Buddy, I'd like to ask you a question. If you were to die today, are you 100% sure that you would go to heaven?
Now, if your answer is anything short of "absolutely," then, or even if you say that you're sure, maybe you want to listen to see what the Bible says.
I want to share with you what the scriptures say about how you can know for sure that you will not go to hell, but go to heaven.
This is a very important subject, and the Bible says that we can indeed know for sure.
Some people think, "Well, we can't know that until we actually get to heaven."
But the Bible says in 1 John 5 13, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the Son of God."
So, according to the scriptures, we can know right now that we have, not will get, but we can know that we have right now everlasting life.
And I would like to show to you from the Bible how you can know for sure that you have everlasting life, that you will go to heaven and not hell.
But first we have to understand why people go to hell in the first place. The Bible teaches that we are all sinners.
It says in the book of Romans chapter 3 verse 23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
Sin is defined in the Bible as the transgression of the law, so any time you disobey God's commandments, any time He has said, "Do this," and you don't do it,
any time you've ever broken what is written within His Word, that is a sin, and we're all sinners.
The Bible says there is none righteous, no not one. Nobody's righteous, nobody's good. Jesus said there is none good but one, and that is God.
So in the eyes of God, none of us are good people, none of us are righteous, and therefore we know, just off the bat,
that it's not by being a good person because nobody's a good person. That's not going to get us into heaven.
The Bible teaches that there is a punishment, a consequence for our sins. In Romans 6, 23 it says, "For the wages of sin is death."
Wages would be something that you earn or deserve, okay? The thing that we deserve because of our sins, the consequence we get is death.
That's not just talking about the death of our physical bodies, but the Bible also says in Ezekiel chapter 18, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
So not just our bodies but also our soul, and what that is is described in the book of Revelation as going to a place that is called hell.
So in Revelation 20 it says, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away,
and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were open,
and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged, every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
In this passage we see that there are these people who are described as dead. They are dead, and the dead, small and great, doesn't matter how many there are,
there's just all the dead, every dead person who used to be in this place called death and hell. It says they're delivered out of death and hell, and they stand before God,
and they were judged according to their works. Then they are thrown into the lake of fire, which it says is the second death.
In Revelation 21 8 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 it's not just the death of our physical bodies, but also the death of the soul going to hell, and this place that's called the second death.
You may not have committed some of the sins on this list. I don't know who I'm talking to now, but you might not be a murderer, you might not be a whoremonger, you might not be an idolater,
but it does say all liars, and we've all told lies before. So just one sin is enough to send you to hell in the lake of fire.
But the Bible teaches that God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. He doesn't want us to die and to go to hell. He wants us to be with him.
So the scriptures say, "God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
So even though we're sinners, even though we deserve the punishment of death in hell, God did something so that we can be saved from that.
It says in 1 John 4.14, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus is come into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
The reason why Jesus Christ came into this world is to save us, to save us as sinners, meaning to deliver us, to rescue us, to get us to escape from the fires of hell.
Who is Jesus Christ? Who is this person that the Father, meaning God, sent into this world?
Well, it says in John 1.1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
Later it says, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
So the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, is also himself called God. So Jesus was God in the flesh.
While he was on this earth, the Bible teaches that he lived a perfectly sinless life. It says he was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
So unlike us, who are sinners by nature, who do those things against God's commandments, Jesus, while he walked this earth, did no sin. He was perfect.
And at the end of his life, even though he was perfect, because he had preached against the false religion and the lies of that day, they had put him on a cross. They crucified him. They put him to death.
But he did this for a reason. He allowed himself to be nailed to the cross for a reason.
It says in 1 Peter 2.24, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes year healed."
So according to the Scriptures, when Jesus was on the cross, it was as if he had done our own sins.
It says in the Book of Isaiah, the prophecy about Jesus, it says, "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Meaning every wrong thing that we have ever done, every sin that we ever can commit, that was all placed upon Jesus, and he died in our place.
That's what the Scriptures mean where it says in 1 Corinthians 15 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 that's the Gospel, the fact that Jesus died for our sins, meaning our sins were placed upon him. He died in our place, he was buried, and then he rose again the third day.
So after dying, he was risen again from the dead, and the Bible says he was delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
The reason why Jesus died on the cross and rose again was so that we can become just, so that we can become righteous.
We are not, we are sinners, but through what Jesus Christ has already done, according to the Bible, we can be justified.
That is, to be made just, to be made righteous, so that we can be saved.
So we know that Jesus came to this world to save sinners. We know that what he did in order to save us, the Bible says that he tasted death for every man.
So there's not a person in this world that he didn't die for, but the Scriptures still talk about people that are going to go to hell.
So the question is then, what do we need to do? And there's a lot of religions out there that say, well, you have to get baptized, and you have to go to church, and you have to do all these works and turn from your sins and things like that.
But what does the Bible say? The question of what we must do to be saved is only asked one time in the Bible, and that is Acts chapter 16 verse 30.
Where it says, "And it brought them out and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' And they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thine house.'"
So he says, in response to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" He says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
So what must we do in order to be saved according to the Scriptures? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is how we are saved. That is how we go to heaven. It's through faith.
It says in Ephesians chapter 2. Again, it makes this very clear. Ephesians 2. It says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
A lot of people think that it's by our own works, it's by our own good deeds that we do, but the Bible says it's by grace, which means it's not something we earn through faith.
It is not of ourselves, meaning it's not about us, it's about God, and it says that it is a gift of God. So our salvation and our eternal life is God's gift.
Now imagine for a second if I were to give you this Bible as a gift, and I were to say, "Here, this is a gift, but you have to give me five dollars, or you have to go and mow my lawn or do all this work for me."
Is it really a gift? No, because a gift is something that is free. It even calls it, in Romans chapter 5, a free gift, meaning you don't earn it, you don't deserve it, you don't pay for it.
The one who paid for the gift is the gift giver. That's God. Your salvation, your eternal life is completely dependent upon Him.
He's the one who paid for it by dying on the cross. All you have to do is receive it, and the Bible says it's received by faith.
One of the most famous scriptures in the Bible, John 3.16, Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
And then He said, "For God sent not His Son unto the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
The only reason why people are condemned and why people go to hell is because they do not believe on Jesus. It's because they do not put their trust in Jesus.
Why the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is because it's not enough to just believe that He exists or believe that He's God, but rather to put our faith in Him, to put our trust in Him, the Bible says.
And we trust in Jesus Christ and rely on Him fully, not trusting in our own works, not trusting in the things we do, not thinking that paying and earning it will get us into heaven, but completely relying on God's grace and believing that Jesus died for our sins.
In our heart, when we decide, "I'm going to trust you, Lord. I'm going to put all of my confidence, all of my faith in you, God," when we make that decision within our heart, according to the Bible, we're saved. We have everlasting life.
Because remember, the punishment for sin is hell. The purpose why Jesus came into this world was to save us from hell, to deliver us, to get us out of that.
So therefore, He promises that if we believe, we have everlasting life. Now, what does the word everlasting mean? It means it lasts forever. Same thing as the word eternal, which is also used in the Bible.
So because the Bible says we have eternal life, that means that we can never perish, we can never go to hell, which is called death and hell, and also the second death, the lake of fire.
It says in John 3.36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
So according to the Scriptures, the moment that we believe, we have everlasting life. So if you have decided within your heart, I'm going to trust Jesus Christ and Him alone.
I'm not going to trust my works. I'm not thinking that I'm getting to heaven because of my own good deeds or anything else.
If you turn to Jesus and you put all of your faith in Him according to the Bible, you have everlasting life. Your life will never end. Talking, of course, about the Spirit.
It says in John 10.28, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
And then John 11.26, "Jesus said, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?"
So since the Bible calls hell the place of death, and it says that the lake of fire is the second death, Jesus promises that if you have the faith, you will never die. You will never perish.
So once we're saved, we can never lose that. We have everlasting life. Now, of course, we should want to serve God and live righteously in this world.
The Bible teaches that we are the children of God. But in order to go to heaven, all we must do, and it's pretty simple.
The Bible describes it as a very simple gospel. That all we must do is, within our hearts, trust in Jesus Christ.
Put our faith in Him. Believe that He died for your sins and rose again, according to the Bible.
So to wrap all this up, I would like to share one last scripture with you in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 10.
If you have realized and understand that you're a sinner, those people out there who are not saved, who don't know that you're going to heaven, if you understand you're a sinner and you're on your way to hell,
and you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for your sins and rose again, and you are willing to put all of your trust in Him, that you do put your trust in Him,
then the Bible says in Romans 10 verse 9, "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, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
The way that we show our faith outwardly would be by expressing it with our mouth. The Bible says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
But that in itself, the words that you speak are not what saves you because it says, "How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed."
You need to have that faith. You need to believe within your heart. And once you do, the Bible promises that you are justified, that you are saved from your sins, and you are on your way to heaven.
You have everlasting life. That's all you have to do. It's not by any of our own works. It's not by any of our own deeds.
It's not by going to church or getting baptized. Those are all good things that we should do.
But going to heaven, being saved from hell is all dependent on what Jesus Christ already did.
So trust in him. Trust in him alone and not your own self or your own works or any other false god or savior.
Thank you, everybody, for watching. That's it for today. Goodbye.