Now let me tell you, friends, in all candor, I know that a man has got to be all that I have said—viz., honest, truthful, upright, charitable, and all such; but let it be truly said that no man has ever yet been saved on account of his own moral character or individual goodness. What is the power of God unto salvation? The only answer is the gospel. If I am ever saved, it will not be because I have, perchance, lived a clean, upright, moral life. That will not be the cause of my salvation. It will not be that I have given hundreds of thousands of dollars toward suffering, sorrowing humanity. If I am saved at last, here is the reason. It will be due to the fact that I heard the gospel of God’s Son, have believed it and obeyed it, and have lived according to the teaching of his word thereafter.

Christ anticipated just that kind of a character that would rest upon his own good deeds and be perfectly at ease when he said: "As the branch [however good and clean and free from disease] cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." It is certainly known to all that a "branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine." Watch Christ apply the lesson. So neither can that good, clean, moral, upright man "except ye abide in me." There is no salvation outside of contact with Jesus Christ, who is the head of that spiritual realm called his body. Are you as good as Cornelius? He was a centurion of the band, called the Italian band, a devout man, one that feared God with all of his house, gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always. He was also a just man and of good report among all the nations of the Jews. Look at those various characteristics of this military man. Note that he was a devout man, one that feared God with all his house, had influence in his own family, which some preachers and elders do not have, and gave alms to the people and prayed to God always. Likewise he was a just man and of good report among all of the nations round about. Where is that fellow in Nashville better than Cornelius? Where is the preacher, or the elder, that will march out by the side of him and say: “I am better than he." I fear, friends, that the very best of us would suffer in the comparison when put side by side. Now I ask: Was Cornelius a saved man? Absolutely not. You may wonder how I know. I know just what the Bible says about him. About three o’clock one afternoon, an angel of God came to Cornelius and talked with him directly. Cornelius asked who it was. That angel said: "Cornelius . . . send men to Joppa, and call for one Simon, whose surname is Peter; he lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea side." He "shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." Now, do you think Cornelius was a saved man at the time he was ordered to send for the preacher? If so, you must deny what God said about it.

It is lamentable to see so many big men, clean in life, financially able and willing to spend and be spent for the good of suffering humanity, face the possibility of landing in hell. That kind is not too good to need the gospel of Christ whereby they may be saved. Others will not obey the gospel, and thus become members of the church, because they imagine they are not good enough. Are you any worse than a whole lot of folks? Do you He to your fellows? Did you ever let things take up with you that were not yours? Did you ever kill anybody? Did you ever punish anybody for his convictions? Did you ever make havoc of a body of people that were absolutely harmless and who were doing no harm to anybody? If you are guilty of some of these, you are not as bad as Saul of Tarsus was. He persecuted the church of God and wasted it. When men were arrested for being nothing but Christians and the time came to decide their case, he, as a member of the body, voted for their condemnation. He said: “I am chief of sinners." Saul obtained mercy and forgiveness because he did it in ignorance and in unbelief. When Saul believed on the Lord and repented of his sins, he was told to "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Thus a persecutor and a murderer was not too bad to obey the gospel and be saved. So, friends, you are not too good to obey the gospel. And you are none too bad to accept the call of high heaven. There is salvation to all men provided, but you must appropriate it if you ever share the benefit of it. And gladly tonight is the gospel invitation extended, with the hope there be some soul who has come to himself and who has resolved no longer to linger, but to rush to the outstretched arms of him who said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Won’t you come, trusting in him, submitting to his will, ready to do his bidding, and then stand upon his promise?