Now, don’t think that I’m a Universalist that believes that everybody’s saved and will be; I do not, no, sir. I believe that all those—everybody was saved as far as God was concerned, for Jesus paid the full penalty for sin when He died. Now, it will never do you no good until you accept it. See? You have to accept it. And it’s not how hard you cry, how much you beg, how much you persuade; it’s a surrendered heart to God with faith believing He done it. Even our altar calls that we have, in bringing people up around the altar, they didn’t do that in the Bible time; that’s a tradition of our people, originated formally in the Methodist church. But look, it’s a good thing. I don’t like this dry-eyed repentance. I like to see somebody get up and really be sorry for what they done, and really mean it. But no matter how much that you pray, you’ll never be forgiven until you believe you’re forgiven, then you confess that you are, then live like you are. And no one will still know, no matter how much you cry, how much you pray, how much you shout, how many times you speak with tongues, or whatever you do, you’re still not, until the fruits of the Spirit bear record in you. For “By their fruits, you shall know them.” That’s right. “By their fruits…”

Faith Is the Substance, 1951-05-08, Los Angeles, CA, §10