Hey guys, excuse us. How's it going?
No. Those guys are...
I was Baptist. I was Baptist.
No, we're Baptists, man.
Not denominational.
But I appreciate the Baptists.
Well, Jehovah's Witnesses,
they don't believe Jesus is God.
Yeah, that's a cult.
We're just normal Christians. I appreciate that.
You don't want to be nice to those people
because they're sending people to Hell.
Yeah.
Absolutely. What's your name?
Darwin. I'm Dylan. Nice to meet you.
What's your name?
Hey, more importantly than going to church, though,
we're asking everybody a really important question.
And that's, God forbid, if you were to pass away today,
are you 100% sure you'd be going to Heaven?
Do you think you would be, or do you think you might have some doubts?
Um...
Lord willing.
Sure.
So it sounds like you're not quite 100% sure.
Yeah. Okay.
What do you think that you have to do to get to Heaven?
Um...
I mean, nothing in particular, honestly.
Okay.
You think it's kind of by just living a good life,
being a good person?
I mean, you could live a good life,
you know, an honest life,
but not having God in your life, you know,
that's the point of having such a good life.
Yeah, because there's a few different beliefs out there.
So some people believe that you're saved by
believing in Jesus
and living a good life,
and some people believe that salvation is by faith alone,
not of works.
Which one do you think you believe in?
Uh...just having faith.
Amen. Absolutely.
Yeah, that's what we believe as well.
It's not any good works that you could do.
Let me ask you this.
Once a person is saved, once they believe in Jesus,
do you think someone could ever lose that salvation?
Um...
If they go back to what they were doing,
I mean...
Well, I honestly don't know.
Okay.
Jesus forgives.
We should forgive everyone else, too.
Because it sounds like you kind of have a couple
conflating beliefs here, because on one hand
you're telling me that salvation is just by faith alone.
But then you're saying, well, if you go back
and you don't do the works anymore, then you might
lose your salvation. So it sounds kind of like
what you're actually believing is a little bit of good works
and salvation. So what I'd like to do
is just show you real quick from the Bible what it
says we have to do to get to heaven, because it's
very simple, it's very easy, it has nothing to do with how
we live. You want to see that real quick? Awesome, cool.
So in Romans 3,
let's just start real simple. It says,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. That's basic, right? All of us are very
sinful people. No one's perfect whatsoever.
You know, we're just man here.
But because of that, the Bible says
that every single person has a punishment
that they deserve because of that. This is the bad news
first. It says, For the wages of sin
is death. So when
we die, there's one of two places we can go.
Heaven or where? Hell.
Yeah. Do you believe hell is a real place? Oh, yeah.
How would you describe it in your belief? Just suffering.
Endless suffering. Exactly.
That's what the Bible says. It's endless suffering,
fire, torment, no rest, day or night.
Terrible, terrible place.
But the Bible does give us a list of the
type of people that are going to go there someday.
It says here, But the fearful
and unbelieving and the abominable
and murderers and whoremongers
and sorcerers and idolaters. Really bad list.
But then it says, And all liars
shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone. You know, I look at this list
and I'm like, okay, you know,
I'm not unbelieving. I've never murdered anyone.
I'm not a sorcerer. But I'm thinking like,
oh, I've lied before. Have you ever lied before?
Everyone has, right? And so what this verse is
teaching us is that every single person
because we've sinned, we all deserve that
punishment of hell. But the question is,
do you think God wants us to go there? No.
No, right? He wants us to go to heaven.
And the Bible explains
the reason why that is.
Romans chapter 5.
Romans 5 verse 8 says,
So, He loves us.
He doesn't want us to go to hell, right?
So, He wants to make it very easy for us to go to heaven.
So, of course, you know He gave Jesus Christ,
born of the Virgin Mary. Because of that,
He had no earthly father. His real father
is God in heaven. So, when He was born,
He was 100% man and 100%
God. You believe Jesus is God?
Awesome, yeah. Well, that's really important.
Some people don't understand that. But because
He's God, that's what enabled Him to live His entire life
perfectly. Never sinning one single time.
And, of course, you know about
the miracles He did. Raising people from the dead.
And, of course, just preaching the Word of God.
Because of that, He was hated of the Jews.
And, as you know, He was killed on the cross.
Right? When His body was
buried in the earth, the Bible says His soul
went somewhere for three days and three nights.
Do you think it was heaven or hell if you had to guess?
I think it was heaven. So, He did eventually
go to heaven. You are right.
But He actually went to hell first. And I want to
show you that from the Bible. Because here's the thing.
I could make up anything I want to you. But I want
to show it from the Bible. Because that's the only thing we could trust, right?
So, check it out. It says,
He seeing this before, spake of the
resurrection of Christ, that His
soul was not left in hell.
Neither His flesh did seek corruption.
And maybe you're thinking, well, why would
Jesus have gone to hell if He's God and if He's perfect?
But remember, where is it that all of
us deserve to go for ourselves?
Exactly. So, He went to hell for
us to pay the punishment that
we deserve. So, we deserve
to suffer there. He went and suffered there
for us. But He didn't stay there
because what happened three days after He died?
He rose again. Exactly. Now, here's
the question. Just because Jesus
died and was buried and rose again, do you think
that means everybody just automatically goes to
heaven no matter what? No.
So, this brings us back to the question
of what do we have to do to get saved? What do we have to do
to get to heaven? Well, someone actually asked that
exact question in the Bible in Acts
chapter 16. This question is asked,
Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? I don't know about you. I want to know
the answer to that. You know what I mean? Here's the
answer. It says, and they said,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
Now, notice it's not saying
go to church and you'll be saved, repent of all your
sins, ask for forgiveness,
tithe, help old ladies cross the street,
save cats, do a good job. Right? There's not a long
list of things to do. It's just one thing and that's
belief. And that's because believe
it doesn't just simply mean that you believe
He exists. Right? Because let's say there was
a bunch of politicians down there.
I said, hey man, I believe those politicians exist.
Does that mean that I trust them? No.
Right? It's a big difference. Right?
So what it means to believe in Jesus,
of course it means you believe He's real.
Right? Of course it means you believe it's God.
But more than that, it means that you trust
that what He did for you is
the only thing taking you to Heaven.
Not thinking, well, I
have to keep up my end of the bargain.
I have to be living a pretty clean life.
I have to repent of my sins. Then
you're trusting partly in Jesus and partly in
yourself. But the Bible makes it clear
that we have to trust 100% in Him.
Otherwise, then we're not going to be saved.
So in Ephesians 2 it says,
for by grace,
grace is something we don't deserve. Right?
For by grace are you saved through
faith. That's your trust.
And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should
boast. The Bible is saying that salvation
is not of ourselves. There's nothing
that we can do to earn salvation.
Specifically, no works.
So works are good things.
And some people think, oh, you know,
you Baptists are against good works.
No, good works are good.
But when it comes to what's taking you to Heaven,
the Bible says it's not of works.
So like, I go to church. I go
preach the Gospel. I try to do what's right.
But I'm not doing those things to get myself
to Heaven. I'm doing those things because
it's just the right thing to do. Right?
And it says, lest any man
should boast. So if
salvation were by works, we'd be able to
brag. Do you think God wants us bragging?
Right, exactly. What if I said to you,
hey man, I'm going to Heaven because I'm such a great guy
and I go to church. I read the Bible.
I pray. Who does it sound like I'm trusting
in? Jesus or myself? Exactly, right?
So that's why salvation has to be
100% by faith.
Because now I can say, I'm a
sinner. I'm not that great of a person.
But I believe Jesus died on the cross for my sins.
That He was buried and rose again.
That's the only thing that's going to take me to Heaven.
You see the difference between those things? So that's
what we have to do to be saved, is put our faith
100% on Him.
Now, when we believe in
Him, when we put our faith in Him,
the Bible says that God gives us
something in return when we put our faith
in Him. In Romans 6,
it says, for the wages
of sin is death. That's the bad news that we
deserve Hell. But
the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So the Bible calls salvation
a gift. What's your name by the way?
Byron? Byron.
What if I said, hey Byron, I want to give you this Bible as a gift.
You just have to pay me 100 bucks. Is that a gift?
Of course not, right?
It's like, hey Byron, I want to give you this Bible as a totally
free gift. You just have to wash my truck.
Is that a gift? Right.
So it's the same thing with God. God isn't saying,
hey Byron, here's eternal life.
It's a free gift. But
you have to keep the Ten Commandments.
And you have to go to church. And you have to tithe.
And you have to do good things. And you have to repent of your sins.
Then it ceases to be a gift, right?
Because a gift is free.
Who paid for the gift? The giver does.
So who paid for salvation?
Jesus did. How did he pay for it?
By living a perfect life, dying on the cross,
going to hell, rising again from the dead.
That's how he paid for it. We get the gift
simply by receiving it by faith.
Now that gift that he wants to give us, it's called
eternal life. How long does
eternal last for?
Forever. Forever. Exactly, right?
So let me ask you this. Let's say someone
believes in Jesus Christ and they have everlasting
life. They have eternal life.
And let's say something really bad happens in their life
and they commit a really big sin. Do you think
that person would still be saved? Or do you think
that they would lose their salvation?
Sin is sin regardless of how big or how small it is.
So I mean, yeah, you could still be saved.
Okay. But let me
ask you this. Because you have the right answer.
You're 100% right. Do you think there's any
scenario where a person could lose their salvation?
Yeah.
Okay. What do you think? Well, the list that you
in the Bible just gave us.
Okay.
So let's think about this for a second.
You know, you said all sin is bad.
It's all going to condemn us, right?
But here's the thing. When Jesus died on the cross,
do you think that he died only for little sins or also
for big sins? He died for everything, right?
And so far from what I've shown you,
does the Bible say that to get to heaven you have
to stop sinning and do good
or simply just trust in Jesus Christ?
Right. Is it something you have to earn
by doing good things and not doing bad things?
Or is it a free gift? It's a free gift.
So when it comes to losing your salvation,
sometimes people will understand
that, okay, salvation is a gift.
I don't have to work for it.
But if I start doing bad,
maybe God will take it away.
But Jesus actually taught in one verse.
He taught three times in one verse that you can never lose
your salvation for any reason. I want to show that to you.
In John 5,
it says, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word and
believeth on him that sent me,
notice, half everlasting life.
So he says, if you believe in me,
right now, present tense,
you have everlasting life.
And you already told me, how long does everlasting
last for? Forever. Right. So can you lose
something that's everlasting? No.
It's forever, right? So if I'm saved today
and I have everlasting life, will I have it tomorrow?
What about a million years from now?
Of course. Yeah, because it's everlasting, right?
Not only that, he says, and
shall not come into condemnation.
That means going to hell.
So he says, if you believe in me, you have everlasting life
and you'll never come into condemnation.
He says, but is past from death on the life.
Are these your friends right here? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Do you have to go? Or do you want to keep hearing this for a second?
I just got like five more minutes. Is that cool?
Okay, cool. Hey guys, excuse us.
Are you a Jehovah's Witness? No!
I was Baptist.
No, we're Baptists, man.
We are Baptists.
Not denominational, but I appreciate the Baptists.
Well, Jehovah's Witnesses,
they don't believe Jesus is God.
Yeah, that's a cult.
We're just normal Christians.
I appreciate that.
You know, you don't want to be nice to those people
because they're sending people to hell.
Absolutely.
What's your name? Darwin.
I'm Dylan. Nice to meet you.
Yeah, so let me just show you
this verse I was going to show you here.
So if you notice at the end how it says
that he is past from death on the life,
he doesn't say like,
well, if you believe in Jesus, someday
you'll be past from death on the life.
If you live a good enough life, if you follow the commandments,
he says that it's in that very moment
that you're past from death on the life.
That's because salvation is not a process.
Salvation is not a process of cleaning up your life,
doing good, abstaining from evil.
It's one moment of time putting all of your trust
in Jesus Christ. That's how you're saved.
Is that what you guys believe? Facts.
Or do you guys think salvation is by works? No.
Right, it's by faith alone, right? By faith alone.
Yeah, and so we're talking about how because salvation
is a free gift, and it's by faith alone,
you never lose your salvation.
Because if I said, hey man, I've got a free Bible for you,
it's a totally free gift, but I came back in a week,
and I said, oh man, you haven't read it,
I'm going to take it back from you. Was that a gift?
No, no, it's a free gift, exactly.
So, let me think.
I got off train of thought here.
Let me do a quick recap, okay?
So, in the beginning I said that we're all sinners,
and because we've sinned, where do we deserve to go?
Right, but God doesn't want us to go there,
what did he do for us so that way we're not going to go there?
Exactly.
So, what is it that we have to do to get to Heaven?
Just believe.
And once we believe, how long are we saved for?
Forever.
Now, here's the thing, when I came to your door,
you were saying like, I'm not 100% sure that I'm going to Heaven.
And here's the thing, if salvation were by works,
I wouldn't be 100% sure either,
because I mess up every single day.
But now that I've shown you it's just by faith alone,
you can never lose it,
do you see now how you can be 100% sure?
Yeah.
Right, so before, you know, you gave me the right answer
but you thought you might be able to lose that salvation.
But have I changed your mind with this?
That you can never lose it? Awesome.
So here's the thing, this whole time I've been telling you
that all you've got to do to be saved is believe in Jesus.
And what it means to believe in Jesus
is not just believe he's real,
but it's to trust him 100% for salvation.
So the Bible says that this is how we do that.
In Romans 10, 9 it says 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.
It says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.
So all you've got to do to trust in him
is pray and ask him for that free gift.
But here's the thing, let's say that I'm a person
who prays and asks for that gift
but I don't believe in my heart,
would I be saved?
If I pray but I don't believe, would I be saved?
No. Absolutely not, right.
What if I pray for salvation
but I think I have to follow the commandments to be saved,
would I be saved? No.
What if I prayed and asked for salvation
but I thought
that if I didn't keep living a good life
I was going to lose my salvation, would I be saved?
No. Right.
So this is why I'm explaining this to you
because now that you fully understand this
you've got to call upon the name of the Lord
and ask him for that free gift.
So what I'd like to do is just help you
word a quick prayer, would you just want to repeat after me?
Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner
I know I deserve hell
but I believe you died
for my sins
that you were buried
and rose again from the dead
I'm only trusting in you
and not myself
Please save me now. Amen.