This is Pastory and Tavern of a Strong Tower Baptist Church, and I'd like to spend the next several minutes just showing you how you can be 100% sure that when you die one day you'll be going straight to heaven.
The Bible's crystal clear about salvation. It shows us that there's only one thing we have to do to get to heaven. It's very easy.
It's just a few things you need to understand to be able to do that thing. I'd like to just spend the next few minutes showing you those things.
Number one, you need to understand that you're a sinner. The Bible says in Romans 3.10, "As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one."
That means that no one's perfect. I'm not perfect, you're not perfect. In fact, it goes on to say Romans 3.23, "For all have sinned and come sure to the glory of God."
We're all sinners. Every single one of us, we've all sinned. Sin is a transgression of God's law. That means that every time we break one of God's many, many commandments, we're sinning.
I mean, a good summary is the Ten Commandments, which just shows us that we're all sinners. You may not have maybe committed murder. You may not have stolen something.
But many people have bared false witness. Many people have coveted things of others. And there's always something on that list that you've done.
And in fact, that's just a summary of God's law. There are many other things that we've done. But one example is just the thought of foolishness, and that's something that we do every day.
The Bible teaches we're all sinners. We've all come sure to the glory of God because God's pass mark is up there. You, me and everyone else are down here somewhere.
That means we can't be good enough to go to heaven. But then if we can't be good enough to go to heaven, it means we go somewhere else instead because our eternal soul will either live forever or die forever.
And because of sin, we should be on our way to hell. The Bible says in Romans 6.23, "For the wages of sin is death."
It's not the wages of just the bad sins. It's not the wages of the sins that you think are bad. It's just the wages of sin. All sin takes us to hell.
The wages of sin is death. And when it says death, ultimately it's talking about somewhere eventually called the second death. Revelation 20 verse 14 says, "And death and hell will cast into the lake of fire."
This is the second death. That's not a place you want to go. The lake of fire and brimstone. That's a place where we're tormented day and night forever and ever.
For every sin you've ever thought said or done your whole life. You don't want to go there.
And Revelation 21.8 makes it very clear that everyone is on their way to hell based on their sin.
It gives a quick list of common sins just to show that all sins takes us to hell. It says, "But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars."
We've all lied. We're all liars. "Shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone," which is the second death.
The bad news is you're a sinner and you're on the way to hell. The good news is that God doesn't want you to go to hell.
And he did something amazing so you wouldn't have to go to hell. The Bible says in Romans 5.8, "But God commendeth his love toward us."
In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Bible teaches.
For example, in 1 John 5.7, something that we use the word Trinity to describe, that there are three that bear record in heaven.
The Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. There's one God, but there are three persons, all one God.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ, God the Son, the Son of God.
He came to this world. He lived a perfect sinless life. He walked on water. He fed the thousands. He healed the sick. He did these amazing miracles.
However, he didn't come for that real reason, really. Ultimately, he came for what happened at the end of his life.
Where he got arrested, he got beaten and whipped and tortured and that crown of thorns dug into his skull and eventually got nailed to a cross.
Now, this wasn't an accident. It wasn't that Jesus just couldn't evade capture and what a shame the Son of God got hung on a cross.
No, while he's up on that cross, he's doing something amazing, something that he knew that was going to happen,
something that was prophesied from the beginning of the Bible in various ways. While he's up on that cross, he's actually paying for all our sins.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5.21, "For he has made him," that's Jesus Christ, "to be sin for us."
Who knew no sin? Jesus Christ was sinless. He was a perfect, unblemished lamb that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
So while Jesus Christ is up on that cross, he's becoming sin for us. He's paying for our sins.
He's paying for not just your past sins, not just your present sins, he pays for your future sins as well.
He pays for the sins of the whole world and he shed his precious blood to pay for our sins.
And then the Bible says that he tasted death for every man. So not only did he die on that cross,
but in fact, as he said in Matthew 12.40, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." He actually descended into hell.
The Bible says in Acts 2.31, talking about a prophecy of David, he's seen this before,
he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption,
because on the third day he rose from the dead. And it wasn't just a ghost, it was a physical bodily resurrection.
He showed the holes in his hand, he ate with them, they handled him.
And he appeared to many people of above 500 witnesses at once, as well, over this 40-day period.
And eventually he went up to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father.
Now, does that mean everyone's going to heaven? Jesus Christ paid for all our sins, the Bible's very clear about that.
However, there's still one thing you have to do. And in the book of Acts, Acts 16,
the Philippian jailer asked the Apostle Paul in Silas that question, he said in Acts 16.30, "Sir, what must I do to be saved?"
The question was just asked outright, "How do I be saved from hell?" basically is what he's asking.
And in Acts 16.31, the reply was this, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
See, the Bible says that to be saved, to go to heaven, all you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's phrased this way in John 3.16, where Jesus Christ said this to Nicodemus,
"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."
The Bible teaches that to go to heaven and not to go to hell, all you've got to do is believe on or believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what that means is to put your faith or your trust in Jesus.
Like if someone said to you, "I believe in you," it's saying, "I believe that you're able to do that thing that I want you to do.
I believe in you. I'm putting my trust, my faith in you."
And that's ultimately all you have to do to go to heaven. You just have to trust that Jesus Christ, death, burial, and resurrection has paid for all your past, present, and future sins.
Now, the problem is that what many people do is they say, "Oh yeah, I believe in Jesus. I go to church, I do all that, but I've got to be a good person.
I've got to go to church every week, or I've got to do this, I've got to do that to get to heaven."
Well, they're not really believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're believing on themselves.
They're putting their faith and trust in their good works getting to heaven.
And the Bible teaches there's only one place that people that are trusting themselves are going, however much they try and add a bit of Jesus into it.
See, in John 3.36, we're taught there's ultimately only two types of people in this world.
We're all sinners. Sinner number one, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."
Simple as that. He's got his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He has everlasting life. It's his. It's everlasting. It will last forever.
Sinner number two says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son."
Now, somebody who's not trusting Christ shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. See, the Bible teaches that the only way,
the only way you could ever get to heaven is by believing on or believing in the Lord Jesus Christ by putting your faith, your trust in him.
And once we do that, we can know for sure we're saved. See, in Romans 6.23, the Bible said, "For the wages of sin is death."
So what you get in return for sin is death. We're all sinners. "But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Going to heaven is a gift. A gift is something we receive freely, otherwise it's not a gift.
So if you were given a gift and someone asked you to do anything in return, it's not a gift. It's a trade.
And going to heaven is a gift. Ephesians 2.8 and 9 says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and not of yourselves."
It is a gift of God, not of works, as any man should boast. The Bible is very clear that going to heaven is a gift.
It's free. It's through grace. Grace is free, undeserved, unmerited. It is not of works. It says it's not of yourselves.
So if anyone's telling you they're going to heaven because they've done this, they've done that, they've avoided certain sins in the future.
Whatever it is, they're not trusting in Jesus Christ. They're not trusting themselves.
The Bible says it's one or the other. Romans 11.6 says, "And if by grace, then is it no more of work."
Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
The Bible's saying it's one or the other. You either put your faith, your trust in Jesus Christ, or you trust yourself.
And as soon as you add a little bit of yourself to the gospel to salvation, it's no longer Jesus Christ.
And it's as simple as that. And I say simple, however, the Bible teaches that most people are on their way to hell.
Broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many they're bewitched going around.
Because do you know what most people in this world are trusting? They're good works.
They're church attendants. They're mosque attendants. They're temple attendants. Whatever it is.
They're righteousness. They're avoiding whatever sin it is. They're not being as bad as so-and-so.
But the Bible says all you've got to do is believe.
Now, people have a hard time with this because a lot of the time they think,
"Well, but what about all the thou shouts and thou shouts nots?"
Well, there's a couple of truths there. Number one is that the Bible teaches that the law is a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
So what the law does, it shows us that we need a savior, that we have all come short.
But also the law is a good way of pleasing our Father once we are saved.
Because the Bible teaches that, for example, in Galatians 3.26, that we become a child of God the second we get saved.
It says, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
So when you become a child of God, that means that God deals with you as a loving Father should.
He will punish you when you're bad. He'll reward you when you're good.
There are many blessings we can get in life. We can even earn extra rewards in heaven.
But going to heaven, becoming a child of God is based on faith in Jesus Christ.
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."
And as a child of God, God's going to punish you when you're bad. Hebrews 12.5 says,
"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor the faint minority rebuked of him,
for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
So what the Bible is very clear about is, as a child of God, as one of God's children, he's going to punish us when we're bad.
And, you know, God's punishment is scary, but the punishment is here on this earth.
It's got nothing to do with going to hell.
See, the only way I could ever be saved from eternal judgment in hell is by the blood of Jesus Christ.
However, in this life, once saved, it's good to please your father, otherwise you're going to get punished in this life.
So that means if I went out now and did a terrible sin, I'm still going to heaven, I'm going to get punished here.
And the punishment of God is scary.
And that's something that many Christians don't understand. They believe that it's all about getting to heaven.
If you're able to get to heaven, if you could be good enough to get to heaven on your own merit, why did Jesus Christ come and die on that cross?
He died on that cross to save you from your sins.
Now, once we're saved, the Bible's very clear, we're saved forever.
It's a gift, we've received that gift. It says, for example, in John 10, 28, "And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish."
He said, for example, in Ephesians 1 and verse 13, he's talking about Christ,
"In whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."
The second you're saved, you're sealed. You've become a child of God. You will never perish.
He's holding onto you. In fact, in John 5, 24, Jesus Christ said it like this, "Verily, verily I say unto you, He that heareth my word."
That's what you just heard now. "And believeth on him that sent me."
That's put your faith, your trust in Jesus Christ. He said, "Hath everlasting life."
You've got it. It's everlasting. It's forever. He said, "It shall not come into condemnation."
That's saying you will never go to hell, but is. The present tense there, that second you put your faith in Christ, is passed from death unto life.
You're saved. And that is the gospel. There's no addition to that.
People say, "Oh, you've got to repent of your sins." No, you don't have to repent of your sins.
You have to repent, and that's change your mind from what you did believe to faith in Jesus Christ.
And when we're repenting, what we're basically saying is, "I know that I was on my way to hell."
"I know that whatever it is I was trusting was taking me to hell."
And you have to accept that you're on the way to hell to then get saved.
Now, if you accept that now, that what you did believe was false, it wasn't what the Word of God says.
The Word of God says that salvation is a free gift. It says, "For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."
And you want to put your faith in Christ. The Bible says in Romans 10.9, all you've got to do is ask Him.
It says that, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
All you've got to do is ask Him. You've got to believe it in your heart.
Believe the gospel, the death, the building of resurrection, and pray for all your sins, and you will be saved.
"Shalt" is 100%. It says in Romans 10.13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
If you'd like to get saved, if you believe you're a sinner, you believe you deserve to go to hell,
you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died, was buried, and rose again to pay for all your sins,
that all you've got to do is put your faith, your trust in Him, and once you do that, there's no way you could lose your salvation.
You're saved. You're saved forever. It's eternal life. You've got it.
Now, I'd like to encourage you to just bow your heads and call the name of the Lord in prayer.
"Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I deserve to go to hell, but I believe that You're the Son of God,
that You died, was buried, and rose again to pay for all my sins.
I trust You now, and only You now. Please take me to heaven when I die. Amen."
If you believe that, and you call the name of the Lord in faith, you're saved.
Now, after that, it would be great if you could start to live for God as well,
start to teach other people how to get saved.
We'd love to encourage you to get involved with us, to come along to our church, to listen to some of our teachings,
and we can help you to learn to save your loved ones and other people in your life as well.
But, regardless of any of that, if you've just put your faith in Christ today, you're going to heaven. Congratulations.