Hi, this is Pastor Dylan Oz from Anchor Baptist Church here in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
And I wanted to ask you a very important question.
If you were to die today, are you 100% sure you'd be going to heaven?
The Bible says you can know for sure.
You don't have to hope, guess or wonder.
In 1 John 5 13, the Bible says, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life."
So you don't have to guess if you're saved.
According to the Bible, you can know.
And I want to show you in this video how you can know that you're saved.
In Romans 3 23, the Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God."
Of course, we know that no human being is perfect, and we've all broken God's commandments.
But unfortunately, because of that, the Bible says that everyone has a punishment that they
deserve from God because of their sins.
In Romans 6 23, the Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death."
Now when we die, there's one of two places we can go, heaven or hell.
The Bible does teach that hell is a real place.
And if someone is unsaved when they die, they will spend all of eternity in a literal fiery
hell.
And of course, I don't want you to go to hell.
But the Bible does give us a list in Revelation 21 8 of the people that will go there.
"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."
Now that is a list of a lot of serious sins, but if you notice it said, "Even all liars
shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second
death."
And I know I've lied before, and the truth is every single person has lied before.
So what this verse is teaching us is that every single person deserves to go to hell.
But God loves us and does not want us to go to hell, and God showed us His love in a very
specific way.
In Romans 5 8, the Bible says, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us."
So God showed us His love by giving us His Son, Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin.
Since Jesus was born of a virgin, He had no earthly father because His real Father was
God in heaven.
So when Jesus was born, He was like us in the sense that He was 100% man.
But what made Jesus special is that not only was He 100% man, but He was 100% God in the
flesh.
And since Jesus is God, He lived His entire life perfectly without sin.
When He was about 30 years old, He started His ministry, and He was very well known for
raising people from the dead, healing people of their diseases, walking on water, and doing
all these amazing miracles.
But because of His preaching and because of the truth that He preached, being the Word
of God Himself in the flesh, He was hated by a lot of people.
The Jews hated Him.
They lied about Him, and they ended up delivering Him up to the Romans to be crucified, where
Jesus Christ was put on a cross.
He had nails driven through His hands and through His feet.
He was spit in His face.
He had His beard plucked out from Him.
He had a crown of thorns put on His head.
He was mocked.
He was tortured on the cross, and eventually, He died on that cross.
Now, of course, Jesus Christ being God, He could have stopped this at any time, but He
allowed Himself to suffer.
He allowed Himself to die.
And the reason is, is because He had to die for our sins on the cross.
The Bible says that He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world.
So Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for all of our sins and all of the sins of every
single human being that has ever lived past, present, and future.
His body was put in a tomb, and when His body was buried, the Bible says that His soul actually
went to hell for three days and three nights.
In Acts chapter 2 verse 31, the Bible says, "He, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection
of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption."
So, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ actually went to hell, and many people may
be wondering, well, if Jesus is God, and if He lived a perfect life and never sinned,
why would He have gone to hell?
But remember, where is it that you and I deserve to go for our sins?
Hell.
So Jesus Christ, not only did He love us so much that He lived a perfect life that we
can't live, not only did He die on the cross to pay for our sins, but He also descended
into hell and paid the punishment that you and I deserve for our sins.
Thankfully though, Jesus didn't stay dead, because three days later, He physically rose
again from the dead.
He showed unto His disciples the holes in His hands and in His feet, He ate a meal with
them, and showed Himself to many witnesses, proving that He is God and that He actually
rose again from the dead.
But the question for us now is that just because Jesus died, just because He rose again, does
that mean that everybody will just automatically go to heaven now?
Well, this question is asked in the book of Acts, in chapter 16, "Sers, what must I do
to be saved?"
And they said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
You see, according to the Bible, there's only one thing that we have to do to be saved,
and that is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you read that verse, you notice it doesn't say go to church and you'll be saved, live
a good life and you'll be saved, you know, repent of all your sins and you'll be saved,
confess your sins to a priest, ask for forgiveness and you'll be saved.
It simply says we have to believe on Jesus Christ.
Now what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
Because it doesn't mean that you simply just believe that He exists.
You know, for example, I believe politicians exist, but what I don't do is I don't trust
them.
And when it comes to believing on Jesus Christ, what it means to believe on Him for salvation
means that, yes, of course you believe He exists, but beyond that it means that you
trust that what He did for you on the cross is 100% sufficient to take you to heaven, not
the things that you do.
Many Christians today are confused, and they think that if they live a good life, if they're
good outweighs their bad, if they stay away from really grievous sins, that hopefully,
you know, God will look down from heaven and think that they're a good enough person to
allow them into heaven when they die, but that's actually not how it works according
to the Bible.
In Ephesians 2, 8, 9 the Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
So according to the Bible, we're saved by grace, meaning it's something we don't deserve,
and it's through faith that's believing or putting your trust in Jesus Christ.
Additionally, the Bible says it's not of ourselves, so it's nothing that we can do, it's no actions
that we can perform, and that's why it says, "Not of works, lest any man should boast."
So it's not by reading your Bible, being a good person, loving your neighbor, following
the commandments.
Those are all good things to do, but when it comes to getting to heaven, the Bible says
it's not of works, lest any man should boast, meaning if it were by works, you'd be able
to boast or brag.
You know, if I said to you, "Hey, I'm going to heaven because I'm a really good person,
I live a really good life, I follow all the commandments in the Bible," who would I be
trusting in?
Jesus or myself?
Myself, obviously, because I'm saying, "Here's all the things that I do."
But if I said to you, "Hey, I'm not that great of a person, I'm a sinner, I deserve hell,
but I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, that He was buried, that He rose
again from the dead, now I'm trusting in Him to get me to heaven."
And this is all we have to do to be saved, we have to change from putting our trust in
ourselves or in our good works or in our religion and put that trust 100% on the finished work
of Jesus Christ.
John 3.16 says, "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."
So again, the Bible is telling us that in order to have everlasting life, we have to
believe in Jesus Christ.
So far I've told you that we're all sinners, we all deserve hell, but God doesn't want us
to go there, so Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He rose again from the dead, and
all we have to do to get to heaven is believe on Him.
Not only does the Bible teach that salvation is by faith alone, but it actually teaches
that it's a free gift.
In Romans 6.23, the Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
So according to the Bible, God wants to give us a gift, and this gift is called eternal
life, but you can only get it through one person, Jesus Christ.
Now of course, if you were here today and I said to you, "I want to give you this Bible
as a free gift, but you have to pay me $100," would that be a gift?
Absolutely not.
Or if I said, "Hey, here's a free Bible, it's yours as a gift, but you have to wash
my car," would that be a gift?
Absolutely not, because gifts by definition are free.
If you have to do anything to earn the gift or if you have to pay any money to receive
the gift, it ceases to be a gift.
In the same way, God is offering to us salvation, going to heaven, and the Bible says it's a
free gift, meaning you don't have to do any works to earn it, you don't have to pay any
money to receive it, Jesus Christ paid the price for your salvation by dying on the cross
and shedding His blood for you.
We simply receive that free gift that's already been paid for by faith.
Now once we receive that gift, the Bible says that we have eternal life, and of course eternal
lasts for forever.
That means you can never lose your salvation no matter what you do.
Jesus actually taught three times in one verse that you can never lose your salvation.
In John 5.24, Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life."
According to Jesus, once you believe, you have everlasting life right now, and of course
everlasting means it will never end.
So if you have everlasting life today, you'll have it in 10 years from now, you'll have
it in a thousand years from now, because it's everlasting.
Not only that, he also says you will never come into condemnation, meaning you'll never
go to hell.
Additionally, he says you are passed from death unto life.
Notice he doesn't say, "Someday, if you live a good enough life, if you're a good
enough person, maybe you'll pass from death unto life."
No, rather, he says once you believe, right now you are passed from death unto life.
Why is that?
Well, it's because salvation is not a lifelong process.
It's not a journey of cleaning up your life.
It's simply one moment in all of eternity that you choose to put your faith in Jesus Christ
to save you.
So far, I've shown you from the Bible that all of us are sinners and that we all deserve
the punishment of hell.
But God loves all of us and doesn't want us to go to hell, so He gave us His Son Jesus
Christ to live a perfect life, to die on the cross, to be buried, to descend into hell,
to pay the punishment for our sins, and to rise again from the dead.
And the Bible says if we simply believe on Him, that we receive the free gift of eternal
life and that once you're saved, you're always saved.
So this whole time I've been telling you, all you have to do to be saved is believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But the question is, how do you believe on Him?
Well, the Bible says in Romans 10, 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."
A few verses later in verse 13, the Bible says, "For whosoever," that's you and me if
you're listening to this, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
And if you believe the things that I've shown you today from the Bible, I want to help you
pray and call upon the name of the Lord and ask God to give you that free gift of everlasting
life that way you can know for sure that you are going to heaven when you die.
If you believe this message today, just repeat after me, "Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve hell, but I believe you died on the cross for my sins, that you were buried
and rose again from the dead.
I'm only trusting you and not myself.
Please give me eternal life and save me now.
Amen."
Now, if you prayed that prayer in faith and you called upon the name of the Lord, you
could rest assured and know that you're going to heaven when you die.
Thanks for watching.
God bless.