You know, the Bible is really clear on salvation.
It's not based on how good you are.
A lot of people think they're pretty good, you know, and yeah, they're going to get to
heaven because they're pretty good.
But the Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."
The Bible says that it is written, "There is none righteous, no, not one."
I'm not righteous.
You're not righteous.
And if it were our goodness that would get us into heaven, none of us would be going.
Because the Bible even says in Revelation 21, 8, it says, "But the fearful and unbelieving
and the abominable and murderers and sorcerers and whoremongers and idolaters," and listen
to this, "and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone,
which is the second death."
I've lied before.
Everybody's lied before.
So we've all sinned and we've done stuff worse than lying, let's face it.
We all deserve help.
But the Bible says, "But God commanded His love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us."
And so Jesus Christ, because He loves us, came to this earth.
The Bible says He was God manifest in the flesh.
God basically took on human form.
He lived a sinless life.
He did not commit any sin.
And of course, they beat Him and spit on Him and nailed Him to the cross.
The Bible says that when He was on that cross, He Himself bare our sins in His own body on
the tree.
Every sin you've ever done, every sin I've ever done, it was as if Jesus had done it.
He was being punished for our sins.
And then of course, they took His body when He died.
They took His body and buried it in the tomb.
And His soul went down to hell for three days and three nights, Acts 2.31.
Three days later, He rose again from the dead.
He showed under the disciples the holes in His hands.
And the Bible's really clear that Jesus did die for everybody.
It says that He died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
But there's something that we must do to be saved.
The Bible says, it has that question in Acts 16, "What must I do to be saved?"
And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house."
And that's it.
He didn't say join a church and you'll be saved, get baptized and you'll be saved, live
a good life and you'll be saved, repent of all your sins and you'll be saved.
No, He said believe.
And even the most famous verse in the whole Bible that's written on the bottom, I mean
the reference is written on the bottom of the cup at In-N-Out Burger.
I mean it's so famous, everybody's heard of it, John 3.16, "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 everlasting means everlasting, means forever.
And Jesus said, "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand."
The Bible says in John 6.47, "Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath
everlasting life."
So if you believe on Jesus Christ, the Bible says you have everlasting life.
You're going to live forever.
You can't lose your salvation, it's eternal, it's everlasting.
Once you're saved, once you believe on Him, you're saved forever and no matter what you
can never lose your salvation.
Even if I were to go out and commit some awful sin, God will punish me for it on this earth.
If I went out and killed somebody today, you know, God's going to make sure I get punished.
I'm going to prison or far worse or the death penalty.
Whatever this earth punishes me, and God's going to make sure I get punished even more.
But I'm not going to hell.
There's nothing I can do to go to hell because I'm saved.
And if I went to hell, God lied because He promised that whoever believeth in Him has
everlasting life.
And He said, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."
That's why there are a lot of examples of people in the Bible who did some really bad
stuff yet they made it to heaven.
How?
Because they were so good?
No, it's because they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Their sins are forgiven.
Other people who may have lived a better life in the world's eyes, or maybe even really
they lived a better life, they don't believe in Christ.
They're going to have to go to hell to be punished for their sins.
And let me just close on this one thought.
One thing that I wanted to be sure and bring up today is that there was a question that
was asked to Jesus by one of His disciples.
And that question was this, "Are there few that be saved?"
That's a good question, right?
I mean, are most people saved?
Or is it few that are saved?
Now who here thinks that most people are going to heaven?
Most people in this world are going to heaven.
Yeah, guess what the answer was.
He said, in Matthew 7, for example, He said, "Enter ye in at the straight gate."
He said, "Because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction.
And many there be which go in there at, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
And then He went on to say this.
He said, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in
Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me that work iniquity."
And so you see there are people out there.
First of all, the majority of this world doesn't even claim to believe in Jesus.
Thankfully, the majority of this classroom claims to believe in Jesus, okay.
But the majority of the world does not claim to believe in Jesus.
But God warned that even amongst those who claim to believe in Jesus, even amongst those
that call Him Lord, many will be saying to Him, "Oh Lord, we did all these wonderful
works.
Why aren't we saved?"
He's going to say, "Depart from me.
I never knew you."
That's because salvation's not by works.
And if you're trusting your own works to save you, if you think you're going to heaven because
you've been baptized, or if you think you, "Well, I think you have to live a good life.
I think you have to keep the commandments to be saved.
I think you have to go to church.
I think you've got to turn from your sins."
If you're trusting in your works, Jesus is going to say to you one day, "Depart from
me.
I never knew you."
You have to have all your faith in what He did.
You have to put your faith in what Jesus did on the cross.
When He died for you, He's buried and rose again.
That's your taking into heaven.
If you're trusting all the things, "Oh, I'm going to heaven because I'm such a good Christian
and I do all these wonderful things."
He's going to say, "Depart from me."
And notice what He said.
"Depart from me.
I never knew you."
Not, "I used to know you."
Because once He knows you, remember I mentioned this earlier, it's everlasting.
It's eternal.
Once He knows you, you're saved forever.
But He's going to say, "Depart from me.
I never knew you."
Because if you go to hell, it's because He never knew you.
Because once He knows you, He knows you.
It's just like my children will always be my children.
When you're born again, when you're His child, you'll always be His child.
You may be the black sheep of the family.
You may be somebody who gets disciplined by God heavily on this earth.
You can screw up your life down here, but you can't screw that up.
You're saved.
It's a done deal.
And so that's the main thing that I wanted to present to you about the End Times.
And we do have just a few minutes for questions about either salvation or about the End Times.
, and I'll see you next time.