Dr. Peter S. Ruckman Preaching Sinner's Prayers (1960s-1970s Compilation) | Dr. Peter S. Ruckman disagrees with Robert Breaker in the 1960s-1970s on how to be saved
I would like to thank Brother Don Nesbitt, the Lord's bloodhound (his youtube handle is @w46try7) for Song of Solomon and the Romans study from him. I would like to thank Water in the Wilderness for providing the other 1960s-1970s clips! Both are great guys. Check them out!
And finally, I would like to thank Brother Ed for God having him tell me to check my grammar in the article.
This is a transcription of the video below.
[00:00] Text Slide
I am going to have two Breakers clip play for him to clearly state his beliefs about salvation. This is to contrast them against the young 1960-70s Ruckman.
[00:05] Robert Breaker
... what you’re believing in. And you can go to the Lord as a lost man after understanding with your heart, like the verse says, and say, “Lord, I realize I’m a sinner. Right now, I trust you as my savior. I trust that blood you shed. Lord, I’m trusting in you for salvation.”
If it just came out of the mouth and you’re just saying it and you don’t believe it, no salvation. But if you believe it, there’s nothing wrong with it coming out of the mouth if it’s belief in the heart.
There’s been people that got saved when they prayed, but it’s not the prayer that saves you, okay? A lot of people want to add to salvation and make it something you do. A lot of people out there say you can’t get saved unless you say a prayer. (laughs) Watch out for those people.
[00:41] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
The word is nigh thee, near thee. It’s right on your lips. It’s right in your heart. It’s present. You have access to it. You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to study anything. You don’t have to learn anything. There’s nothing to attain.
It is the word of faith which we preach. And here it comes: the simplest, clearest presentation of salvation found anywhere in either Testament. Two conditions: If... if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, number two, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
And notice the heart is not changed. The heart believes on Christ in its regular condition. There is no overpowering of the sinner by the irresistible grace of God, which transforms him against his will into a new creature so he can receive Christ, and all that Calvinistic baloney. It’s aiming that an unsaved man in his natural condition, and he’s told, if you believe something in your heart, confess it with your mouth, God will give you the new birth, God will save you, and impute to you righteousness and justify you.
[02:04] Robert Breaker
Okay? Because that can deceive people into thinking, “Oh, so the prayer saves me?” And then they do the prayer over and over and over.
What do you trust in from your heart? And do you realize that it’s the faith that calls on God from the heart? A lot of people will run to Romans chapter 10, and they won’t even read it. They’ll just take one verse out of context, Romans 10:13, and they leave the rest of it out.
Let’s actually read the context, Romans chapter 10. Verse 1: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Okay, he wants them saved. Boy, yeah, I’d like to see ’em saved, too. “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” Oh, so there’s something they’re missing that they don’t know. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”
So rather than saying He’s the righteous One, and I just put aside all my righteousness, and I trust in His alone, no, they’re like, “Uh, no, it’s what we do or say. So we’re gonna set up our own righteousness. We’re gonna say it’s what we did that saves us.” And they’re saying, “Now I’m righteous, ’cause I did this.” That’s called self-righteousness, and that’s being lost, ’cause that’s not the true gospel.
Verse 4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” So there’s some belief that takes place. If you just say, “Oh God, save me,” and there’s no faith from the heart, you’re not believing in the finished work of Christ, all you did was a vain repetition. That’s not salvation. So I want to make sure I focus in on the true gospel and calling from the heart.
And look what it says. Look what it says. In verse 5 and 6, “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” Under the Old Testament, you had to do that. But now, in the New Testament, verse 6, “But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart...” The Bible says that faith speaketh. Well, a lot of people say call means to speak. Oh, well then, here we have faith speaking to God, so there’s your calling.
Your faith in the right thing that saves us calls out to God. See, God’s not looking at your mouth, He’s looking at your heart. And He’s looking at that heart, and He’s saying, “Now, when, with all of your being, are you trusting in Me for salvation?” ’Cause He’s like, “I don’t care what you say with your mouth, it’s: do you trust Me with all of your heart?”
[04:25] Text Slide
In the interest of full transparency, not much footage of Dr. Ruckman from the 1960s is available, whether about salvation or not.
This isn’t an issue, however, because Robert Ray Breaker II went to Ruckman’s school in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His son, Robert Ray Breaker III, started attending Dr. Ruckman’s church in the late 1990s. This means the things you will hear and see are what Robert Ray Breaker II witnessed, heard, and later told his son.
In fact, everything you are about to see is what Robert Breaker II defines as “Young Ruckman.”
[04:37] Text Slide
“Young Ruckman?” This is the full quote.
[04:39] Robert Breaker
... I do find some things in the Ruckman Reference Bible that are like, “What?” And so I just... I wonder, toward... toward the end Ruckman said some things a little differently than he did before. And I’ll just say it because I don’t care. I mean (laughs) I just want people to know the truth. There was young Ruckman and old Ruckman. Yeah. And young... young Ruckman preached hard, preached straight, faith in the blood, preached it right. As he got older, he started to say things a little bit differently.
[05:06] Text Slide
I will first prove a Ruckman clip is in the 1960s-1970s. Then I will give what he says about sinners prayers being a requirement for salvation.
[05:11] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
... but you will when you get the judgment, brother. Unsaved people are miserable, they’re irritated, and I’ll bet you the trouble with half the teachers at Pensacola Junior College, and half the teachers going to come out of that Western Florida University, it’s just the fact they turn on the radio at the wrong time.
[05:26] Text Slide
“Are going to come out that western florida university” “Going to” is future tense. Classes started in 1967. As of the recording, they didn’t start.
[05:30] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
Somebody, somewhere... I’m not going to make any charges... somebody, somewhere said, “We’ll back you up, we’ll help you out.” And listen, when those Cuban tanks and artillery came in, the United States didn’t help ’em out, and they lost their shirt. You know what we tried to do in that thing? We tried to pitch in, though we weren’t for the guerrillas and we weren’t for Castro, see. We were neutral. And when you play it neutral, people, you lose your shirt. And when you play it neutral in spiritual matters, you lose your soul.
You want to sit back there and say, “Well now, I’m not going to get out of this seat in that invitation. I’m not going to tell anybody I’m saved. I’m not going to confess Christ. But, uh, but I believe about Him. Don’t get me wrong, preacher, I’m all for the good Lord.” You know? A kinda boost, that’s right down the middle. You know what you ought to do? You ought to get out of your seat. You ought to get right down there, call upon His name for salvation, you ought to stand up there and say, “Folks, I’m coming to trust Christ, go right out that door!” And let every man that breathes on the face of this Earth that you meet know that you’re His and He’s yours.
Let’s stand. Let’s stand and sing “Just As I Am” without one plea, that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come. I want to give an invitation here this morning to any unsaved man or woman that has never received God’s Son as your Savior, to come in this invitation. Meet me at the front. By your coming, take Christ as yours today, just as I am.
(Singing “Just As I Am” plays in background)
All right, let’s sing one more stanza before we close. Let’s sing “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow”, and we got two young men saved this morning. Another young man here Brother McGraw led to Christ yesterday down the street, coming to confess the Lord this morning. And let’s sing one more stanza, “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow”. And at this time, the doors of the church are open, if any would like to become members of the Brent Baptist Church, feel free to come in the invitation while we sing. Sing just the chorus: “Where He leads me I will follow”, just the chorus.
(Singing “Where He Leads Me” plays)
Amen, bless God. All right, I guess we’ll close here. I’d close here, it’s getting late, but, uh, I guess we’ll close. We have about five come this morning, join the church, and two of ’em saved, one of ’em confessing the Lord. And people, I’d say, I think if you bring out some folks tonight, I think you’ll see the Lord work again, I really do. Now I don’t say that because of the message, but I... it’s been my, uh, been my observation around here that when... when the plan of salvation is presented clearly, and you folks are right, and you’re praying, people get saved. They get saved.
[13:15] Text Slide
The Song of Solomon series commentary takes across multiple dates. However, all of these dates are in 1969. Part 8 and Part 13 give the explicit dates. Part 2 just gives the year.
[13:19] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
Now I tell you, brother, if you... if you can’t find any more figure of that in Africa, why, ask Brother Mess to show you where it is. And here’s a... now here’s something. Here’s a beauty. Here’s the morning newspaper out here. Whoever put that... composed that page has a real sense of value, brother. Oh, he got the little girls that are going to rebel. Uh, the word is “reveling” in the King James Bible. You have to quote King James Bible in 1969.
[13:45] Text Slide
Dr. Ruckman identifies the year as 1969. He does this later in the series in the videos.
[13:50] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
I would say the 16th of March. What is today? 16th. Well, my birthday was two days ago.
[13:56] Text Slide
Peter Ruckman is reading the prophecies of a psychic (amazing criswell) to mock him.
In doing this, he once again establishes the current date is March 16, 1969 again. He questions if Easter week was two or three weeks. Three weeks from March 16 is April 6th, 1969.
[13:59] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
And this demon of greed will not stop at the humiliation of women. He will enter the House of God where the torch in his safe will remove the name of God from the books and from the tongues that dare to speak it. Then after a phase of 13 years... you’ll be overthrown... the period of this rule is 1975 to 1988. See, 20 years off again. Then the folk rock suicide 1969. I predict that America’s most folk rock singer will commit suicide during Easter week 1969. So look forward to that. When is Easter week? About two weeks? Three weeks?
Somebody gave me this thing here last night, I thought you might like to... see. This is a University of West Florida paper called The Voyager, I guess. They’re going somewhere, I don’t know where they’re going. And, uh, this thing here is a... talk about a little juke joint they set up out by the University of West Florida. Um, it says, “Two young men began with a vacant bar just outside the UWF gate, and with the application of a little paint and elbow grease, Bob Hagen and Carl Connelly Coffee House opened April the 4th.” Uh, it was called “The Establishment”. “The opening coincided with the first anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., some easily moving experience.” You can imagine such a thing.
[15:21] Text Slide
“Gave me this yesterday” The juke bar opened on April 4th, 1969. The Voyager had to print it out and write it after that. The man who gave it to Ruckman had to then get it. April 6th, 1969 was a sunday. Whether or not it took place in April 6th, 1969. It took place in April, 1969.
[15:30] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
Lord cut him off there, Lord cut him off there and let 10 years go by. 10 years go by, old boy gets 30 years old. 30 years old, he’s somewhere, maybe over near Vietnam some place, shore battery, in comes the shell, down goes the ship, people out in the water, sharks getting ’em, old boy screaming, “God help me, God help me, God help me!” Holy Spirit says, “Remember that peace paper?” You know? “Never mind peace paper, Lord, these sharks!” (laughs) “Lord, never mind the sharks, never mind that piece of paper!” (laughs) And the fellow says, “All right, all right, I believe, give me an invitation!” You know, haul him up on the beach, you know. And hauls him up on the beach, and goes off in the bushes someplace, gets down, says, “God be merciful to me a sinner and save my soul, and save me for Christ’s sake, for God’s sake save me!” You know, and Lord saves him.
And come back to the States. And he comes back to the States, and goes back to the Catholic church, and things don’t feel quite right. He go back to the Catholic church a couple of times, come back out, can’t find what he’s looking for, and kind of mess around, mess around. Goes in a hotel room and sits down, you know, don’t think about it, reaches over and pulls open the desk, and there’s a Gideon Bible right in that desk. Fellow closes the desk, goes downstairs and gets him a drink. See? And I’ll just cut him off. He gets to heaven, but nothing to show for it.
And so that... that Negro in Acts chapter 8, that old boy is saved by grace through faith, and when he’s saved by grace through faith, the Holy Spirit’s already there, comes into him. The organism, the Body of Christ, is being formed, and he goes into it. He gets baptized in water after he’s saved, not before. His salvation has nothing to do with his baptism, and that’s the first man in the Bible that’s converted just like you’re converted. Didn’t Philip say to him, “If thou believest with all thine heart”? Acts chapter 8, verse 37, 38. I know that’s out of the ASV, but the ASV’s no more than a telephone book anyway, it wouldn’t fool ya. (chuckles) And didn’t he say, “If you believe with all your heart”? Well, Paul says, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Uh, Jesus’ name is like ointment that’s been in a bottle and had to be busted before it could get out and fill the room. “Draw me,” she says, “we will run after thee.” And in the... in the human interpretation, it’s a girl praying for the shepherd lover to come and get her, and, uh, then she says the king has brought me into his chambers, uh, which means in the... according to the first story... that the king has taken this, uh, young lady, brought her into the palace, and tried to give her presents and gifts and everything and win her affections, but then she says, “We will be glad and rejoice in thee,” referring to her real lover, “we will remember thy love more than wine, the upright love thee.” Well, I don’t know, we’ll make it Christ. “Draw me.”
All right, if you’re unsaved, what’s first you ought to pray? “Draw me.” Well, John says no man can come to the Father unless, uh, the Father draws him, and that means to pull like a magnet. Uh, John chapter, uh, John chapter 6 verse 44 says, “No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” That’s the pull of the magnet that, uh, pulls or draws. And the idea, you can’t come to Christ unless the Holy Spirit draws you to Christ. Well, if you don’t... fellows say, “Well, I’m not one of the elect, the Holy Spirit’s never drawn me,” well, you ought to pray it. You ought to go and get down on your knees, say, “Now Lord, I can’t come to You unless the Father draw me, so draw me.” There’s no excuse for not being elect, anybody can be elected. (chuckles) Fellow’s talking about one of the elect, that’s prediction, but anybody can get elected, just ask the political lawyer. Well, that’s why she says, “Draw me,” that’s the pull. “We will run after thee.” We.
[19:28] Text Slide
From “Dr Ruckman, Romans Study, 6 & 7”
[19:34] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
One of our missionaries went to Ethiopia and came back to the States, and when his children came back to the States, they got off the boat, and coming down the gangplank, they saw a nun for the first time. And they said to their missionary father, “What are those, witch doctors?” (laughter) Now there’s something for you. Why, one of our missionaries over in Africa said that he saw a Catholic priest talk with a man one time out there, and the man said, “I’m your father.” And the African said, “You not my father, you white, me black.” (laughter) Well, now you won’t find the editors of Life and Look magazine with that much sense. Don’t you underestimate the heathen. Uh, America’s done that too many times in places like Vietnam. They’re smarter than you think they are.
Haile Selassie said to a priest who was complaining about the preaching of the Gospel in Ethiopia... a Coptic state church priest... he said when the man got through, the man said, “Uh, Your Majesty, these people are going out here and setting up independent Baptist churches and they’re teaching people the Bible.” And Haile Selassie said, “You go and do the same.” Well, now Haile Selassie has more sense than President Nixon. You see? You want to get your game laid out straight before you start to play.
Verse 17: “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart”... notice that...“that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” And review especially our comments on what it means to obey the Gospel, and to obey the faith. These comments, of course, were made back in Romans chapter 1 at verse 5, and we compared them with chapter 10 verse 16. And notice in all these cases, salvation is not a mental assent to the truths of the Gospel, it is not repenting like Judas, believing like Pharaoh, confessing like Simon the sorcerer, and being baptized like Judas Iscariot. It’s obeying from the heart. And where a man doesn’t believe in the heart... Romans 10:9 and 10... and obey from the heart... Romans 6:17... he may be just as theological straight as a gun barrel, and just as empty or just as dirty. Out of the heart are the issues of life. Nor all these things like Catholic catechism and, uh, Church of Christ, uh, Bible teaching and gospel meetings are nothing but an abstract, cold presentation of isolated text taken out of the context to which the person gives their mental assent. It means absolutely nothing. Here the believer has obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Now the Campbellite talks about the doctrine and the form of doctrine, and keeps talking about “He became the author of them that obey Him,” and all this, you know, this all this typical, uh, wresting of Scripture to your own destruction, and blind leading of the blind to fall in the pit. And yet when we speak of “form of doctrine” in the passage, it’s connected with a belief and obedience from the heart. Let’s put it over the plate waist-high where you can get a hold of it.
A man that repents, confesses, believes, and is baptized will go to hell every time. And he knows it. And that’s why he says you can lose it, because he don’t have it. You say, “What do you mean talking that way?” Well, I’ll tell you what I mean. I’m going to show you how to disobey the Gospel and how to obey it. First of all, I’m going to show you how to disobey it. A man says, “Do you believe in the virgin birth?” “I do.” “Do you believe in the resurrection?” “I do.” “Do you believe in the blood atonement?” “I do.” “Do you believe the Bible’s the Word of God?” “I do.” “Do you believe Christ is coming back?” “I do.” All right, I’ve accepted a form of doctrine, right? “Do you believe in one God?” “I believe.” “Do you believe Christ is the Son of God?” “I believe.” “Do you believe He died for sinners?” “I believe.” All right, I have believed. “Do you repent?” “Yes, I repent.” “Are you sorry for your sin?” “Yes, I’m sorry for my sins.” “Are you turning from your sins?” “Yes, I’m turning from my sins.” “Are you forsaking your sins?” “I’m forsaking my sins.” Okay, I’ve repented. “Do you confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?” “Yes, I confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” I’ve confessed. “All right, if that’s true, come down here and get baptized for the remission of sins in the name of the Lord Jesus, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” So I go down, go in the baptismal pool under the water, come up, die and burn in the lake of fire forever with the rest of the folks that taught me that nonsense. Do you follow that?
You see, a form of doctrine is like a form of godliness. If it isn’t from the heart and is powerless, there’s nothing to it. The Bible is filled with men like Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas, who repented, believed, and confessed all over the place, and it landed ’em right straight in hell. This matter has to come from the heart. I’ll illustrate. “Do you believe you’re a sinner?” “Yes.” “Do you believe you’re going to hell?” “Yes.” “Do you believe your righteousness can’t save you?” “Yes.” “Do you believe that Jesus died for you?” “Yes.” “Will you trust Him as your Savior?” “Yes.” “Will you do it right now?” “Yes.” And then I do it. Now, do you know what that is? That’s obeying the Gospel. And that’s obeying a form of doctrine from the heart. And you can stand on the ground floor of the Empire State Building till you’re blue in the face talking about what you believe about the elevator, but if you don’t get in it, you ain’t going up.
[25:46] Text Slide
To prevent anyone from thinking that’s what Breaker believes, I will take a brief detour to show three clips from him. Breaker believes any requirement is a work. Ruckman just said if you don’t act (get in), you go to hell.
[25:53] Robert Breaker
There are people out there that try to turn confession into a work, and tell you you’re saved by a work that you do. And basically they’re trying to get you to do something, and then they proclaim you saved because you did something with your mouth, all right?
But a lot of folks claim to be Christians, and they don’t care if they do. So this guy’s like, “Where’s Romans 10:9 and 10?” Oh, well, let’s look at Romans 10:9 and 10, ’cause all that does is prove what I’m telling you! (laughs) Romans 10:9 and 10 says right here, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; [that’s imputed righteousness] and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” He takes “confession is made unto salvation”, he says the mouth is what saves you because it says “unto salvation”. He reads that, and he goes, “When you get saved is when you confess with your mouth.” Might as well go join the Catholic Church then! Sounds like you’d make a great Jesuit! ’Cause you’re trying to get people to do confession.
Now there are people that take these two verses, they completely cast out the part that says “believe in your heart”... which by the way is mentioned twice... and they say that confession is essential for salvation because you have to confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus. And they say actual act of confessing the Lord Jesus with your mouth is what saves you. And they say that when it says, “the mouth confession is made unto salvation”, they say that that confession is FOR salvation, and that confession is what literally makes you saved. Is that true? Does confession save you? That almost sounds like a... a Catholic doctrine. Well, there’s a church, a big church in Rome that teaches confession, and they say you have to go to a priest and confess your sins to a priest, and then the priest says, “I absolve you,” or whatever. But wait a minute, what does the Bible say about a man absolving sin? Even the Pharisees said, “Who can forgive sins but God?” So, confession, that... that sounds like a Catholic doctrine. Who... who is this going around telling people to be saved, you have to say something with the mouth, and the mouth saves you? That almost sounds like a Jesuit or something, doesn’t it? Like a Catholic that would teach something like that. But there are many people in Christianity today that tell you the mouth saves you, and they use these verses to prove it.
It doesn’t say by asking, or praying, or begging, or saying “God, oh Jesus” with the mouth, does He come and save you. There’s some faith involved. You say, “Well, my faith is in my confession.” What? You’re trusting... that would be trusting in something you did, that would be trusting in your works! That would be damnation, not salvation!
[28:34] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith. You see it? Verse 17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” You may review our remarks... remarks in chapter 1 when we spoke of these matters, and Romans 16 verse 26, “for the obedience is the obedience of faith.” The word is nigh thee, near thee. It’s right on your lips, it’s right in your heart. It’s present. You have access to it. You don’t have to go anywhere, you don’t have to study anything, you don’t have to learn anything, there’s nothing to attain. It is the word of faith which we preach. And here it comes, the simplest, clearest presentation of salvation found anywhere in either Testament. Two conditions: if... if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, number two, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. And notice the heart is not changed. The heart believes on Christ in its regular condition. There is no overpower of the sinner by the irresistible grace of God, which transforms him against his will into a new creature so he can receive Christ, and all that Calvinistic baloney. It’s aiming that an unsaved man in his natural condition, and he’s told, if you believe something in your heart, confess it with your mouth, God will give you the new birth, God will save you, and impute to you righteousness and justify you.
Verse 10: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness...” Works are not a point at issue. “... and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” You see how insane some men get when they’re trying to prove a lie? “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” That’s God’s work, not yours. You see that business? You don’t classify that with getting baptized and holding out to the end and doing all this junk. Belief’s a matter of the heart. Now, it’s a work only in the sense that’s what God wants you to do, in that sense it’s the work of God. But it’s not like works. Good night, man! All right, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” “Out of the heart of man proceeds all these things,” Jesus says, and lists 13 evils. Then if you believe something in your heart, it should bear fruit in your mouth. Your heart should confess what your... your mouth should confess what your heart believes. Notice the belief is in the heart, not in the head. And this reinforces the truth of Romans chapter 6 verse 17, that said you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered unto you. It’s not enough to repent, confess, believe, and be baptized. That’s just one of the different ways you go to hell, there’s all kinds of ways. It’s a matter of something in the heart by faith. Notice the obedience is by faith. 16: “They have not all obeyed the gospel.” For as Isaiah said, “Lord, who hath believed our report?” In other words, to obey the gospel is to believe the gospel, and you believe from the heart. And we made comment on this earlier when we talked about believing in vain, and you might review those remarks we made, and we made them in connection with Romans chapter 6 verse 17.
All right, believe, confess, that’s the long and short of it. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. You can talk all day about a man believing an elevator will take him up, but he needs to get into it. You speak of a man having nerve, or having guts, or having backbone, so you understand perfectly what God means when He says, “Believe in your heart.” A man told a friend of mine... he was a skeptic, this man... he told a friend of mine, he said, “Your heart’s just an organ, it can’t believe.” And my friend said, “Well, it may be an organ, but every time it hears the name of Jesus, it plays Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” You understand what God means when He says heart, don’t put on airs. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” It’s just that simple. You say, “Is that all there is to it?” That’s all there is to it. You say, “Well, anybody can believe.” No, they don’t. It says, “Believe in your heart,” your affections, what you love. That is, you come to Christ as a sinner, and you lay hold of Him with your heart as your only hope, your only God, your only Savior, and you confess Him as Lord. L-O-R-D.
It isn’t a matter of just believing some abstract doctrine about salvation, it’s nothing just as simple as repenting, confessing, believing, being baptized, like the water dogs say. It’s a matter of laying hold with the heart of a person who is living and risen, who died for you on the cross, and confessing Him as Lord, Jehovah. Jesus, Jehovah saves, God manifest in the flesh dying to save you from your sins. And if you haven’t done that, you haven’t obeyed the Gospel, no matter what else you’ve done. For the Scripture saith, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.” Not believe about Him, not even believe in Him, believe on Him. Place your confidence and hope and reliance on Him. Notice: “Whosoever believeth on Him.” It’s a person. The Bible says, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” It’s a person you believe on, not a thing. Things can’t save, not even good things. You’re saved by a person. Notice it is Jesus. Not just, you know, “the good Lord”, or “the sky pilot”, or “the man upstairs”, and all that mess. “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him.” For... summing it up...“For whosoever”... is that big enough? Why, that covers anybody. “Whosoever,” not just the elect, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” What’s His name? His name is Jesus. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And that’s what makes a panic in hell and a celebration in heaven when a poor sinner comes stumbling in off the hot pavements of hell and puts his bleeding feet down there on Beulah Land and kneels at the feet of the Savior and says, “God be merciful to me a sinner and save my poor, wretched soul for Jesus’ sake.” That’ll do it. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Now listen, if God had imperfections in Him, I could get along, ’cause I got ’em in me. And if God was a sinner like Buddha and Muhammad and Lyle Wright and Mae Wright and President Nixon, best man that ever lived couldn’t keep themselves out of hell. Someday you’ll be down there, some of you, I don’t know where... I don’t know where you are, I don’t know who I’m looking at while I’m standing up here, I don’t know who I’m talking to. I... most of you I know, and I feel sure you’re a child of God, you’ve been born again. Some of you I don’t know whether you are or not. In the final analysis, only God knows, and only you know, and only the devil knows. But I sure hope I’m not looking at somebody right now that’s going to be down there someday saying, “Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God!” Why don’t you get a good prayer going right now and say, “God be merciful to me a sinner, and save my soul for Jesus’ sake.” You know, when you get reduced to praying, you know how it comes down? The last prayer you get is “Oh my God.” And then you get rid of the personal part, you get “Oh God.” And then you become an atheist, you say, “Oh...” (snorts). That’s the degeneration of a thing. And you know, that’s the progression in real prayer. When you really get up against it, you’ll find these petitions begin to stop, and the gaps between ’em get longer and longer. You Christians notice that? You Christians that really pray?
[37:25] Text Slide
I want it to be noted that Dr. Ruckman is talking about the blood of Jesus Christ in the first few clips. And yet, later on, he talks about having to confess as a requirement for salvation. Dr. Ruckman himself did not think that the blood and confession were mutually exclusive concepts.
[37:30] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
When He says that, He’s not saying a light thing or a thing to be taken lightly. I believe that that blood is precious, and as far as I’m concerned, to me, it is the most precious thing in this world. And there’s nothing like it. Now, wouldn’t it be strange, I mean, stop to think about this, here up in 19, uh, 70, practically a couple of months, the blood of Jesus Christ is precious to me because it blots out sin. Now, listen, if it redeems, and justifies, and blots out sin, don’t you know, don’t you know that to me it’s precious? Let me ask you this: What would I give in exchange for something that would redeem me, and cleanse me, and blot out my sins? Now I’m asking you, what would I take in exchange for that? I wouldn’t take anything in exchange for it!
Simon Peter says, “You’re redeemed not with corruptible... corruptible things, such as silver and gold, received by the vain tradition of your fathers, but by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without spot and without blemish.” It not only blots out sin, but it draws us nigh. The Bible says, uh, “having boldness therefore,” it to... we can draw nigh to God by Him. Uh, He’s taken away the... the partition between us and taken it out of the way, “And you that were far off are sometimes... far off are made nigh, made near by the blood of Jesus Christ.” The blood of Jesus Christ draws me near to God, so I don’t have to go through a bunch of bellboys and car hops and chamberlains and vice presidents and secretaries and desk attendants and all that kind of business to get to God. Listen, if I want to get to God, I don’t have to go through a big long rigmarole because the blood has drawn me near to God. If I want to pray to God right now, I wouldn’t have to get in the mood for it. “Ah, Lord, bless the message, do what I can’t do, and save somebody here tonight for Jesus’ sake, Amen.” It’s... it’s right there. It’s right there. Well, bless chalk, even if I’m making mistakes, bus microphone, keep it on. It’s right there! Have to go around knocking on somebody’s door and say, “Dear father confessor, will you please get me an audience with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit through Mary?” I don’t have to do that kind of business! If I want to get to God, I can get to God just like that, brother, just like that. Draw nigh, draw near. Wouldn’t you be in a mess, wouldn’t you be in a mess if you had to go through what some folks go through to get to God? Suppose you had a prayer book? You know, before I was saved, I had a prayer book. We went to church, we had a little prayer book, and had some of the most beautiful prayers written in it you ever saw. And it had prayers for all kinds of occasions. I mean, they had some tremendous prayers in there. How... how to pray when somebody’s sick, how to pray when the car breaks down, how to pray when you miss your boat or your plane, how to pray when you’re in a shell hole and shells are coming over, how to pray before a meal, how to pray after a meal, how to pray when you’re feeling blue, a prayer for every occasion. And wouldn’t it be something if you had to thumb through that thing and find just the prayer for the right occasion at the right time? Suppose you’re in a church tonight and the church began to burn down? (laughter) Wouldn’t you be in a mess with timbers falling and smoke going all to pieces and everything exploding and melting over your head, “Hold the prayer book, let me see. (laughter) Prayer for a Baptist in a burning church building. (laughter) Page 375.” Now, wouldn’t you be in a mess?
Simon Peter one time got out there in the water, you know, and got, uh, going across the water, and he saw the... the waves were heavy and, uh, threatening, and he began to sink. And when he began to sink, you know what he said? He cried out and he said, “Lord,” he said, “Lord,” he said, “save me. Lord, save me.” And the Bible says the Lord, uh, put out His hand and drew him up out of the water, just like that. Uh, Simon Peter just said two words: “Lord, save me. Save me.” Now, I know some folks that don’t know they’re saved, even though they’ve asked God to save ’em. I know some folks that have prayed, “Lord, save me,” and if you ask ’em if they ever asked God to save ’em, they’d say, “Yes, I asked God to save me,” but they couldn’t believe that He really did it. And yet, you know something? When you get right down to it, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” And if you’re sitting in this building tonight, and you know you’re a sinner, and you know you can’t save yourself, and you know Jesus Christ died to save sinners, you know all you have to pray right now? “Lord, save me.” And immediately He took him by the hand, picked him up, drawn nigh, brought near, brought near.
Several, uh, Christmases ago... this original script was written in 1960 and it is, uh, uh, taped in 1965... pick it on up, and even at this moment, she could have turned him down. “And they called Rebekah and said to her, Wilt thou go with this man?” And then here comes the most crucial passage in the New Testament. You say, “Brother Ruckman, you’re reading out of the Old Testament.” I don’t care, this is the crucial passage of the New Testament, or any Testament for you. The crucial passage is three words. That is the passage that decides whether you spend an eternity in heaven or hell depends on three words. And it isn’t “I love you” either. There are three words that decision from the heart. You’re dead in trespasses and sin, lost. Eliezer, type of the Holy Spirit, sent, is called “the man” in this passage. “Wilt thou go with this man?” And Rebekah’s given the invitation. “Wilt thou go with this man?” Type of the Holy Spirit. And she says... and the next three words decide her destiny, and they will decide yours. It’s all a matter of the will. Christ said, “You will not come to me that you might have eternal life. How often I would have gathered you, and you would not.” “Whosoever WILL, let him come.” “Wilt thou go with this man?” That’s the question.
You see, getting saved’s just like getting married. “Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband, to love, honor, and obey, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do us part?” “I do.” “Do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded life... wife, to love and cherish, and, uh, to cleave to, to have and to hold, uh, to love and cherish in sickness and in health, for better or for worse, till death do you part?” “I do.” “I now pronounce you man and wife.” Jesus Christ, do You take this sinner to be Your son, to be Your child? Will You accept him, will You supply all his need, justify him and get him into heaven and get him by the judgment, even if it cost You Your own life? “I WILL.” Sinner, will you take this wonderful Savior to be your Savior, and trust Him and trust His blood alone to save you from your sins and get you home to heaven? “Well, the way I look at it, a fellow has to live it, and I just don’t feel like... I’ll just go on to hell then.” Hell is a prepared place for a prepared people. “All right, Rebekah, wilt thou go with this man?” And she said, “Well, my parents have a different belief than I, I don’t want a split in the family.” (snicker) “Wilt thou go with this man?” ‘She’s like, “I want to think it over for a while.” She didn’t say that. She didn’t say, “I just don’t have any feeling, I can’t feel out, I can’t live it, well, not tonight, preacher. Well, I just can’t bear to leave the dear old First Babylonian Church in Mesopotamia.” (laughter) She didn’t say that. She gave the classic answer: “I WILL GO.” That’s it!
The young man says to the young lady, “Will you marry me?” She, “Well, I... I don’t want to hurt your feelings.” He says, “Fine, marry me.” She says, “Don’t misunderstand me, I don’t exactly accept you, and then again I don’t exactly reject you.” (laughter) He says, “Well, do you or don’t you?” “Well, I just...” Well, she just turned him down. You WILL or you WON’T. “I WILL.” How about you, WILL YOU?
Ask me! Go on, ask me! “I WILL!” You say, “Well, I still think I live just as good...” Well, I’m not even going to discuss that. Will you or won’t you? That’s all there is to it. You say, “Well, the way I look at it...” The way you look at it is like a blind man in a cellar looking for a black cat at night! (laughter) You either WILL or you WON’T, don’t try to duck it. See, our people try to duck personal responsibility. Some people don’t want to be responsible for their will, they don’t want to make a decision because they’ll have to be responsible for it. So they say, “Well, I don’t believe anybody can know. Well, I’m an agnostic, so there may be a God, I don’t know whether there is or isn’t, but...” You’re yellow! You’re yellow! You don’t want to be responsible for your decisions.
20 years ago, I was just an old drunkard, drinking my way into a drunkard’s grave. If a building was burning, and you knew it was burning, and you were in it, it was burning to the ground, and a fellow put a ladder up there, climbed up the ladder, held out his arms to you, and said, “Come on, I’ll get you down!” How long would it take you to get out the window and get to him? You know, if you don’t, there’s only one of two things wrong: either you don’t believe the building is burning... and a man’s got to be crazy to believe that if the building really was burning... or else it’d be just sheer, old pride. That’d be the only thing that’d keep him from doing it.
Christ said, “I am the way.” Fellow said to me one time, he said, “How can a man be the way?” Well, I said, “It’s like a fireman climbing up a ladder, he holds out his hands, says, ‘I am the way.’ He’s the way down. The way down is the man. The man picks you up and carries you down.” “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” Now, if you’ve never received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you ought to do it tonight. You say, “Well, preacher, how do I do it?” You do it by faith! Just simply say, “Lord, I believe what the fellow said about my condition, about my destiny, my destination, and tonight I’ll accept Your Son the best way I know how as my Savior.” Isn’t that simple? Isn’t that simple? Anybody could do that here tonight. Any of these boys and girls, 4 years old and up, can understand that.
You boys, you don’t want to go to hell when you die, do you? You want to burn? Nobody in their good senses wants to burn. You older folks tonight, some of you gray-headed, white-headed, well on your way, you don’t want to go to hell when you die. You say, “I don’t believe it.” Well, what if it’s true? What if it’s true? That message has been preached for 1,900 years, just like that. Must be true. What if it is true? Will you accept Christ as your Savior tonight? If you will, say, “Lord, I will.”
I don’t have more than a couple of thousand there in 15 to 20 years of ministry, and I know some men that get that many in a year in some of the meetings.
[45:20] Text Slide
“15 to 20 years in the ministry” Ruckman was ordained in 1950. Ruckman puts 20 as the max time. 1950 + 20 = 1970. Even if it isn’t 1970 exactly. Still golden era young Ruckman.
[45:26] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
One time down in Pensacola, I was able to lead an atheist to the Lord. And to lead that fellow to the Lord, I used R. A. Torrey’s method. And it isn’t original, but it’s a good method and it works. Uh, that kid was a... he had a a mother who was a widow, and she worked hard in a restaurant to raise him right, and prayed for him every day of his life, and he was 18 years old and he still wasn’t saved, and he went off and joined the Marines at 18. And I didn’t see him again till I was saved. And then when I got saved, I came back to Pensacola and was preaching one night, and here was this old boy out in the audience, and he was a Marine. And a big old strapping boy, skin just like leather, just tough as nails. Then he was about 23. And, uh, at the end of the invitation, down he came, and came up to me and said, “Pete,” he said, “I... I want to be saved,” he said, “but I don’t even believe there’s a God.” And I said, “Well, are you willing to find out if there is one?” And he said, “Well, yeah, but I don’t believe in one.” I said, “Never mind that. Are you willing to find out if there is one?” He said, “Well, yeah, I’m willing.” I said, “Come on.”
Now, I took him back in the prayer room and we knelt down, and I said, “Now, you pray after me. If you’re sincere, if you really want to find out, you pray after me.” And I said, “Dear God,” and he said, “But Pete, I don’t believe there is a God.” I said, “Never mind that.” I said, “Pray: Dear God, if there is a God...” And he said, “Dear God, if there is a God.” And I said, “If I am a sinner...” and he said, “If I am a sinner.” I said, “I want to know it right now.” And he said, “I want to know it right now.” I said, “Amen.” He said, “Amen.” I said, “Let’s try another one.” I said, “Dear God, if there is a God...” He said, “Dear God, if there is a God.” “And if Jesus Christ was Your Son...” He said, “If Jesus Christ was Your Son.” I said, “I want You to show me right now.” He said, “I want You to show me right now.” I said, “Amen.” He said, “Amen.” I said, “Do you mean that prayer?” He said, “Yeah, I meant it.” I said, “Let’s try another one.” I said, “Dear God, I know I’m a sinner.” And he said, “Dear God, I know I’m a sinner!” (laughter)
And I’ll make a long story short, I put him through eight of those things, and we got to the last one, he was down there on his face, bawling and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner, and save my poor rotten soul for Jesus’ sake, Amen!” And he went out of there a saved man. Walked out the door, went to his mother out there in the front, she’s out there in a little old, uh, third-hand car that she’d been driving about 10 years waiting for him, and he came up and stood by that car, and I said, “Tell your mama what you did.” Now, I’ll... I’ll never forget it. That big old Marine standing there, you know, just had a couple of stripes on him, been in about four or five years, standing there looking down at that little old wizened-up woman, you know, been working for him all her life, he looked down there like that, her only son, and she said, “What’d you do, son?” And I thought for a minute he wasn’t going to make it. (laughter) I mean, he had that expert infantry, you know, sharpshooter, marksman, all that business sticking up in here, and he looked down like that, you know, and got tremble, you know, and dry around the mouth, and I said, “Tell her what you did.” And she said, “What’d you do, son?” that she’d been praying for him all those years. And that old boy looked down and he said, “Ooooh, Mama!” (screams/crying effect, laughter) And he just got all torn up, he never made it! And he just got bawling, and he fell down and grabbed hold of the side of that car this way, and then looked up at her and said, “I got saved!” (laughter) And she got out of that car, and they knelt out there in front of the church. Man, had a camp meeting right out there on the ground in front of the church! I mean, don’t you want to be a soul winner? I mean, what could be any duller than the Beatles?
Now listen, get the fish in the boat! Christ said, “Follow me, and I’ll make you to be fishers of men.” Don’t... don’t lose ’em here! You... did you know I... I make my preaching, i-is just as rough and mean as it can be (chuckles) until I get to the place where, “Will you receive Jesus Christ?” And when I get to the place, “Will you receive Jesus Christ?” I wouldn’t put anything in the world between you and the Cross. Nothing! I’d make it just as hard as I could for you until I got there. When I got there, I’d just open the door and say, “Jump, buddy, it’s free!” (laughter) And that’s the way it is!
Why, young people, listen to me. If Jesus Christ loved you enough to die for you, do you think He’s going to keep you waiting there all night if you come to Him? I mean, come on now! If He loved you enough to die for you, do you think He’s going to keep you standing there all night? If you stand there all night in an invitation, it’s just because you want to stand there instead of coming to Him. He’ll take you the minute you come. He’ll take you the second you come. Now, there are all kinds of ways of giving an invitation. Now, I don’t care what kind of invitation it is, if it’s an invitation to receive Jesus Christ, that’ll do it. Folks say, “What about all these folks that go down that don’t mean business?” Well, that’s not my business, that’s the Lord’s business. It’s my business to give a clear invitation, it’s my business to make it plain. And if I make it... make it plain, and you act on it, and you come, receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior, I take you to be a boy or girl of your integrity, or a man or woman of your word. And when I give an invitation to receive Jesus, and you come, I take for granted you’re doing what... I take for granted you mean what... what you’re doing.
Why, you know, you can invite folks to come and kneel, that’s good, I like that. You can invite ’em to go to a prayer room, you can invite ’em to come and just take a seat in the front row, it don’t matter how you do it, as long as the invitation is clear, see? Why, I know a fellow go down an aisle and kneel down, pray for 30 minutes, and get up and jump up in the air and yell, “Glory to God, hallelujah!” and be just as lost as when he went down. And listen, I’ve known a fellow to come down, take a seat in the front of a church, shake hands with the preacher and say, “Yes, I will take Christ,” and the fellow today’s in the ministry. Now, do you understand what I’m saying? What I’m saying is, the important thing is: receiving Jesus Christ! I don’t care how you do it! If I said, “If you will receive Christ your Savior, come up and stand on your head on that organ,” that’s a legitimate invitation! (laughter) Folks say, “Well, you can’t get saved standing on your head on an organ.” You can if that’s the invitation! (laughter) Some of ’em say, “Well, you can’t get saved taking the preacher’s hand.” Yes, you CAN, if the invitation is, “If you will take Jesus Christ as your Savior, come and give me your hand!” See, that’s the invitation. You can have ’em kneel, you can have ’em stand, go to the prayer room, any way you want to do it, but the invitation is for Jesus Christ. That’s the invitation.
Now, a good way to do it is just ask a man to... to give you his hand. You know, when I was saved, the preacher led me to the Lord, led me to the Lord in a radio station. And I’d just finished playing Doris Day, and Gordon MacRae, and Rosemary Clooney, and all the loonies and boonias, and... and I was just coming off with that, and... and this fellow come... came by there, and he said, uh, he said, uh, “Morning.” I said, “Hi, preacher, what do you know?” He said, “I know the Lord Jesus Christ, what do you know?” I about swallowed my stogie, and I said, “Well, I don’t know Him, but I’d like to know Him.” And he said, “Well, what are you waiting for?” And I said, “What do you mean, what am I waiting for?” He said, “Come here.” He took me back in the record room, took out a Bible, he said, “You believe this is the Word of God?” I said, “Yeah, I say it.” He said, “You believe you’re a sinner?” I said, “Oh yeah, I know I’m a sinner.” He said, “You believe Christ died for sinners?” I said, “Well, I guess He did.” He said, “You believe He could save a sinner?” I said, “Well, I suppose He could.” He said, “Well, you believe He could save you?” I said, “I don’t know.” And he said, “Well, would you ask Him to save you?” I said, “Sure.” I lived 27 years in sin, man, I know a good deal when I saw it. (laughter) And that’s the first time I ever heard the Gospel right there.
And he said, “Would you ask Him to save you?” I said, “Sure.” He said, “All right, take my hand.” So I took his hand. He said, “Now bow your head.” I bowed my head. He said, “Now go on and pray.” And I said, “I only know two prayers, Hail Mary and Our Father.” (laughter) And he said, “Well, just in your own words, ask Him to save you.” So I bowed my head, and closed my eyes, well, I’m not much good at praying, he said, “Just in your own words.” So I said... uh-huh-huh... got through the thing, you know, and it must have been horrible. (laughter) I mean, I’d been four years at DI in hand-to-hand, you know, and I couldn’t talk without cussing every five words, I just cussed right through the prayer, you know, got to the end of it. (laughter) And when I got to the end of it, he looked up at me, and he said, “Did you really mean that prayer?” (laughter) And I said, “You blankety-blank right I meant it!” (laughter) And he said, “Well, he said, if you meant that prayer,” he said, “you’re saved.” I said, “I don’t feel any different.” He said, “You’re not supposed to feel any different.” Now, I said, “Well, how do I know I’m saved then?” He said, “You just know.” I said, “No, I don’t.” He said, “Yes, you do.” I said, “I do not.” (laughter) He said, “You do so.” I said, “I don’t either.” He said, “You do too.” You know, for a minute there, it was getting kind of thick. (laughter) And he took out that Bible, he turned to 1 John 5:13, and he said, “Read it.” And it said, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know ye have eternal life.” He says, “God says there you know, do you know or don’t you?”
[49:34] Text Slide
That’s my testimony as of December, December 19th, 1970.
[49:51] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
... on something like $80 a month, a hopeless case. His only comfort left is liquor. And that’s the end of the family line. Uh, the sister died, I had a younger sister named Tody or Marion, she’s dead now, without ever confessing Christ. My two aunts that were living both died without confessing Christ, although one of ’em at one time made some statements that might lead somebody to think that perhaps maybe she had had an experience many years ago. My one uncle died of cancer, unsaved, and, uh, that’s the end of the family line, there isn’t any more. I’m the last of ’em.
[51:20] Text Slide
Dr. Ruckman uses “without confessing Christ” and unsaved interchangeably.
[51:25] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
... shoppe by the newsstand on the corner of Palafox and Garden Street that was open back in those days. It was a restaurant in there, and half of it was open early morning breakfast. I went on down to the radio station, opened up the radio station. I opened up the radio station, that morning, in the morning hour, along came a little old country Baptist preacher named Hugh Pyle, who was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Brent, Pensacola. He came in there and sat down, gave his talk, got up and walked out. And missing contact with him, I came back to the control room and found a tract left on the console, the turntable there, the old Gates, uh, turntable with the console. I’d never seen a tract before. That was the first one I’d ever seen in my life. I picked it up and opened it up and read it. It was a little booklet consisting of about 20 or 25 pages. I’ll never forget it. That book had in it the plan of salvation, the first time I’d ever seen it in my life. I was 27 years old, I’d been in 38 of the 48 United States and four foreign countries. Been across in the Canadian border. And I had never seen a Gospel tract.
I read it. At the end of that Gospel tract, it said this: “Since I am not a hypocrite, and am not afraid to tell people what I believe and how I think, I now sign this blank”... there was a blank place there...“saying that here at this moment I do accept for time and eternity the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.” Then below that, there was a second blank, and it said, “Since I am not a hypocrite, and am not afraid to take a clear-cut stand for either side, I reject Christ as my Savior, and not believing that He was God’s Son or that He died for me, I am unaffraid and unashamed to sign my name in this blank and confess that I do this moment reject Him as my Lord and Savior.” And then the tract ended with words to the effect: “If you’re not a hypocrite, sign one of these two blanks.” Well, that put it over pretty plain now, didn’t it? I’ve always appreciated that kind of thing. I must confess it made me kind of uncomfortable, (chuckles) but at the same time, I couldn’t help but admire the man who wrote that thing. I said to myself, “Now, that... that makes sense. That’s right or left, up or down, heaven or hell. Now, that’s clear.”
I’d had just about enough of Hegel, I guess. I said, “Now, that thing’s clear.” And I said to myself, “Since I don’t really know anything about Christ or about the, uh, Savior and all this kind of stuff, why, I’ll just sign my name saying I reject Him.” I picked up the pen. I looked at the two blanks. The two blanks said: “For time and eternity.” Well, I didn’t believe in eternity up till about January, but the longer I looked at those two blanks, the more it occurred to me that a man would have been a fool to sign the second blank. Because if there was any possibility, a mathematical probability or statistical probability, that the things in the tract were so, then a man had cut his throat. And I said to myself, “Well now, regardless of what you know or don’t know, you’d be a blank idiot to sign that second blank. Because if you don’t know, you don’t know, and if you don’t know, the other side might be true.”
I signed the first blank. Put the tract away, forgot it, and later lost it. But the week went on. At the end of the week, around Friday, in came this Baptist preacher and sat down again. And that morning, another very strange thing happened. I was watching him through the glass of the announcer’s booth, between the announcer’s booth and the studio, had my cigar as usual, my Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola in the studio, beer when you left it. And I set his program up and began to audition records. You see, most radio announcers were like me, when a religious program came on, they’d shut the thing off with a switch so they couldn’t hear it and then play good music. Good music in this case meaning jazz music through it until the program was over. And many an announcer flipped the wrong switch and put the jazz music on the air in the middle of a religious program, that’s happened more than five times, I can assure you. I had a friend in, uh, Mobile, Alabama, WKRG, that had to put on the Lutheran Hour Sunday morning, Walter Maier. And they come on there saying, “The Lutheran Hour, bringing Christ to the nation.” And as soon as he said, “bringing Christ to the nation,” my friend flipped the switch and got the wrong channel through there, and a Dixieland jazz band came in. (laughter) And we used to laugh about things like that, that’s a big joke.
Well, anyway, this morning I didn’t turn on my music. I watched this little preacher through the glass, and to me he was a curiosity. Of course, I was a curiosity to him. (chuckles) And now that I’m saved, you see those things very clearly, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, and if any man is in Christ, he’s a new creature, not creation like the corrupt Scofield Bible and the ASV, a new creature. And I was looking through that glass watching him sitting there, and a voice I hadn’t heard for about four or five nights said, “Now, you’re always talking about men, and you’re always talking about guts and being a man, why don’t you check that fellow out right there, he’s a man.” I looked at him through the glass. He was small, he was skinny, he was pale, he had freckles, he had glasses. He was three or four years older than I was, but he... he looked 10 years younger than I looked. I was 27, he must have been 33 or 34, he didn’t look a day over 19. Looked like a girl. And I said, “Ah, that’s no... that’s no man.” And the Lord said, “Now, if you don’t think that fellow’s got guts,” and He said “guts”, G-U-T-S, He didn’t say “intestines” like the New Scofield Reference Bible, translating “stink” to “odious”, (laughter) I don’t know who wrote that Bible, but the Lord didn’t write it. And He said, “If you don’t think that man’s got guts, you just check him when he comes out.” I said, “All right, I will.”
I was raised to do what I was told. Spin the record, spin the record. Get on the truck, get on the truck. Get off the truck, get off the truck. Ready, aim, fire. Ready, aim, fire. Run up the hill, run up the hill. Hit the dirt, hit the dirt. Someone told me to go jump in the lake one time over there in Manila during a drunken party in New Years, so I went out in the middle of the bay and jumped in it, nearest place I could find. (laughter) I said, “All right, I’ll check him.”
So out he came. When he got through preaching, he came out and walked by the door, and as he passed by the door of the record room, which is on the right-hand side of the announcer’s booth as you head north leaving the building, walking by Melvin Young’s office on the second floor of Hannah Pharmacy at Gregory and Palafox, I said, “Hey there, preacher, what do you know?” He turned around and stopped in the doorway and said, “I know the Lord Jesus Christ. What do you know?” Well, I liked to flipped. I didn’t know what in the world to do. I liked to swallowed my stogie. And I said, “Well, uh, I said, ‘I don’t... I don’t know Him.’” And he looked at me right smack in the eyeballs and said, “Well, would you like to know Him?” And I said, “Uh, yes, as a matter of fact, I would.” And he said, “Well, what are you waiting for?” And that floored me. I got floored a lot of times that morning. I said to myself, “What am I waiting for?” I thought to myself, “Is this man crazy? Why, for three months I’ve been taking convert courses in catechism, I’ve been putting the ashes on my forehead on Ash Wednesday, I’ve been taking the palm leaves home and putting them up on the mantel on Palm Sunday, all throughout the week, I’ve given up beer for Lent, I’ve been tithing for weeks, putting money in the alms box, giving money to beggars out on the street, and this guy said, ‘What are you waiting for?’” For 27 years I’d hunted. I’d ransacked the libraries of this world. I’d gone through experiences in... in Buddhism, and then Rosicrucianism that some of the teachers hadn’t had. And this man says, “What are you waiting for?” I must have smirked. I thought to myself, “Well, you’re crazy.” And I said, “Uh, I don’t know.” And he said, “Well, come here.”
And I followed him, we went back in the record room, narrow room with record shelves on both sides up to the ceiling, hundreds of records. And there, right in the midst of Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw, and Stan Kenton, and Patty Page, and Doris Day, and Gordon MacRae, and Fats Waller, and Nat King Cole, and Perry Como, and Vic Damone, and Cozy Cole, and Ella Fitzgerald, and Mildred Bailey, and Louis Armstrong, and Nat King Oliver, and Bunk Johnson, and Woody Herman, and Will Bradley, and the rest of ’em, I bowed and prayed and asked Jesus Christ to save me for the first time in my life, in so many words. That preacher took out a Bible and put it right in front of my face and said, “Do you believe this is the Word of God?” I said, “Yep.” That’s it! That’s it! And you know something? If he’d pulled that book out six months ago, I’d have probably said just what I said to the lieutenant himself at the replacement depot in Angeles, Philippines, in the Luzon Islands, which is southwest of the town going toward the Mariveles Mountains. I’d have said, “Put it away, it’s a bunch of baloney.” But I didn’t say it then. I’d read that book January, February, March, I knew what that book was. That book was a living word of the living God. And I said, “That’s it.”
He said, “Do you believe you’re a sinner?” I said, “Sure I’m a sinner. I know I’m a sinner.” And he said, “Do you believe that Christ died for sinners?” And I said, “Well, I guess He did.” He said, “Do you believe He can save a sinner?” I said, “Well, I suppose He could.” He said, “Do you believe He can save you?” (sighs) I said, “Well, I don’t know whether He could or not.” He said, “Well, are you willing to ask Him to save you?” And I said, “Sure.” And he said, “All right, if you’ll ask Him to save... save you, give me your hand.” He held out his hand, I shook his right hand. He said, “Now bow your head and pray.” I said, “I don’t know how to pray.” He said, “Well, just go on and pray in your own words, just the best way you know how.” I said, “I’m not... I’m not much at praying,” I said, “I know Hail Mary, I know Our Father, but I... I don’t know how to pray myself.” And he said, “Well, just in your own words, ask Christ to save you.” I said, “Okay.” So I bowed my head and prayed. I prayed about, uh, a minute by the clock, and in that minute I... the guy said about eight cuss words. (laughter) And when I got through, he was smiling, and I said, “What are you laughing at?” And he said, “Did you really mean that prayer?” And I said, “You blankety-blank right I meant it!” (laughter) And he said, “Well, he said, if you meant that prayer,” he said, “you’re saved.” I said, “I don’t feel any different.” He said, “You’re not supposed to feel any different.” And I said, “Well, how do I know I’m saved then?” He said, “You just know.” I said, “No, I don’t.” He said, “Yes, you do.” I said, “I do not.” (laughter) He said, “You do so.” I said, “I don’t either.” He said, “You do too.” You know, for a minute there, it was getting kind of thick. (laughter) And he took out that Bible, he turned to 1 John 5:12, and he said, “Read it.” 1 John 5:13. And I read it, and it said, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know ye have eternal life.” He says, “God says there you know, do you know or don’t you?”
He says, “God says there you know you have eternal life. Now, do you know or don’t you?” And I read that thing. I read it slowly and carefully, and I said, “Well, uh, I guess I do.” He said, “What do you mean you guess you do? The verse says you KNOW you do!” I read it again. It said, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know ye have eternal life.” He said, “Now God says there you know you have eternal life. Now, do you know or don’t you?”
I said, “Well, uh, yeah, I guess I do.” He said, “What do you mean, guess? Read it again.” I read it again. And, brother, he said, “You don’t think God’s a liar, do you?” I said, “No, no, no, no, no, no, I don’t think that.” I’d read enough of that Bible to know that. He said, “Well, God says there that He wrote those things to you that you might KNOW that you have eternal life. Now, do you know or don’t you?” And boy, I’m telling you, I was between a rock and a hard place. And I said, “Well,” I said, “uh, okay, I know.” Although I must confess I felt like I was lying when I said it. And he said, “All right,” he said, “uh, would you be ashamed to confess Christ before men?” I said, “No.” He said, “All right, you come out to my church, and next Sunday night make a public confession of Christ.” I said, “Uh, okay, I’ll be there.”
[54:46] Robert Breaker
So, I don’t beat around the bush. I don’t tell people, “Just ask God to save you,” because they may do that with the mouth and not believe from the heart. Now, they might not get saved till years later. Or they might not get saved at all. They might be lost and go to hell thinking they were a Christian because they said, “But I did...” but that’s not what saves you.
[55:56] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
Not be saved, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. About five years ago, I think it was, a fellow in Dallas got up on a tower, as well as Dallas, it’s another fellow, at a university or school there, and he shot a bunch of people on the campus. I mean, just picked ’em off like squirrels, just... I guess for the fun of it, nobody could figure out any motive. And they got him down and they buried him, and he was orthodox. Course, he was a murderer, but he was orthodox! He had everything but life. I checked on that fellow, one of the most orthodox fellows you ever met in your life. He had a catechism, which I have read.
Well, bred people, cultured people, maybe they’re people that have some of this world’s goods, when so many don’t. But Lord, You said in Your book if they don’t have life, they’re dead. You said in Your book the dead can bury the dead. You said in the book we’re born dead in trespasses and sin, we believe the book. And we don’t disbelieve it because You said it, we believe it because we know it to be so. And Father, we pray now in Jesus’ name the Holy Spirit of God will activate and quicken and bring to life any person here this morning that doesn’t have life. Heads bowed and eyes closed. Let’s remain in prayer just a few minutes before the invitation.
How many people here this morning can raise your hand... I’m not going to ask you to do this to embarrass you, but just for testimony... how many people in this building this morning can raise your hand and say, “Preacher, I know I have life. I’ve got it. This morning I know I’m alive in Christ. I know when I got my life, I know where I got it, and I’ve got life and I know it.” Will you raise your hand, let me see it? Hold your hands up high just a moment.
All right, put ’em back down. Now, if you couldn’t raise a hand, if you couldn’t raise a hand, will you do this: this morning, will you by faith accept God’s gift? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God will GIVE you life. He’ll take that old dead man, resurrect him, give him a new birth. And you can go out of this building this morning knowing that come hell or high water, judgment or death, you HAVE life. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” It has nothing to do with a faith or beliefs. It has nothing to do with religions. It has nothing to do with churches. It has nothing to do with sacraments. It has to do with the Son. “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Will you accept the Son? Will you receive Him? It has nothing to do with what you’re going to do about your sins, you can’t do anything with ’em but just die in ’em.
It has nothing to do with what you’re going to do after you leave here. You’ll mess up a hundred times before you hit the grave, probably. He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Father, bless the message, bless the invitation, save the unconverted in our midst, and speak to them about these matters by Your Spirit, and say what I can’t say, and do what I can’t do, for Jesus’ sake, Amen. Amen. 375, let’s turn to 375 in the hymnal. We’ll sing about four stanzas of Hymn 375.
(Music playing)
Ah, here’s, uh, Brother Rimmer, you come down here a minute? Just stand right over here. Now here’s a young man. Are you saved? You know you’re saved? Could you lead a man to Christ? Thanks. Here’s a young man. Is there a young man in this building? You haven’t been saved, you don’t know how to be saved? Here’s a young man about your age. Come down, let him show you how to get saved.
Mrs., uh, Mrs. Mitchell, you come down here out over here? Here’s a Christian lady here. Knows she’s saved, knows how to lead people to Christ. You woman here this morning? You can get saved just like that. You’ll lead ’em to Christ if they come, won’t you? You know how to do it? See? See? You haven’t got an alibi in the world here if you’re unsaved this morning. You haven’t got...
Uh, Brother Moore, would you come down? Here’s a married man, a little bit older than Brother Rimmer. You man here this morning? You’ve not been born again, you haven’t been saved? Why, step right down here right now and take him by the hand, he’ll lead you to Christ in less than five minutes. Five minutes. Then I know you’re on here, folks, for just the old-time religion, yeah. You come around here looking for something else, that’s all you’re going to get. And there ain’t no preacher to it in the preaching of the Word that can save you, Jesus Christ can save you. I got people in this church here who lead souls to... to Christ just as quick as I can, some of ’em may have led more people to Christ than I have, personally, individually.
There’s a girl, uh, Whitey? Are you saved? Come over here a minute. Just stand right here. You know how to lead a boy to Christ? All right, set boy, how old are you, boy? 10? Here’s a 10-year-old boy. Is there a boy here this morning? You’ve not been saved? Uh, here’s a live one. Right there. There’s a live one. If you’re a dead one, come on and get saved. You’ve got nothing to wait for. This girl right here, that one with the Gilligan hat, out here? Yes. How about you coming down here on this left? Now the Lord is going to fix you up, the Lord’s got this thing working, so you’re not going to deal with a preacher. When you... when you reject the Lord Jesus Christ, your... your argument’s not with me, the Lord’s got a perfect mate for you, a perfect match for you anywhere in this world. If you’re an unsaved lawyer, I know a lawyer that’s got life in him, he’s in Panama City, his name is Herbert Sapp. If you’re a doctor and you’re unsaved, I got a doctor to match you, got a saved doctor here in town. If you’re a high school student, there are saved high school students here, in fact, you’re not going to get out. You’re not going to... How old are you, young lady? 14? Here’s a 14-year-old girl. Is there a young teenage girl here in this building this morning, you’ve not been saved? You can get saved right now. And I won’t say anything to you. I won’t say a word to you. We’ll sing, you just come on, I won’t even say any more than just “God bless you” when you come. And somebody your own age will take care of you. Just come on out in the aisle. Let’s sing another stanza.
[61:34] Text Slide
I am going to show you the next few minutes again for one reason: to prove that none of this is cherrypicked or deceptively edited to make you think Ruckman believed in something he didn’t.
[61:39] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
All right, let’s have a word of prayer. Father, we pray the Holy Spirit be manifest in this hour, and no man be seen or fellow heard. I pray, Father, the river of the water of life be so deep in this building that the only thing anybody sees is the head, the Lord Jesus Christ above the waters, that might trust Him as a Savior, and come to Him with their problems and trials and temptations, lay ’em at His feet. Father, we pray tonight if there’s anybody in this building that’s never been saved, that’ll trust You as a Savior right this minute. We pray they pass from death to life and take Your yoke and learn of You, because You’re meek and lowly, and Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light. Bless the invitation prayer just a few minutes while the pianist plays.
I don’t know everybody here tonight at the chapel tonight, I see some guests, I don’t know whether you’re saved or not, but is there anybody here tonight who’s not saved? Is there anybody here tonight who has never received Christ, you’ve never been to Christ as your Savior? If there’s anybody here like that tonight, would you raise your hand right now and say, “Preacher, I’ve never been saved, pray for me.” Would you raise your hand? Is there anybody like that here tonight? Would you raise the hand? You’re all saved?
All right, let’s tarry a few minutes if you’re all saved, uh, the sins, and the disappointments, and the burdens, and the guilt, and the worry isn’t where it ought to be. Not in you, on Him. He gave the invitation. He said, “Take my yoke, I’ll help you pull it, you and Me get in the yoke together.” And He said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Father, bless the message, may the Lord Jesus Christ be real to us, real in our lives. Heavenly Father, may these things we’ve spoken about tonight be real to us, may we not forget ’em in the trying hour, may we apply ’em, Father, and be doers of the Word and not hearers only, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
All right, we’re going to close here. I... I guess all you people here tonight are saved people, I hope you are. You never can tell, though. We had one young man here tonight came down to the school to get some books for a bookstore up north, and he said he got saved in a... in a Saturday night Bible class down there at Brent on Daniel and Thessalonians or something. I never... give ’em a testimony, tell ’em.
[63:34] Testifier in Ruckman’s Church
I... confessing Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord, and from that day He’s taken me through the tribulations, uh, He’s taken me out from... That’s no easy way, it’s not a path of bed of roses, and, uh, I... I sat in a Baptist church for... hours... and, uh, I knew that I wasn’t saved, uh, and then there came the realization that I was a dirty rotten sinner and all my righteousness was filthy rags, and, uh, I came to realize that salvation was in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and at that night, I just, uh, got down on my knees and asked the forgiveness of God, and, uh, asked the Lord Jesus Christ to save me, and I’ve been praising the Lord ever since, amen.
[64:24] Robert Breaker
No. Has the moon turned to blood? Has, uh, the sun turned to darkness? No. So this is right here. (points to chart) So what are you doing going around telling people just with your mouth come to God and ask Him to save you, and calling Him, when that’s more over here? Why aren’t you preaching Paul over here, trust what Jesus did? You... you sound like an absolute fool who doesn’t know your Bible if that’s the only verse you’re taking people to to try to win ’em to the Lord. Are you literally telling them, “Hey, do this, because I don’t want you to go to the rapture?” (laughs) Hey, I’m just ask... I mean, when a guy’s left behind at the rapture, he’s going to get mad. Guess who he’s going to get mad at first: his preacher. “Why am I here? He told me I got saved by repeating a prayer!” Huh!
[65:35] Text Slide
That young man (according to Robert Breaker) was not saved, to put it lightly.
I will now show you the full, unedited clip. Robert Ray Breaker II, the father of Robert Ray Breaker III, went to church in the late 1970s to early 1980s.
Ruckman is using active verbs when telling his members to be saved by repeating this prayer after him: “Bow your head back there and say, ‘Lord, it may cost me something, but I’m going to do it.’”
The phrase “may cost” is an active verb. This is not the verb choice of someone who is already saved and simply confessing that fact. Instead, it is the verb of someone in the process of getting saved, which aligns with Dr. Ruckman’s teaching that belief and confession were both requirements for salvation.
[66:09] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
What will you do with Jesus? What will you do with Jesus? Neutral you cannot be. Someday your heart will be asking, “What will He do with me?”
Now right now, you can do anything you want to with Him. Reject Him, ignore Him, praise Him, love Him, yawn Him off, use His name as a cuss word, help yourself. And listen, one second after the Lord takes your soul finally, and I don’t mean life after life with some fake death, one second after your soul is gone not to return, He’ll do to you anything He wants to do.
Let’s stand for prayer, shall we? Heads bowed and eyes closed, please. We’re going to pray in a minute. Before we pray, is there anybody in this building here this morning that’s been trying to get rid of the decision of receiving Jesus Christ? You’ve been unable to receive Him, and put Him off, and you put the thing off and put it off? While we’re in prayer, heads bowed and eyes closed, let me give you the best advice you’ll ever get this side of the grave: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
While we’re in prayer, while the musicians are playing, heads bowed and eyes closed. If you’re here this morning, you haven’t made the decision, will you make it today? Will you make it now? God help you. God help you, now, today. Ah, come on, man, moral courage. Moral courage. Fortitude, principle, guts. Bow your head back there and say, “Lord, it may cost me something, but I’m going to do it.” It may cost me my family or my job. Might cost you more than that, for it’s all over. But I’m going to do right, I’m going to take Christ my Savior, God help you. Man or woman, when you’ve lost courage, you’ve lost it all.
I don’t know what God has for you in the next 10, 20 years, for Lord tarries, but I know you’re at the crossroads right now. If Pilate just could have risen to the occasion, it’d have been a different life. But he couldn’t make it. He couldn’t make it. So he went on his way, his life just a ruin as it was before. No change, no hope.
Father, bless the invitation this morning. We pray, Father, You’ll align us all this morning with people accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Help ’em to boldly come, and honestly come, and hopefully come, and joyfully come. And Father, You... You know what some are up... up against, fighting fears within and without right now, and may they overcome these fears, and give ’em the courage that... that this plastic, pliable Pilate didn’t have. This poor man that lost his soul because he couldn’t stand against something. God help ’em now this... this morning to take Your side against themselves, and side, “Declare myself this morning for Jesus Christ, and against my own wickedness, against my religion, against my righteousness, against my very soul, I’m on the Lord’s side.” And help to do something about it this day, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
[68:53] Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
... give you for this message, I call this thing up here the Gospel Punchboard, (chuckles) because you take a chance almost any place you land on it. And this thing here has every doctrine in it that deals with salvation. Doesn’t look like much, but when you get into it, it has all the doctrines of salvation on it. For example, A-B-C. Getting saved is as easy as A-B-C. A, admit you’re a sinner, B, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, C, confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Getting saved’s easy as A-B-C. The problem with folks is the first thing right there, that’s the problem. They’ll believe about Christ, they’ll confess Christ, but they won’t admit that they’re not righteous. They won’t admit that they’re sinners. They won’t admit that they can’t save themselves. The hardest part’s the first part. A, admit; B, believe; C, confess.
Now listen, you’re not saved by confessing your sins, you’re saved by confessing Christ. I wonder who it is that taught you you were saved by confessing your sins? Oh, I wonder who that could be! (laughter) I wonder if it was the fellow you folks up here claim was saved by confessing his sin? (snort) Mmm-mmm. That Bible doesn’t say you’re saved by confessing your sins, that Bible says after a man’s saved, he can stay clean by confessing his sins. But you were told you’d get saved by confessing your sins. Judas confessed his and went to hell, Balaam confessed his and went to hell, Saul confessed his and you don’t know where he is. You don’t... you’re not saved by confessing your sins, you’re saved by confessing Christ.
