Have you lived a perfect life?
According to the Bible, none of us have.
It says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
So while God is perfect, we all come short of that because we're all sinners.
Now a sin is the transgression of the law, which means it's when you break one of God's
laws.
For instance, one of the laws was, "Thou shalt not steal."
So if you go out and steal something, you've sinned, you've broken that law.
And as you might expect, there's a punishment associated with breaking the law.
It says for the wages of sin is death, and a wage is just a payment.
So it's saying when you sin, you have to pay for that sin in the form of death.
And we have an example of this.
It says, "But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and 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, is what we would 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.
And we've all at least told a lie before, so basically it's saying we've all done something
bad enough to deserve to go to hell.
But hell's a very bad place.
Once you're there, you can never get out.
Your only hope would be to be saved from hell before you ever go.
So there was a man in the Bible who needed to be saved, but he didn't know how.
So he just asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" and they said, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
Now notice, they didn't say you have to come to church to be saved, or stop sinning to
be saved, or turn over your life to be saved.
There's only one thing that you have to do, and it's to believe in Jesus.
And I'll come back to exactly what that means, but first let's review.
If you know the story, when Jesus was on the cross, there were two thieves on the cross
with him.
Both of them committed this sin, they stole something.
And according to Revelation, they both deserved to go to hell to pay for that sin.
But if you know the story, actually one of them went to heaven when he died, and the
other went to hell.
Well, as we just saw, the reason the one went to heaven was because he believed in Jesus,
so he got saved.
So then the reason the other didn't go to heaven was because he didn't believe in Jesus.
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 is none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved."
So according to this, there's no other God that can save us, nor can we save ourself.
Only Jesus can save us.
So first a little bit about him.
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 lived a perfect,
sinless life.
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.
He also did a lot of preaching, but despite all this, not everyone liked him.
So at the end of his life, he was beaten and crucified.
But when he was on the cross, he did something very important.
He took the sins of the whole world onto his own body.
It 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.
But since our sins were on Jesus, our sins actually took his soul to hell instead.
He took our place and paid our punishment for us.
And then three days later, his soul came back into his body, he came 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, but we can get saved if
we believe in Jesus.
And specifically, this is what you must believe, how that Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that 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 believe he
exists.
It's that you're putting your faith and 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.
So knowing this, do you think it's us living a good life is what saves us?
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, lest 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
faith in.
It has to be 100% faith in him only.
So if someone says, "I believe in Jesus plus another God," when they die they'll go to
hell.
In the same way, if someone says that they believe in Jesus, but they're also trusting
in their own good works, when they die they will go to hell.
Anyone who says they're going to heaven because they're a good person will actually go to
hell when they die.
It's only people who have all of their faith in what Jesus did for them and are not trusting
in their own works that get saved and go to heaven.
But if you do this, if you get saved, you receive this gift of God.
And the Bible says that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So your spirit that was dead is brought back to life and it's given eternal life.
Elsewhere it's called everlasting life, which means that it never ends.
You can never lose it.
He can never take it away from you.
Not only that, the Holy Spirit, which is also God, comes and dwells inside of you.
And then it says that the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God.
So when you get saved, you also 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
of God 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.
So if you put all of your trust in Jesus, you'll become a born again child of God who's
been saved from hell, given eternal life, and has the Holy Spirit living inside of them.
Let's say that you do that, but then afterward you go out and steal something.
Where do you think you would go when you die?
If you thought hell, think about it this way, imagine one of your parents caught you stealing.
Would they punish you?
Of course, right?
But would you still be their child?
Of course.
Well when God catches us stealing, He will punish us for that here on earth, but we'll
still be His child, and because of that, that means we'll go to heaven when we die.
Basically, we'll be just like the thief on the cross who did die as a thief, but because
he believed in Jesus, he went to heaven.
But like I said, God will punish you if you do bad things here on earth.
The Bible says, "Be not deceived.
God is not mocked.
For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
So if you go out and steal something, you might get stolen from in return.
If you go hurt somebody, God might hurt you.
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.
So let's take an even bigger example.
Let's say that you get saved today by putting all of your faith in Jesus, but then a year
from now you do something awful like commit murder.
Obviously you'll get punished for that, it's a very bad sin.
But according to the Bible, when you die, your soul would go to heaven.
There's no sin that you could ever commit to lose your salvation.
Once you're saved, you're always saved.
This is a promise of God and God can never break His promise.
So one final review, ask yourself, do you believe that you're a sinner?
Do you believe that without Jesus, you would have to go to hell to pay for your sins?
Do you believe that Jesus came from heaven, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was
buried and rose again to pay for your sins?
Are you willing to stop trusting in your own works and only trust in what Jesus did in
order for you to go to heaven?
Do you believe that if you do this, you'll receive this gift of God, which means that
you can never lose your salvation or go to hell after that?
The Bible says 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.
So if this is you and you believe this in your heart, all you have to do now is to ask
Jesus to save you and he will save you.
So I'd like to help you tell Jesus that you believe this.
Just repeat this quick prayer after me.
Just say, "Dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that I deserve to go to
hell.
Please save me and take me to heaven when I die.
I'm only trusting in you, Jesus.
Amen.