All right, today I want to talk about how to go to heaven.
'Cause a lot of people think that they're good enough to go,
but according to the Bible, none of us are.
It says for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God.
So no matter how good you think you've been,
we've all come short of what it takes to get into heaven
because we've all sinned.
And the sin is just when you break one of God's laws.
So for instance, if I go out and steal something,
I would have broken the law that says thou shalt not steal.
And as you might expect, there's a punishment associated
with breaking the law.
The Bible says for the wages of sin is death.
Or in other words, the payment for sin is death.
You see, you can't pay for your sins by confessing them,
nor can you pay for your sins by repenting of them.
You can only pay for your sins through death.
And that's something that we can't afford to pay.
That's why we have to pay through the death of Jesus instead.
Because if we had to pay with our own death,
we would have to go to the place of death, which is hell.
The Bible says that murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
So this place called the second death is a lake of fire.
It's what we normally just call hell.
And it's saying that everyone from a murderer to a liar
deserves to go to hell to pay for their sins.
Basically, it's saying we've all done something bad enough
to deserve to go to hell.
But that's very bad news because hell's a very bad place.
Once we're there, we can never get out,
though God can save us from hell before we ever go.
So if God were to ask you, "Do you need to be saved?"
Hopefully, you would say yes,
because we all need to be saved.
Well, there was a guy in the Bible
who also needed to be saved, but he didn't know how.
So he asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and now shall be saved."
Now, they didn't tell him he had to come to church
and get baptized to be saved
or keep all the commandments to be saved.
No, they only told him that he had to believe on Jesus.
So to demonstrate this, when Jesus was on the cross,
there were two thieves on the cross with him.
Now, both of them committed a sin, they stole something.
And so according to the Bible,
both of them deserved to go to hell to pay for that sin.
But actually, when they died, one of them went to heaven
and the other went to hell.
The reason the one went to heaven
was because he believed on Jesus, so he got saved.
So then the reason the other didn't go to heaven
was because he didn't believe on Jesus.
It's really just that simple
because Jesus is the one who can save us from hell,
and according to the Bible,
he's the only one that can save us.
It says, "Neither is there salvation in any other,
"for there's none other name under heaven given among men,
"whereby we must be saved."
So according to that,
there's no other God that can save us,
nor can we save ourself.
Only Jesus can save us.
A little bit about Jesus.
First, the Bible says that he's the son of God,
but it also says that he is God.
It says that God was manifest in the flesh.
So basically, Jesus came down from heaven
through the Virgin Mary,
and he lived a perfect, sinless life,
and he also did a lot of miracles.
For instance, he walked on water,
he turned water into wine,
he gave the blind their sight,
he even raised people from the dead.
And he also did a lot of preaching.
But despite all this, not everyone liked him.
So at the end of his life,
he was falsely accused and nailed to the cross.
But when he was on the cross,
he did something very important.
He took the sins of the whole world onto his own body.
The Bible says, "Who his own self bear our sins
"and his own body on the tree,
"that we, being dead to sins,
"should live unto righteousness."
So basically, every bad thing you and I have ever done,
it was as if Jesus did it instead.
And he didn't have to do this,
but he chose to die on the cross with our sins.
Because remember, if we were to die with our sins,
our sins would take our soul to hell.
Because our sins were on Jesus,
our sins actually took his soul to hell instead.
He basically took our place
and paid our punishment of death for us.
And then three days later, his soul comes back into his body,
he comes back to life,
and he bodily went up to heaven where he is today.
This is known as the resurrection.
So again, we all deserve to go to hell to pay for our sins,
though we can get saved if we believe on Jesus.
And specifically, this is what you must believe.
The Bible says how that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures and that he was buried,
and then he rose again the third day
according to the Scriptures.
So it's not just that you believe that he exists,
because a lot of people do.
It's that you're putting your faith,
putting your trust into what he did for you.
And what did he do for you?
He died on the cross for your sins,
he was buried, and he rose again.
Your salvation is dependent only on your faith in that.
It is not on your faith plus your works.
Because the Bible says it's not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us.
And again, it says for by grace are ye saved
through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works,
that any man should boast.
So going to heaven is not about how good or bad you are,
and it's not about what you do for Jesus.
It's only about what Jesus did for you
and just your faith in that.
And because he's the only one that can save us,
he's the only one that we can put our trust in.
That's the 100% trust in him only.
If you're trusting in anything else to get you into heaven,
you're not gonna go.
So for instance, if someone says I believe in Jesus,
but I also believe in the Hindu gods,
when they die, they'll go to hell.
But in the same way, if someone says I believe in Jesus,
but I think that I also have to be a good person,
think I have to go to church and get baptized,
this person will also go to hell when they die,
because they're not fully trusting in what Jesus did.
Basically, you have to stop trusting in yourself,
stop trusting in anything else,
and only trust in what Jesus did to save you.
But if you do that and get saved,
you receive a gift of God.
And the Bible says the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So basically, your spirit that was dead
is brought back to life, and it's given eternal life,
which means that it never ends.
He can never take it away from you.
You can never lose it.
Not only that, the Holy Spirit, which is also God,
comes inside of you and seals you.
And it says that the Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
So also when you get saved, you become born again.
You become a child of God.
And just like you were only born one time from your mother,
you only have to get born again one time.
This is not a process.
If you got saved today, you would become God's child today,
and you would remain his child forever.
And the best part is that God's children
always go to heaven when they die.
They never go to hell.
Because remember, they've been saved from hell.
And to be saved from hell means you'll never go there.
It's literally impossible.
So basically, you become a born again child of God
who's been saved from hell, given eternal life,
and has the Holy Ghost living inside of you.
Imagine that you did that today,
but then tomorrow you went out and stole something.
Would you go to heaven or hell?
According to the Bible, you would still go to heaven.
But because a lot of people might think
that you would go to hell, let me explain it another way.
Imagine growing up and you stole something from your mom.
Obviously, she's gonna punish you,
but you would still be her child.
Well, in the same way, when God catches us stealing,
He's gonna punish us, but we'll still be His child too.
And remember, His children always go to heaven when they die.
They never go to hell.
Basically, you'll go to heaven
just like the thief on the cross did.
He didn't give back the money or anything,
he did die as a thief.
But because he believed on Jesus, he got saved.
But it is very important, God will punish you on earth
if you do bad things.
The Bible says be not deceived, God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
So if I go out and steal something,
I might get stolen from him in return.
If I go hurt somebody, God might hurt me.
You'll get punished for doing bad things here on earth,
but you'll never get punished in hell
because remember, you've been saved from hell.
Let's take another example.
Let's say today you got saved,
but then a year from now you did something awful
like commit murder or even suicide.
According to the Bible,
your soul would still go straight to heaven.
Basically, there's no sin that you could ever commit
to lose your salvation.
Once you're saved, you're always saved,
and this is a promise of God,
and God can never break this promise.
So just to review,
there's a few things that you must believe
in order to be saved.
First, you must believe that you're a sinner,
and you must believe that without Jesus,
you would have to go to hell to pay for that sin.
And you must believe what Jesus did for you,
how that He died on the cross for your sin,
how that He was buried,
and that how He rose again the third day.
And you must be willing to stop trusting in yourself,
stop trusting in anything else,
and only trust in what Jesus did to save you.
And you also must believe that if He saves you,
He'll give you this gift of God, which is eternal life,
which basically means that you can never go to hell
after that, nor can you ever lose your salvation.
So if you believe these things,
the only thing you have to do now is to ask Jesus
to save you, and He'll save you.
The Bible says that if thou shall confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shall believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
So, if you've never made this prayer,
I wanna help you.
Just tell Jesus that you believe this.
You can just bow your head and repeat after me.
Just say, "Dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner,
"and I know that I deserve to go to hell,
"but I believe that you died on the cross for me,
"was buried and rose again.
"Please save me, and take me to heaven when I die.
"I'm only trusting you, Jesus.
"Amen."
So if you believe that in your heart,
and if you ask Jesus to save you,
right now, you're saved, and you have eternal life.
Congratulations.