For Christ counts everything but loss, And to crown Him King, toil and sing
Neath the banner of the cross, Song 4-3-0 in the Blue Hymn Book,
Let's sing it out together on the second.
Though the foe may rage and gather as the flood,
Let the standard be displayed,
And beneath its folds as soldiers of the Lord,
For the truth be not dismayed, Marching on, marching on,
For Christ counts everything but loss, And to crown Him King, toil and sing
Neath the banner of the cross, Over land and sea,
Wherever man may dwell, Make the glorious tidings known,
Of the crimson banner now the story tell, While the Lord shall claim His own,
Marching on, marching on, For Christ counts everything but loss,
And to crown Him King, toil and sing, Neath the banner of the cross,
When the glory dawns, Tis drawing very near, It is hastening day by day,
Then before our King the foe shall disappear, And the cross the world shall sway,
Marching on, marching on, For Christ counts everything but loss,
And to crown Him King, toil and sing, Neath the banner of the cross,
Amen. Good to see you, Brother Robert. Would you open us up in a word of prayer?
Amen. Our second song will be song number 39, Crown Him With Many Crowns.
Song number 39, Crown Him With Many Crowns.
Song 39, Crown Him With Many Crowns. Let's sing it together on the first.
Crown Him With Many Crowns, The Lamb upon His throne,
Hark how the heavenly anthem Drowns all music but its own,
Awake my soul and sing, Of Him who died for thee,
And hail Him as Thy matchless King Through all eternity.
Crown Him the Lord of love, Behold His hands and side,
Rich wounds yet visible above In beauty glorified,
No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight,
But downward bends His wandering eye At mystery so bright.
Crown Him the Lord of life, Who triumphed o'er the grave,
Who rose victorious to the strife For those He came to save,
His glories now we sing, Who died and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring And lives that death may die.
Crown Him the Lord of heaven, One with the Father known,
One with the Spirit through Him given From yonder glorious throne,
To Thee be endless praise, For Thou for us hast died,
Be Thou, O Lord, through endless days Adored and magnified.
Amen. Good seeing you with that. We'll have our announcements.
Good morning everybody. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements.
If you need a bulletin, just lift up your hand. One of the ushers will bring you a bulletin.
Just lift your hand up high.
Just keep your hand up if you need one. One of the ushers will get to you and get you a bulletin there.
As they're doing that, I'm going to start on the front page there where we have our verse of the week.
It says, The Lord thy God is in the midst of Thee, in the midst of Thee is mighty.
He will save, He will rejoice over Thee with joy.
He will rest in His love, He will joy over Thee with singing.
Seth and I are 317. Great scripture there.
And on our front page, I mean our inside page on the left hand side is just a short message from me.
And it just explains that we're an independent fundamental Baptist church.
We're King James only. We're soul winning, salvation by faith alone and family integrated.
If you have any questions after the service, I would love to answer those questions for you.
Feel free to come up and talk to me after the service.
I will take time to answer your questions.
Or yeah, just feel free to come talk to me.
Underneath that, there's just a little note there if you are not 100% sure that you're saved.
Or maybe you don't even know what that means.
We'd love to answer that question for you.
Saved, what we mean by that is saved in a spiritual manner.
So that you know that you're going to heaven is what that means.
If you've never been baptized, we'd love to make sure that you can be baptized.
And baptism is when you're submerged in water after you're saved.
So we'd love to explain that to you.
Also underneath there we have our social media.
You can find us on, and then there's a little scan code.
And if you just scan that with your phone, you can bring up the Bible Way to Heaven video that we have made by our church.
And it just explains salvation has the verses there.
Also, underneath there we have our service times.
1030 a.m. for our Sunday morning service.
And Sunday evening service is 3.30 p.m.
Thursday evening Bible study is 6.30 p.m.
We're in 1 Chronicles 21, coming up this Thursday.
As long as we don't get snowed out, or iced out, or whatever happened last Thursday.
And then our sowing times are listed below.
We have sowing today.
The maps are in the WhatsApp group.
If you are not normally in our, if you're not in our WhatsApp group and you're just visiting for the day,
then see Brother Alex.
He's our sowing captain there.
And he will make sure he gets you a map and a partner and a location to go to.
So, and if you're not sure what group you're in, there's different groups posted in there.
Just see Alex and he will make sure that you know what group you're in.
So, if you want to meet in here at 1 p.m., you're going to leave from the building and you need to get materials and things like that.
Meet in here at 1 p.m. or meet on site at 1.30.
Is that correct?
1.30 at the location.
It's in Hazel Dell, which is just a pretty, maybe a ten minute drive up the road from here.
And underneath there you have a praise report.
The salvation is for February, January in there.
And then the attendance from last week.
Thursday night was cancelled due to weather.
And so that was the first snow we got.
Hopefully it's the last.
I know some of you guys might have liked that, but I know Amy would probably like to have some more, Sister Amy.
But I just, I took my Grinch prayer request of not having any snow just for them.
And that's all you're getting.
I'm going to pray against it now.
So, anyway, we have a special guest speaker in our evening service tonight.
We have Pastor Jim Weeb.
He preached a great sermon for us last night in the Married Couple Sweetheart Banquet.
We really enjoyed that sermon and took a lot of things that he said to heart.
And Brother Jim will never crack a smile when he's saying, I don't know if he's joking, but it seems like he is.
But he'll just keep going.
He just, you know, he's just like, you don't know.
But he said a lot of things that I thought were pretty funny last night.
So, even if he wasn't mean to be funny, I thought it was.
So, anyway, it's a pleasure to have him and his wife, Miss Judy, here.
And we're happy to have him.
If you haven't met Pastor Weeb and his wife, then they're nice.
They won't bite your head off or anything.
So, they would love to meet you and come shake their hand and welcome them to our church.
If you get a chance, then if you don't normally stick around for the PM service, this would be
or you don't normally come to the PM service, this would be a good PM service for you to come to.
I ordained Pastor Weeb this last June and they became an independent Baptist church.
They're actually from Winnipeg, Canada.
So, that's like no man's land for Baptist churches, pretty much.
But they've decided to stand in a gap there and do something for the Lord.
And so, they're doing great works up there.
And so, I'm loving everything that they're doing.
They're called Fortress Baptist Church and they're in Winnipeg.
So, if you ever want to just go up there and visit them,
they would love to have you come and see what they're doing up there.
So, also we have coming up the Kids Valentine's Party on the 20th, which is this coming Friday.
That's at 11.15 here at the church building.
There will be just fun stuff for the kids to do.
And so, that will be 11.15, there will be pizza provided for lunch.
So, you don't have to worry about feeding them and then play some games and stuff like that.
So, that will be this Friday, 11.15.
And just show up and have a good time.
So, February 22nd, this super soul winning Saturday, that's from 12 to 3 p.m.
And brother Alex, we're still doing Hazel Dell, right?
Okay, I still haven't picked a place to eat.
I just have to like spin a, just do a nearby thing and then just put my finger on it and we'll figure out where we're going.
There's plenty of places to eat in Hazel Dell, so we'll figure it out.
Who's planning on going to the one in Hazel Dell? Raise your hand.
Alright, so a good amount of people.
Alright, so that will be from 12 to 3 in Hazel Dell.
We're going to just do apartments that are like in a big group area, so we should just be able to knock continuously.
And March 14th through 16th is the six year anniversary of our church plant in Spokane.
I'll be preaching there on Friday night and then brother Remy is going to be preaching the Sunday services there.
There will be soul winning on Saturday, weather depending upon, I mean, do you want to do a soul winning marathon if the weather is nice?
Yeah, a half marathon, so probably three hours or four hours, something like that.
So, anyway that's going on March 14th through the 16th and then the soul winning marathon for us is going to be March 29th.
So, every quarter we're going to do a soul winning marathon.
That falls on that fifth Saturday of March and then the fifth Sunday we'll have a men's preaching night.
So, March 30th, men's preaching night and then the Lord's Supper.
We only do that once a year, so that's why I'm putting it in the bulletin so you can get all the wickedness out of your heart before you do it.
And the Lord's Supper is a very special time of the year for us and we do that the week before Easter.
Then, of course, Easter Sunday is the week after that.
But we all, we're going to do a Sure Foundation Baptist Church mega marathon the day before Easter.
So, all of our churches are going to be involved in that.
They might not know that, but we also have our evangelist over here from Seattle this morning, brother Sean.
So, brother Sean, you're doing it too, so now you know the announcements are fully in your ear.
But we usually do a big push on Saturday before, but I definitely want to participate.
I know Pastor Stuckey does that too, so I got my arm twisted into doing it again.
Not that I don't want to do that, but usually Sunday is a big planning day for Easter.
Sunday is usually a big day, but we're going to do it again.
Very excited about that.
Easter Sunday is the 20th and then we have the King James Conference coming up.
And other stuff coming up in the future.
I just want to say also thank you to everybody that helped with the Sweetheart Banquet last night.
Everybody that brought dishes.
We never, we've never done that before.
Usually we cater every time, but the food was delicious.
And everybody that cooked, everybody that helped in any way, shape, or form, I just wanted to say thank you to decorating.
If you had a chance to look inside there, it was, you know, every year it seems to top itself.
We had a fun time last night.
I know we went a little bit over time.
I'm sorry about that.
If you didn't get enough sleep, I apologize.
So, and I don't think Pastor Weeb is going to preach longer than I preach on Sunday nights.
So, if he does, the spirit of Pastor Thompson has come upon him.
That's all that is.
So, and, but we, me and my wife both really appreciate all the work that everybody put in.
It doesn't go unnoticed.
We really thank you for that.
So, also, yeah, and Brother Jesse, he came in and made all the tri-tip.
Brother Sean came in with his family and helped all day long.
And the tri-tip, I took just a little bit home with me last night and microwaved it.
And, man, it was, I felt like it was better after I microwaved it.
I don't know if there was some nuclear fusion that happened with it or something, but, man, it was good.
Anyway, yeah, so thank you so much to everybody.
Really great stuff.
All right, that's, we're a family-integrated church.
That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services, of course.
We have a mom-baby room back there, a dad-baby room located back there.
If your children need to be fed or whatever you need to do with them,
take them out of the service if they're being, if they're screaming or whatever.
But if they're just goo-goo and gaga and that's fine, that doesn't bother me, just screeching,
usually would need to take them out.
So, all the other rules are listed there below.
Please observe those to the best of your ability.
And the giving information is down at the bottom of the page there.
The tithes that have come in so far for the month of February at the bottom there.
And we had, let's see, we sang Happy Birthday to Miss Bobby.
We didn't get a chance to sing Happy Birthday to Josh, though, so he's getting made up for it.
He's in the, he's hiding over in there, but also we didn't get a chance to sing,
Eli's not here, but we didn't get a chance to sing Happy Anniversary to the Lamberts, so.
Is he going to be here tonight? No?
Huh? Oh, you already sang? Oh, you already sang, I'm sorry, okay.
I guess I wasn't here then, all right.
I'm going to sing it to you again, I'm just joking.
All right, I do want to sing Happy Birthday to Josh, though.
So, he's in there hiding, but we'll sing Happy Birthday to him anyway.
I'm already committed now.
Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday, God bless you. Happy Birthday to you.
You believe that little punk's 23 years old now? Wow, time flies.
So, that's all I have for announcements. Oh, if it's your first time visiting, thank you for coming.
We really appreciate you being here. We know there's a lot of options out there,
and we do have some little gift bags on the way out of the church building on your right-hand side.
There's gift bags, just grab one of those as a token of our appreciation for you being a first-time guest.
If there's anything that we can do for you, if you have any questions, please see me or one of the ushers after the service.
We'd be happy to help you. Just grab one of those on your way out.
It has just a little package. It has a calendar for the year, which, of course, we're a month and a half into it or whatever,
but you can still use it. There's still plenty of time.
And then there's some DVDs and some information about our church.
And the one other thing I wanted to say real quick, I know that we're deep into these,
but I wanted to read off the names of the people that completed the New Testament challenge.
And if your name is not on this list, raise your hand, and I'm going to put you on the list right now.
Because when I said email me, some people emailed the wrong email.
Some people text me. Some people message me on Messenger. Some people WhatsApp me.
And I'm getting old, so I just wanted to make sure I got everybody on the list.
So here's the list. I completed it.
Jesse, Ramon, and Bobby, Sheila. She's not here.
I got her. Remi, you completed it. Where are you?
And Kylie, Rachel, Eli, small Eli, and Jeremy, Molly, Sean.
This is Sean Harrington. You did it? Okay.
Kathleen, Liberty, Brandon, Temo. You didn't? I thought you emailed me.
Because I just typed in New Testament challenge on my email. I thought that said 2024.
Oh, that was 2024. I'm in 2025.
All right. Sorry, buddy. You're off the list.
Did anybody else do it? Oh, Ms. Crystal. Okay.
Yeah, I'm sorry. Did I not read their names? They're on it.
Sorry about that. Okay.
So Crystal, was there anybody else in the house?
Yeah. Oh, anybody besides Alex? No, I'm just kidding. Alex.
I'm just kidding. Juju. Okay.
Anybody else? Going once, going twice.
Oh, yeah. I got you. Kohath, I don't believe you.
You got to be able to read to read the New Testament. I'm just kidding.
All right. That's all I got for announcements. Go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering.
All right. Our next song will be song number 63, The Wonder of It All.
Song number 63, The Wonder of It All.
Song 63, The Wonder of It All. Song 63, let's sing it together on the first.
There's the wonder of sunset at evening
The wonder as sunrise I see
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that God loves me
Oh, the wonder of it all The wonder of it all
Just to think that God loves me
The wonder of it all The wonder of it all
Just to think that God loves me
On the second, there's the wonder of springtime and harvest
The sky, the stars, the sun
The wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is the wonder that's only begun
Oh, the wonder of it all The wonder of it all
Just to think that God loves me
The wonder of it all The wonder of it all
Just to think that God loves me
The wonder of God's revelation The word who dwelt among men
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
Is that Jesus is coming again
Oh, the wonder of it all The wonder of it all
Just to think that God loves me
The wonder of it all The wonder of it all
Just to think that God loves me
Amen, good scene. Brother Sean, would you bless the offering for us?
Thank you for giving us all these many blessings, Lord. I pray that you would bless this offering, that you would bless both the gift and the giver. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
All right, open your Bibles to John chapter 3.
John chapter number 3. If you don't have a Bible, there should be a Bible underneath the seat in front of you.
John chapter number 3.
John 3, the Bible reads,
A man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him,
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him,
Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen,
and ye receive not our witness. If I had told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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.
For God sent not his Son into 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.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried with them and baptized.
And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salem, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized.
For John was not yet cast into prison. Then there arose a question between some of John and the Jews about purifying.
And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except to be given from heaven.
Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.
He that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth.
He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony.
He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
For he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Brother Drew, will you pray for us?
Amen. The title of my sermon this morning is, Salvation by Faith Alone, Salvation by Faith Alone.
Now, I've been preaching a foundation series, and I've been kind of going away from it and coming back to it, and that's kind of the intention.
I'm going to sporadically preach this series because there's a lot of foundational doctrines in the Christian faith.
And foundational doctrines of the Christian faith means that it's something that's non-negotiable.
It's something that is foundational. If you took, the Bible says that if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
So, it's very important that we believe the foundational doctrines of the Bible and the foundational truths of Christianity.
And the focus verses, of course, are going to be John 3.15 through 18 in this chapter, but also verse 36.
And we'll get to those here in just a minute, but I just kind of want to open up with saying this.
In the Reformation, when Martin Luther did, you know, he had the five solas, which are, he had like sola fide, which means faith alone.
Now, we're not, I don't believe the Baptist came out of the Reformation necessarily.
I believe that there's always been an unbroken chain of believers, and I don't think the Catholic Church was that chain.
I think there was always believers that were like Baptists in faith, like Baptists in practice, maybe not always perfectly believing everything.
But I believe that there was still an unbroken chain of believers that go back to Adam and Eve, really, if you think about it.
But an unbroken chain of believers, for sure, when it comes to faith alone.
Because there's always been faith on the earth at one point or another.
But when it comes to sola fide, that term faith alone, it's just a Latin term.
And Martin Luther had those five solas that were, because he really is accredited with the Reformation.
When it came, the Reformation came, and it was what? They were trying to reform the Catholic Church.
But there's a lot of churches that came out of the Catholic Church, and now today, what are they doing?
Lutherans will say that they're faith alone, but they really aren't if you dig down to the details.
They still do a lot of the practices that the Catholic Church does, and I'm not saying that all Lutherans are lost or something.
I'm sure that there's ones that are saved. There's people that are not Baptists that are saved.
I'm not saying that they're Baptists or the ones that are saved, but you see a lot of times that Baptists are the ones that are preaching the truths of the Bible.
Today, I've never run into a Presbyterian outdoor knocking. I've never run into a Wesleyan or any kind of...
I've never run into any other denomination besides the cults out there, which are the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons.
That's all I've ever seen knocking doors. And why do they do that? Because they're copying what the Bible says, but they're bringing a false gospel.
The true gospel is salvation by faith alone, and I'm going to read you a statement from our doctrinal statement from our website.
It says, We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, and not of works.
This means that salvation cannot be earned by any work, like church attendance, baptism, repenting of your sins, making Jesus the Lord of your life, etc.
Salvation is putting your faith in Jesus Christ, and that he died, was buried, and rose from the grave to pay for your sin.
You receive salvation by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and simply asking him to save you.
So that's what is on our doctrinal page of our beliefs on our website, and it's really simple, because that's what the Bible says.
That's what the Bible teaches.
So my intent when preaching sermons on doctrine is to always prove what I'm saying with the Holy Scriptures, because this is the word of God.
The Bible that we have, the Bible that we use, is the word of God, and so that's where we get our faith and practice from.
Why do we believe that salvation is by faith alone? We believe it because the Bible says it.
We don't get it from man's opinions, we don't get it from the church fathers, or from anybody else, we get it from the Bible.
That's why we're biblicists. We believe the Bible.
So in this particular sermon, my hope is that anybody under the sound of my voice in this room that isn't saved, or anybody that hears this sermon going forward,
would understand and choose to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior and be saved.
My intent is also to solidify and go over again the great doctrines and bedrock of the Christian faith.
Our church is called Sure Foundation Baptist Church. That's why I'm preaching this foundation series.
You're like, Pastor, I already know all this. Well, let's turn to 1 Timothy 4. Just hold your finger in John 3 and turn to 1 Timothy 4, verse 6.
See, we don't just teach something one time and then we know it forever.
The truth is, is that if you store information in your brain and you don't access that, or you don't remember it,
it's like if you could possibly memorize the whole Bible and then you have it all memorized, which I don't think that that's necessarily possible, maybe it is,
but if you did that and you didn't keep practicing it all the time, then you would lose it.
You'd lose any skill that you learn. You're going to lose those skills if you don't put them into practice.
You're like, well, it's as easy as riding a bike. Well, if you haven't ridden a bike in 50 years, you're probably not going to be very good at it when you try to get back on it.
I mean, you can have a scripture memorized that you memorized a long time ago, and if you never recite that scripture for 10 years, you probably are going to mess it up or forget it completely.
So, look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6. The Bible says,
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith, and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
So, Timothy's being instructed to put the brethren in remembrance of things, right?
And he says, then thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
So, what is remembrance? To remember other things that you've learned before.
I'm supposed to preach things we've already learned before because we need to be refreshed on these things.
Obviously, we in this room that goes soul winning all the time, we understand this doctrine pretty well.
But we still need to hear it and have it bolstered in our presence, and we need to go back over the good doctrine that we've already attained.
We already know it, but we still need to go back to it, and look, there's new people in our church.
There's visitors in our church this morning that may not know this doctrine, and it's important for us to go over them from time to time.
So, my first point in the sermon this morning is that salvation is by believing in or on, it means pretty much the same thing, on Jesus Christ as Savior alone.
It can't be that we believe in Jesus Christ 99% and then 1% in the things that we do.
Salvation is by believing on Jesus Christ as Savior alone.
Look at John 3.14 where we started in John chapter 3.
The Bible says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
So what Jesus is referring to here is when Moses, the serpents were biting the people, and Moses lifted up, he made a brazen pull, and put a brazen snake on the top of it, and held it up.
And if the people looked at that snake, that brazen serpent, if they looked at that, they were cured of the poison snakes that were biting them.
So, they looked and they lived.
So, he's comparing that to if he is lifted up, you know, he's lifted up on the cross, if people would look to Jesus to be saved, then they'll be saved.
So, it says, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
His name must be lifted up on high. His name is the most important name in all the world.
His name is known all around the world.
And people will say, oh, well, people in India haven't heard of him. That's not true.
Well, we're living in a world where the internet is everywhere, pretty much.
Yes, even the pygmies in the Congo probably have a cell phone.
They might have satellite phones.
So, to think that nobody's ever heard of Jesus in this world, there might be some remote place where they haven't, but the gospel's gone around the world many, many times.
People know who Jesus is.
Anyway, verse 315 says that whosoever believeth in him.
Look at those four words right there.
That whosoever believeth in him.
Who's it talking about? The Son of Man. He's talking about himself.
Should not perish, but have eternal life.
So, what does whosoever mean?
It means anyone, doesn't it?
Whosoever means anyone.
That whosoever believeth in him.
Whosoever has faith in him.
Whosoever has trust in him.
That's what believe means, right?
Should not perish.
Well, where do people go that perish?
This is not just talking about the death of your body. This is talking about perishing in hell.
Because if God's real, and he's right, and this book is right, there is a hell that people are going to go to.
And people like to say, ministers today like to say, it's just a place where you're separated from God.
That's just candy-coating what the reality is.
The reality is that hell is a real place, and that's why we have to warn people to not go there.
Jesus actually warned more about going to hell than he preached about heaven in the Bible.
The truth is that broad is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there be that go in thereat.
But straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
The Bible teaches that very few people are actually really saved.
So, that whosoever believeth in him.
Does it say whosoever believeth in him and walks an old lady across the street with her groceries is saved?
Whosoever believeth in him and goes to church, does that say that?
Whosoever believeth in him and repents of all their sins, is that what it says?
A lot of people say, well you have to repent of your sins, then believe in him.
Isn't that works? Isn't that you have to do something?
Does it say whosoever gets baptized and then believes in him?
Whosoever believeth in him and gets baptized, is that what it says?
No, and that's because that's not what the truth is.
The truth is, is that salvation is by faith alone.
But see, we as humans, we're used to having to work for everything that we get.
And in reality, we do have to work for what we get.
The things that we have in life, we have to work hard for.
And that's why sometimes, even children, they automatically just for some reason
they think that they have to do works to be saved.
Well if I'm good enough, I'll go to heaven.
This is what people say when we come to their door, we knock on their door,
we ask them, what do you believe that you have to do to be saved?
And what is the number one answer?
I have to be a good person.
And look, I want to be a good person too.
I'm sure everybody in this room, nobody in this room who goes,
wakes up and says, I want to be a bad person.
Nobody thinks that.
Nobody says, you know what, today I'm going to just set out to be a bad person today.
Nobody thinks that way.
Of course you want to be a good person.
Of course you want to be considered a good person.
But the Bible says there's none that doeth good.
No, not one.
Every person sins.
And so if you've done sins of your own, you cannot get yourself to heaven.
There's nothing that you can do, you've already canceled it out.
The first time you commit a sin, you cannot save yourself.
Someone has to do it for you.
That's why Jesus came.
That's why he had to be lifted up.
It says, whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have, what's it say there?
Eternal life.
What's that mean? It means a life that never ends.
So, your fleshly body will die someday.
But what is it talking about? Your life will never end because we have a soul.
We have a spirit.
And once you believe in him, those things are regenerated in you,
and though your mortal body will die, your soul and spirit will go up to heaven to be with God,
and then you'll be reunited one day with your body when Jesus comes back,
whenever that day, that appointed day comes,
and then we'll have a body that will never die.
Our mortal bodies, whether they're blown to smithereens,
whether they're made into ashes and spread to the ocean,
you know, God is all powerful.
He can make that body come back together,
and then he's going to make it a body that can never die.
That's a great promise.
Salvation is eternal life. That's what it means.
And so, that's what salvation is, and you have to do what?
All you have to do is believe in him.
That's not works.
That is faith.
Nobody in this room has seen Jesus before.
We don't know what he looks like.
You know, the Bible never describes what he looks like.
The Bible doesn't say he had blue eyes, he had long, blonde hair,
and he wore a dress.
The Bible doesn't say that, but every picture that we see
shows Jesus with long, blonde hair, with blue eyes, wearing a dress.
You'll say, well, it was a tunic.
Okay, whatever, but it looks like a dress, doesn't it?
Jesus, he didn't have long hair.
The Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair,
so why would he have long hair?
Why would it contradict itself?
Yeah, did Jesus have long hair?
No, I don't think so.
He said it's against nature.
Nature would show us that men don't have long hair.
So, it's just not normal.
So, when people do that, they're directly defying
what God wants men to look like.
Women are supposed to have long hair.
So, anyway, believe means what?
Trust, believe means what?
Faith, believe means what?
Hope in.
We have our hope in Jesus Christ.
We have our faith in Jesus Christ.
We have our trust in Jesus Christ if we believe in him.
And what are we trusting in?
His ability to save.
We have, you know, Jesus died for us.
He rose again for us after he died.
And we have to put our faith in that fact
that he did those things, that he does exist.
And that hope that we have in him
is that he's gonna do what he promised.
See, we make a lot of promises in our life.
I'm sure everybody in this room has broken a promise
or broken their word at some point in their life.
But he never breaks his promises.
He always comes true on his promises.
So, if he says it's gonna be eternal life,
that is exactly what he means.
And there's a lot of people out there that say,
well, yeah, but I could lose it.
What if I stop believing?
Well, you know, if you're truly saved,
you're not gonna stop believing.
You might lack faith in some areas,
but you're never gonna stop believing.
Because you can't stop believing.
It's just impossible.
Then that would say that you could lose eternal life.
How do you lose something that lasts forever?
I mean, logically, that does not make sense.
I like to use some illustrations about eternal life.
I like to use the eternal light bulb sometimes
when I'm talking to people because
everybody has to change light bulbs out.
There's no such thing as an everlasting light bulb, is there?
If anybody has some, just let me know
because I'd like to have some.
And some lights are a pain in the neck to change, aren't they?
You have to unscrew the covers off of them
and probably get on a ladder or something to get to them.
And they're a pain.
And then you have to clean everything out.
But if I said I've got an everlasting light bulb
and I sold it to you as an everlasting light bulb
and it went out two weeks later,
what would that make me?
Of course it would make me a liar, wouldn't it?
So if Jesus says, if you believe in me,
I'm gonna give you everlasting life or eternal life
and then you sin and then he takes away
your everlasting life, what would that make him?
It'd make him a liar, wouldn't it?
Would you call God a liar?
I wouldn't call him a liar.
The Bible says it's impossible for him to lie.
It's an immutable truth.
Immutable means it doesn't change.
So if that's true, then God cannot,
the Bible says in hope of eternal life,
which God who cannot lie, he cannot lie.
So if he says I'm gonna give you eternal life,
he means it.
And what do you have to do to be saved?
You have to believe in Jesus Christ.
That's it.
I also like to give people this illustration.
I think it's a good one.
But a lot of times, people have never flown before.
So it's kind of tough if nobody's ever flown before.
But I fly a lot.
And you know what I never get a chance to do before I fly?
I never get a chance to meet the pilot.
Now if you have children, sometimes the pilots
will give your kids the little airplane wings or whatever.
And like our granddaughter, when they flew,
when Remi and Kylie flew last time,
they gave her the little airplane wings.
Was it the stewardess that gave it to you or the captain?
The pilot.
So see, the pilots will come out for little kids
and do stuff like that, but they don't care about me.
They're not gonna give me the little wings
or whatever, right?
So most of the time, I never get a chance
to meet the pilot.
See, I've never met Jesus before, face to face.
But I know he's real.
I know I believe in him.
I have faith in him.
And someday I will see him face to face.
But I trust in him even though I've never seen him before.
But you know what?
I trust the pilots that fly me from place to place.
I never even question whether they have the credibility
or the ability to fly somewhere.
But I just get on the plane,
and I hope that they get me there.
I don't sit there and worry that it's some DEI hire
or something that can't get me there.
And what I mean by that is that they're not as qualified
as the person that should've actually got the job, all right?
So I don't check to see if it's a woman pilot, okay?
No offense, but I'm not saying women can't fly planes,
but I'm just saying that I don't check.
I don't check to see who's flying the plane
because I just trust that they're gonna get me there.
So also, the next verse here, look at verse 16.
This is the most famous verse in all the Bible,
and I think it's the clearest verse in all the Bible
that teaches you salvation.
Pay special attention to this.
It says, for God so loved the world,
did God love the world?
Yes, he did.
That he gave his only begotten son that,
what's it say there?
That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life.
So what's he doing here?
He's reiterating some of the same things he said in verse 15.
He's actually saying again that whosoever believeth in him.
He wants to drive this point home to Nicodemus.
Why?
Because he's teaching that you have to believe in him
to be saved and that you should not perish
but have everlasting life.
Eternal life and everlasting life,
they're synonyms of the same thing.
They mean the same thing.
Everlasting and eternal mean the same thing.
That means that they last forever.
So here the Bible is teaching you again.
Is there anything added to that?
Does it say there's other stuff you have to do
besides believe in him?
No, it doesn't say anything else.
Except for God sent not his son into the world
to condemn the world but that the world through him
might be saved.
So does it say through other means also
or is it just through him?
It's just through him.
Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the father but by me.
You can't just say I believe in the father without the son.
You have to go through the son of God to get salvation.
That's what that means.
And it says, now look at verse 18.
He that believeth on him is not condemned.
So that means if you believe in him, you're not condemned.
That means what?
You can't go to hell.
You can't be judged for your sins in the life to come.
You cannot be thrown into hell.
It says, but he that believeth not
is what? Condemned already.
You're dead while you're walking.
You're a dead man walking.
You're a dead woman walking.
You're already judged.
So if you die under this condemnation,
you're gonna die and you're gonna go to hell.
It'll be your own fault because
if you've heard this message before,
and you don't believe in it,
and you resist it,
and you say I'm not gonna change what I believe,
then it's gonna be too late for you if you die.
But it says if you believe, you're not condemned.
You're like, well I believe in Jesus.
Well do you believe that you could lose your salvation?
Because if you believe you could lose your salvation,
then you're calling God a liar,
and you're saying that he won't save you for everlasting.
He won't save you eternally.
You're saying that you can do something
that will take your salvation away.
You can stop believing.
You can put it on the shelf and walk away.
Well there's no verse in the Bible that says that.
There's no shelf.
That shelf is imaginary.
Some Pentecostal made that word up.
Some Pentecostal made up the shelf.
The shelf doctrine is not true.
It's just not.
And the journey doctrine of
you can go to heaven as long as you,
or you won't go to hell as long as you
don't stop believing.
That's not true.
See, music will tell you things that are not true.
Music will say, you know,
where oh where can my baby be?
The Lord took her away from me.
She's gone to heaven so I gotta be what?
Good.
So I can see my baby when I leave this world.
I know my singing's bad, but those songs will
brainwash you into thinking something that's not true.
She's gone to heaven so I gotta be good?
No, that's gonna send you straight to hell
if you believe that.
It's not about being good.
Someone had to be good for you so you could go to heaven.
We can't be good.
There's none that doeth good, no not one.
Skip to verse 35.
It says the Father loveth the Son
and hath given all things into his hand.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
What does that mean, you have it?
Hath means have.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
It's not something you have to wait for.
And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life
but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Isn't that kind of saying the same thing as verse 18?
If you believe in him, you're not condemned.
But if you don't believe, you're condemned already.
Verse 36 is basically saying the same thing.
If you believe in the Son of God,
you have everlasting life.
If you don't believe, the wrath of God's abiding on you.
What a scary position to be in.
What a scary game to play.
Well, you know, I just don't know.
Trust what the Bible says.
Don't trust what I'm saying, just trust what the Bible says.
The Bible says that if you don't believe in the Son,
and look, you have to believe in the right Son.
You have to believe in the right Jesus.
You have to believe the truth.
It's not just, oh, I believe in Jesus,
but I also believe I have to do all these works.
Where does the Bible say that?
The Bible does not say that.
Anybody that's saying that is twisting scripture.
I'm gonna read a few more verses in John,
and I'm gonna have you turn to John chapter 20.
Here's some more verses, but there's a ton of verses
in John that talk about just believing alone.
John 5 24 says, verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me half everlasting life
and shall not come into condemnation,
shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life.
The moment you believe in him,
you're passed from death unto life.
That instant, you're saved.
John 6 40, and this is the will of him
that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life
and I will raise him up at the last day.
What's he gonna do?
He's gonna raise you up on the last day
if you believe on him.
John 6 47, here's a real simple verse.
It says, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
That's a very simple statement right there.
Notice he's never saying, he that believeth on me
and gets baptized and does good works
and does all these things.
When he makes simple salvation statements like that,
Jesus is always just saying it simply.
John 11 25, Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.
Believest thou this?
This is what we have to believe.
That whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.
And he's talking about the death of your soul.
You're never gonna die.
What is dying?
It's actually going to hell.
That's death.
Death and hell were cast in the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
So the second death is going to hell.
We can avoid that by just putting our faith in Jesus.
Look at John chapter 20 where I had you turn.
John chapter 20.
The book of John is written to people
so that they can be saved.
That's the main purpose of the gospel.
Look what it says.
John 20 verse 30, it says,
and many other signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of his disciples
which are not written in this book.
There could have been tons of other stuff put in there.
But everything that's supposed to be in there
is in there.
But these are written that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God,
and that believing you might have life through his name.
That's why the book is written.
The book of John.
There's over 100 verses that have the form
of the word believe in it in the book of John,
in the gospel of John.
And zero verses that have the word repent in it.
Now I'm not afraid of the word repent.
I like the word repent.
But see a lot of people take the word repent
and add of your sins after it automatically in their mind.
That's because of the bad teaching that people get,
the bad preachers out there,
the false prophets out there that say,
oh you have to repent of your sins.
See it says repent of your sins.
No it doesn't say that.
The King James Bible never uses the term
repent of your sins.
It might say turn from your sins
or stuff that's similar to that.
But it's talking about people that are already saved.
You turning from your sins as an unsaved person
is not gonna help you out of hell.
It might save your physical self.
And as Christians, the less sinning we do,
the better off our life is gonna be.
But there's never a prerequisite to turn away from sins.
You've already had a hard time doing that anyway.
That's why people are just like,
people do get saved because they don't wanna be
the person that they are right now.
They can't stop it.
But getting saved doesn't automatically
make you not an alcoholic anymore.
Getting saved doesn't automatically make you quit cigarettes.
You'd like to think that that's true,
but cigarettes are an addictive thing.
You're not gonna just automatically quit.
You still have to try to quit cigarettes
after you get saved, trust me.
I used to be that guy.
Some people, yeah, you give up certain sins way easier,
and that is true also.
And should you clean up your life after you get saved?
Absolutely.
Should you go to church?
Yes.
Should you get baptized?
Absolutely.
Should you go soul-willing?
Yes, you should.
Should you stop blaspheming God with your mouth
and using Jesus' name as a cuss word?
Yes.
Should you stop using God's name?
Yes.
But do you have to do those things to be saved?
No.
Are those things gonna keep you saved?
No.
What keeps you saved?
The power of God keeps you saved.
Amen.
The promise of eternal life keeps you saved.
Amen.
Turn to Acts chapter 16, verse 22.
Now this is a story,
usually I just go to the couple verses here,
but I wanna show you the whole story here
of the Philippian jailer getting saved.
Because what happens is that Paul and Silas are,
they're going around, they're preaching the gospel
and they get in trouble with the law
for what they're doing.
And I just wanna show you what happens here.
The power of God's word, the power of the gospel
shines through into this person that's put them in jail.
It says in Acts 16, 22, it says,
and the multitude rose up against them,
together against them,
and the magistrates rent off their clothes
and commanded to beat them.
So they tore their clothes off, beat them,
and when they had laid many stripes upon them,
they cast them into prison,
charging the jailer to keep them safely.
Who having received such a charge,
thrust them into the inner prison
and made their feet fast in the stocks.
And at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed
and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.
So it makes a special point to say
that the prisoners heard what they were doing.
I mean, after getting the tar bead out of them,
they got stripes, that means they got bloody lashes on them.
It says, and suddenly there was a great earthquake
so that the foundations of the prison were shaken
and immediately all the doors were open
and everyone's bands were loosed.
And the keeper of the prison,
awakening out of his sleep,
he's sleeping on the job,
and seeing the prison doors open,
he drew out his sword and would have killed himself
supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
Back then, you let the prisoners escape,
you're dead anyway, so he's just like,
I'm just gonna kill myself.
He thought they all got away.
But Paul cried with a loud voice saying,
do thyself no harm, for we are all here.
Then he called for a light and sprang in
and came trembling, is that my truck?
Oh, no, okay.
And came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas
and brought them out and said,
sirs, what must I do to be saved?
So this jailer comes in, he's trembling,
and he says, what must I do to be saved?
And this, what's the answer?
He's asking, what do I have to do to get saved from hell?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
What's the answer?
What must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved.
Did he say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and do a whole bunch of laundry list of other stuff?
Be a good person?
That's not what he said.
Mind you, this is the guy that has them locked up in jail.
Okay?
Does he repent of his sins?
No, what happens is he gets saved,
they go to the guy's house,
this is in the middle of the night,
gets the rest of his family saved,
baptizes them, I don't know where,
maybe in the bathtub or something, I'm not sure,
baptizes them, then they go back to jail,
he locks them back up where they were,
like nothing ever happened,
and then they let him go the next day.
Did he repent of his sins?
Did he let them go?
No, he still had a job to do.
His job was to keep them and hold them,
although he would have been killed, right?
So he didn't repent of keeping them in jail,
he locked them back up,
but I'm sure Paul didn't hold that against him,
it was his job, he had to do it.
So maybe he lightened the shackles a little bit,
maybe he didn't grind them down on his legs so bad,
but the point is is that when the question was asked,
what must I do to be saved,
Paul said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
If salvation was another way,
don't you think that Paul would have said something else?
Don't you think he would have added something after that?
He would have, because that's the way you're saved,
by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
There's nothing else after that.
Number two, the Jesus you must believe in
must be the right Jesus.
Look at John 1-1.
So it must be the Son of God,
God manifests in the flesh,
born of the Virgin Mary,
the sinless Lamb of God, the Messiah.
It has to be the right Jesus.
It can't be the Mormon Jesus.
The Mormon Jesus is supposedly the brother of Satan.
He's a separate God from God the Father.
He's a separate God from God the Holy Spirit.
They believe in three gods.
Actually they believe in millions of gods.
They believe, we have this thing up here that said Kolob.
They believe that God the Father,
that this universe that we live in
is just one of many universes,
and that God the Father of our universe
makes continual spirit babies
with all of his multitude of wives
on a planet in star-based Kolob.
That's what the Mormons believe, folks.
I didn't make that up.
They sing a song called Fly to Kolob or something.
Has anybody ever heard of star-based Kolob
in the astronomy record?
Is there a real place called Kolob?
No, it's made up just like their Bible is.
Anyway, so John 1, 1.
What does it say?
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So you have to believe that Jesus is God.
That's what the Bible says.
The Word was God.
He is, Jesus is God.
Now look at verse 14.
I'll prove it to you.
It says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
1 Timothy 3, 16 says,
the greatest, the mystery of godliness,
God was manifest in the flesh.
We know that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh.
Look at verse 29 in the same chapter we're in.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.
So John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.
He's gonna die in all of our place
as the sinless Lamb of God.
He never sinned.
We have to believe that also.
Jesus was not a sinner.
He was the only begotten Son of God,
and so he was a man and he was God at the same time.
Mary was his mother, human mother.
God was his father.
So he was born without sin.
The only person born into this world without sin.
So verse 40, one of the two heard John speak
and followed him,
one of the two which heard John speak and followed him
was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon,
and saith unto him,
We have found, what does it say there?
The Messiahs.
It's talking about the Messiah,
which being interpreted, the Christ.
Christ is not Jesus's last name.
Christ is his title given to him.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus the Messiah.
That's what Jesus Christ means.
He is the Messiah.
You must believe that he is the Messiah,
the anointed one that God sent down.
So the Bible interprets it for us.
It says Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ.
So you have to believe in the right Jesus.
He is the only begotten Son of God.
All the other false Bible versions will say
he's the one and only son.
The King James Bible says he's the only begotten son.
See, if you're saved, you are a son or a daughter of God
by adoption.
So when those modern Bible versions will say
he's the one and only son, that's not true.
So it's just not true.
So is that a good Bible version then?
No, it's not a good Bible version.
Turn to 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15.
The Jesus you must believe in
is according to the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15, 1 says,
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you,
which also ye have received and wherein ye stand,
but by which also ye are saved.
If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you
unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you, first of all,
that which I also received,
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.
Now this is like the gospel in a nutshell.
There's a lot of other things that Jesus did, of course,
but the main things that we have to take out of it
is that Jesus died for your sins
according to the Scriptures.
What's the Scriptures?
The Bible.
And that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day.
You have to believe those things
or you're not saved.
It's plain and simple, okay?
And now turn to 1 John 2, 1.
1 John 2, 1.
He didn't just die for some people,
like the Calvinists say.
He only died for certain people.
The Bible's very clear that he died for everybody.
So the Jesus you have to believe in
died for everybody, not just some people, for everybody.
Says in 1 John 2, 1.
My little children, these things I write unto you
that you sin not, and if any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.
So even if we sin after we're a Christian,
we can still go to God and ask him
and tell him we're sorry.
We don't lose our salvation when we sin,
but we should, just like if you wrong your parents
when you're growing up, or if you wrong your parents
right now, kids, you can go to your parents
and say I'm sorry.
And you know what, your parents probably like that
instead of you having a bad attitude
and think everybody's against you or something.
But most of the time your parents,
if they're reasonable people, will forgive you.
And most parents are like that
and they appreciate you apologizing.
But it says, and he is the propitiation for our sins.
That word means he's the appeasement of God's wrath.
That's what that means.
So God's wrath is upon the unsaved,
but Jesus is the propitiation.
He died in our place, and it says,
and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world.
There's a lot of people out there that just don't accept
that they don't accept the gift that Christ died for them.
They don't receive that gift,
and that doesn't mean that he's not their savior.
They just don't receive him as their savior.
We have a choice.
He doesn't force it on us.
Point number three, salvation is only through Jesus
and never of works.
I've already kind of made that point,
but look at Romans chapter six, verse 23.
Romans 6, 23.
Try to buzz through the rest of this.
I only got a little left here,
but point number three is salvation is only through Jesus
and never of works.
Romans 6, 23 says, for the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So yeah, we're gonna die,
but the but there is very important for us.
The gift of God, it's a gift.
If it's a gift, then it's something
that we don't have to purchase.
We don't have to work for.
A gift by definition means
that it's something that is given to you for free.
If you're getting a gift
and someone says you have to pay for it,
that's not a gift.
That is something that you're paying for.
If you go to a store and you buy something,
that's not a gift.
You might be buying it for someone else to give to a gift,
just like Jesus paid for our gift of salvation
by dying for us,
he lived a perfect life,
he was beaten, he was mocked, he was spit upon,
his beard was ripped out,
he was crucified for us,
and he offers us the gift of salvation
through what he did for us
when he rose from the dead after that.
So he can offer the gift of salvation
because he paid for it.
We can't give ourselves the gift of salvation
because we've already messed it up.
We can't give that to us,
so we have to get the gift from somebody else.
It says the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
so it's an everlasting gift, isn't it?
So you can't give it back.
See, a lot of people will say,
well, what if I just give it back?
How do you give something back that's yours forever?
That's like saying, well,
I'm gonna give you,
say someone has their arm cut off or something
and you have the ability to give them a new arm.
Technology might exist in 20 years, who knows?
But you gave them the new arm,
it's like, I wanna give you my arm back.
That's attached to you.
You'd have to cut it off.
I don't know if that's a bad analogy,
but what I'm saying is that
once you get the gift of eternal life,
you can't give it back.
You might wanna give it back,
but you can't give it back
because it lasts forever.
It's eternal.
You're like, oh, I don't want this anymore.
Too bad.
It's too bad.
Once you've got it, it's yours, baby.
It's yours forever.
Ephesians chapter two.
The gift of God is eternal life.
There's no going back on it.
Why would you want to?
Why would you wanna have eternal death instead anyway?
Because the opposite is true.
If you go to hell, it's forever also.
There's no in between.
There's no nether world.
There's no purgatory.
That's a lie.
Ephesians 2 eight says,
for by grace are you saved through faith.
Grace are you saved through faith.
Grace just means that you're getting it for free
and you don't deserve it.
For by grace are you saved through faith.
Isn't that what I've been saying the whole time?
It's faith.
And that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God.
Not of works,
lest any man should boast.
What are works?
Doing things.
Everybody knows what work is, right?
So if it's not of works,
lest any man should boast.
God didn't want,
it cannot be by our own works
because God doesn't want us to say,
well I was good enough.
I got myself to heaven because I'm such a good person.
There's no boasting with God.
He doesn't want us to,
isn't that boasting?
Boasting is bragging.
I'm so spiritual.
We get a lot of people at the doors
that talk about how spiritual they were.
Well I saved a rescue puppy.
That's why I'm going to heaven.
And that cat's behind the microwave right now
and I gotta attend to him now.
I mean people just say something.
I was a school teacher for 30 years.
I'm going to heaven.
What?
I served in Operation Desert Storm.
Going to heaven.
Maybe not.
It depends on what you did over there.
So I mean people will say some of the weirdest things
of why they're going to heaven.
I raise good kids.
I'm going to heaven.
That doesn't make sense.
That's boasting.
That's bragging.
I'm a good person.
I'm going to heaven.
No.
The only way we're going to heaven
is by the grace of God.
So what does that mean?
We don't deserve it,
but he's given it to us anyway.
But the prerequisite for that
is that it's through faith.
That's the only way you're getting it.
Not of yourselves.
It's the gift.
Who gives the gift?
Jesus gives the gift.
When's he give you the gift?
Once you believe in him.
It's really that simple.
And it's not of works lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship.
Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
Are we supposed to do good works
after we get saved?
Yes.
Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them.
And we should walk in those good works.
We should do good works as saved Christians.
But are we automatically going to do good works?
Do we have to do good works to stay saved?
No we don't.
What if you get saved
and you never do anything for God ever?
For your whole life.
But you believe in Jesus.
Are you still saved?
Yes you are.
Look at Romans chapter four.
Romans chapter four.
Verse number two.
This is a very important teaching.
This is where people are like
I just can't believe
that you could just never serve God
but you're still saved.
Well I mean the thief on the cross
didn't do anything for God.
I mean he died not too long after that.
He didn't really have a chance
that he was nailed to a cross.
But he did kind of say leave him alone.
I mean he did kind of stick up for him finally
after he'd been railing on him for a while.
But Romans 4, two.
Look what it says.
For if Abraham were justified by works
he hath whereof to glory.
You would say Abraham's a really good person.
He showed a lot of good works.
But it says but not before God.
His works were good
but if he tried to spring those works
and say God let me into heaven
because I'm such a good person
that it wouldn't happen.
It says for what saith the scripture.
What does the Bible say?
Abraham believed God
and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Why did Abraham go to heaven?
Was it because of his works?
No it says he believed God
and it was counted to him for righteousness.
That means the imputed righteousness
went on to Abraham when he believed in God.
Now to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace
but of debt.
So if you think you're gonna work your way to heaven
you've started a different process.
You're in a debt.
You're trying to work off the sin debt that you have
and guess what?
You can never work it off.
But to him that worketh not.
So the person that doesn't try to work it off
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly
his faith is counted for righteousness.
So if you believe on Jesus
he's the one that justifies the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
When you believe
your faith is counted that you're righteous
because of Jesus.
Even as David also describeth
the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
What does the Bible say?
He describeth the blessedness of the man
unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
He imputes righteousness to you if you're saved
without you having to do any works.
Isn't that what it says?
Then verse seven says
saying blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven.
Think about that statement for a second.
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven.
When you get saved your iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
That's all of them.
Past, present and future.
Blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Once you're saved
he will not impute sin to your account anymore.
It's all covered by the blood.
So could you theoretically
never do any works for God once you get saved?
Could you not do anything for God and still be saved?
Yes or no?
Yes, but I'm not saying to do that.
Okay, that's where people are just like
well I just can't believe that you would
not do anything for Jesus.
You'd never go to church.
You'd never whatever.
I'm not saying you should do that.
I'm just saying you could do that
because what's the Bible teaching here?
That you don't have to do works to be saved.
And as a matter of fact
if you think you're doing works to be saved
then you're not.
You're trying to work off a debt
that you're never going to be able to work off.
You're trying to work off a debt
that Jesus already paid for you.
So why not just accept the fact
that he did it for you
because you can't work that debt off.
You never will.
And if you try to work your way to heaven
you're trying to go away
that God says is shut to you.
You know all that came before me
were thieves and robbers he said.
There's only one gate to get through.
If you try to go around the other way
and jump the fence
you're going to get thrust through with the dart.
You're going to go to hell.
Romans 11 verse 5.
The Bible says,
Even so then at this present time
also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace.
He's talking about a remnant of Jews
that are getting saved.
And if by grace
then there's no more works.
So see how if it's grace
that means it's free
then it's no more of works.
Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works
then there's no more of grace.
Otherwise work is no more work.
He's basically saying
that they're the opposite of each other.
They cannot coexist.
If you're saying you're saved by grace
it's by grace alone.
It's not work.
Those two are not
they cannot exist together.
In Romans 4-5 it says that
if you try to bring them both together
it's like it's not going to happen.
You can't have faith and works
and go to heaven.
That's not the combination.
It's only by grace
where you're not getting in.
The work comes afterwards.
Point number four.
Last point.
Romans 10-9.
The Bible says
oh yeah the point is
you must call on him by faith to be saved.
Now people attack this doctrine
and say you're teaching works
you're saying you have to pray a prayer to be saved.
Okay well let's just read what the Bible says.
Okay?
Now is prayer a work?
Or is prayer something of faith?
Because last time I checked
I'm praying to someone I've never seen before.
So I'm praying to God
who I've never seen
and that is an act of faith
because I've never seen him before.
But I believe that he's there.
I believe he's answering my prayer.
I believe that when I pray to him
that he's hearing me.
That is faith.
So when you call upon God
to save you initially
you're praying a prayer of faith.
It's not works.
But people say that's works.
You're trying to get people to work.
No?
Listen to what the Bible says.
Romans 10-9.
It says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus
and shall believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead
what's it say there?
Thou shalt be saved.
Does it say you might be?
Or you shall be?
It says you shall be.
So if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus.
Now what if you don't have a mouth?
Well you can confess with your heart
and your mind the Lord Jesus.
You can believe in your heart
and call out to him in your mind and in your heart.
Like most of the prayer that I do
is not verbally.
It's out of my heart and out of my mind.
I think most people are the same way.
But obviously when we're out preaching the gospel
we want to hear someone's call out to him
so that we know for sure that they did call upon him.
Now can people fake that?
Absolutely.
But most of the time
I think that they're probably being sincere.
If you've done a good job anyway at presenting it.
So it says for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
So there is some sort of confession
that is made with your mouth.
Isn't that what it says?
I mean am I twisting something here?
Verse 11.
For the scripture saith
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
See how it's connecting
you confessing with your mouth with believing?
You're believing in your heart.
You're confessing with your mouth
for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
For the same Lord is rich unto all that do what?
Call upon him.
You're talking to God.
You're asking stuff from him.
But this is specifically talking about salvation
in this passage.
There's people that would twist the gospel.
They would twist this just to avoid
the calling upon the name of the Lord doctrine
and dismiss this as,
this is physical salvation it's talking about.
No you idiot.
It's talking about the gospel of salvation.
Everybody believes that.
It's actually a Baptist
unless they're just trying to purposely condemn
calling upon the name of the Lord.
Look at what it says in verse 13.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
So it's intermingling verses
that talk about believing in him
and then talking about calling upon him.
Well is it works to ask your parents for something to eat?
Is that you making the food?
What if they put it before you?
Did you work to make that food?
I mean most kids say mommy I'm hungry
or daddy I'm hungry.
And they just sit there with their little fork and spoon
and their little plate or whatever
and they're just like I'm hungry mommy.
I mean they didn't work for it.
They just asked for it and then mommy provides
or dad provides something for them to eat.
They're asking for something.
They're calling upon their parents
in faith that they're gonna give them something to eat.
And parents want to feed their kids
so that they're not bothering them.
So they can grow, so they can be nurtured.
And after we're saved
hopefully you're gonna call upon the name of the Lord
for a lot of other things.
He wants us to.
But that initial prayer,
that initial calling upon him for salvation,
it's talking about an act of faith here.
Because if you believe in him
you will call upon him.
You will ask him to save you.
It's really that simple.
What is the name that you call upon him for?
Is it Yahweh?
Is it Yehova?
Is it God Almighty?
What's the name?
Well let's turn to Acts chapter four.
I've got two places left to turn to
and we're gonna be done.
Acts chapter four.
Is it Yeshua?
Because I see a lot of that going on.
What is the name in our English Bible?
We speak English, most of us here.
You might speak two different languages, whatever.
If it's in the Spanish Bible it's Jesus.
Acts 4-10 says,
Be it known unto you all
and unto all the people by Israel
that by the name of, what's it say there?
Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified
whom God raised from the dead
even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
This is the stone which was set at Nod of you builders
which is become the head of the corner
neither is there salvation in any other
for there is none other name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved.
Who's the name that we have to call upon to save us?
It says Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
I mean I don't think you have to say of Nazareth
but you know if you're believing in the right Jesus
if you have faith and you want Jesus to save you
you must call upon his name, that's what it says.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved, that name is Jesus.
Turn to Philippians chapter two verse five
this is the last place I'll have you turn
we're gonna be done.
Philippians chapter two verse five says
let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus
who being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God but made of himself no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men
and being found in fashion as a man
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death
even the death of the cross wherefore
or for this reason God also hath highly exalted him
and given him a name which is above every name.
So why is that name the name that we call upon?
Because his name is above every name
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things of earth
and things under the earth and that every tongue
and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So what is the name that we call upon?
Well the name is Jesus Christ
and I you know I preach this sermon
a lot of people already know all this stuff
but maybe you didn't know some of this stuff
but God does love you and he you know
Valentine's Day was on Friday or whatever
but God wants you to be his.
He doesn't want you to be his slave
and for you to just serve him
because you know he wants you to bow down
and you know whatever he does we should bow down to him
we should be his servant but he wants us to love him.
He loves us though he loved you before you were even born
he loved you before the foundations of the world
he knew your name and what you would choose
before you were ever even made
before you ever came out of your mother's womb
Jesus died 2,000 years ago and he thought about you
the day that he died on the cross
every sin that everybody in this room has ever committed
Jesus thought upon your name
Jesus loved you and so much that he allowed himself
to be tortured to death for you
but he wants you only because you want to be his
he wants you to be saved because you want to be
he doesn't force anybody
all this Catholic forcing people to be subjected unto him
going and slaughtering all these nations
and saying well here's what I have to read
before I slaughter you and take all your gold
no Christianity is not that way
there's a lot of Christian sects out there
that believe that they don't believe salvation
by faith alone
almost a lot of them
if the church that you normally go to
or the church that you follow or whatever
does not believe this
then they're wrong
because the foundational truth in the Bible is this
that salvation is by faith alone
in Jesus Christ alone
and you must call upon his name to be saved
it's just that simple
you have to believe in the right Jesus
if the Jesus you believe in isn't God manifest in the flesh
then you don't believe in the right Jesus
you got to believe in the right Jesus
and you got to believe it's eternal life
that you can't lose it
so but we have free will
we have a free choice
we can't just believe we can't think
oh we you know we don't have a choice
we just you know we just it's it's uh
what is it the you and the tulip again
oh yeah oh it's the eyes
oh unconditional election and irresistible grace
that's what the Catholics believe
I mean the Calvinists believe
it's irresistible
you can't stop yourself from getting saved
and what was the you again
unconditional election
there's no conditions upon it
you just get saved all of a sudden
and that's it
no no no
there's a condition
you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
let's pray
Lord thank you so much
for the queer doctrine of salvation
Lord I pray if there's somebody in this room
that just doesn't know that they're saved
I pray that today they'd make that choice
and we're not going to do an invitation
or anything like that
but if there's someone in this room
that isn't saved
they could just call upon you in their heart right now
or they could call upon you in their room
in their own privacy of their own home
but I pray that those people
that might not be saved in this room
whether it be a man, woman, boy or girl
that they would make the choice to be saved
before it's eternally too late
and Lord for those that just needed to bolster
their faith
and be reminded of these things
Lord I pray that we would never forget
how clear, crystal clear
salvation should be
that we would never allow the gospel
to have muddy water
enter into the doctrine of salvation
that we'd always be true to the gospel
and true to our Lord
in Jesus' name we pray
Amen
Alright our last song is song number 464
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Song number 464
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
Song 464
Let's sing it together on the first
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness
and all these things shall be added unto you
Allelu, alleluia
Man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God
Allelu, alleluia
Ask and it shall be given unto you
Seek and ye shall find
Knock and the door shall be open unto you
Allelu, alleluia
Amen, good scene
Brother Drew would you close the prayer
Alleluia, alleluia