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Yes, so keep your Bibles open. They're in Ephesians chapter 2. And I'm not going to be preaching any groundbreaking doctrine today. In fact, I'm going to be preaching on the most important doctrine, which is our salvation. You know what? There's a lot in the Bible. The Bible tells us how we can be sure that we're going to heaven. And there's a lot of other things. There's a lot of great teaching on Christian living, on how to have good character, even how to take care of your possessions and your finances and your resources, how to be a good husband, how to be great children, how to raise a family. There's a lot of good advice in the Bible. And you can be someone that gets a lot of things right that's in the Bible. But you'd rather be somebody that gets the doctrine of salvation right and everything else wrong. Okay? You know, there's no point of having everything right in the Bible, but when it comes to salvation, when it comes to going to heaven, you've got that mistaken. You've got that wrong. Because what's the point of living a good, clean, Christian life on this earth if you end up in the lake of fire? And yes, that's what the Bible teaches. A lot of people don't like the fact that the Bible teaches there's a heaven, there's a hell, there's an eternal destiny, you know, after we pass away. We're more than just a body. We have a spirit. We have a soul in us. This makes up who we are. And there is an eternal destination for that eternal soul. Now if you look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse number 8, this is a very popular passage. Now before I read it, when it comes to the epistle to the Ephesians, the Ephesian church was a very mature church. When you compare that epistle to the Ephesians to the other churches like the Corinthians or the Galatians, you know, Paul doesn't spend a lot of time fixing this church. They're going strong. They're going well. You know, Paul spends his time working on their doctrines, working on their Christian living, making sure that they're doing the works that they're called to do as a church. And so not a lot of attention is given to salvation when it comes to the book of Ephesians. And what we see here in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, this is one time that Paul turns to salvation and just summarises it because this church doesn't need to be clarified on this. They're doing fine. They don't have people coming into this church and messing up the gospel or adding works to the gospel. They're not doing these things. And so it just gives a very small snapshot of what salvation is. So let's read it together there. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says, There's a lot of important words found in these two verses. First of all, there's grace. I'm not sure if you know what grace is, but grace means undeserved merit. Then it says, When we talk about salvation, what are we talking about? We're talking about somebody who was on his way to hell because of his sins, but now he is saved. Now he's on his way to heaven. And then it says, That's another important word, right? Faith. We'll look at that soon. That's another important word. The gift of God, verse number 9, not of works. Works. That's another important word. So all these things are important when we understand the gospel. We get the gospel here in a nutshell, what it is that we need to do in order to be saved. We're saved through faith because of God's grace. It is by faith. It is not of works, if I can paraphrase it in my own words. These are important elements in order for us to understand what we must do in order to go to heaven. The Bible says it is the gift of God. So the title for the sermon this morning is the gift of God. The gift of God. We can turn away from there for now. Actually, I do want you to keep your finger in Ephesians 2 because we are going to look at a few words there. Keep your finger there in Ephesians chapter 2. Please go to Romans chapter 6. Let's go to Romans chapter 6 now, verse number 23. When you get out there, you preach the gospel, these verses are no surprise to you. You know exactly what verses we're turning to here. But Romans chapter 6 verse 23 is important that we read because some people don't understand what the gift of God is. They don't understand what the gift is. They think that God will give them the faith in order to be saved. And so it is up to God, and yes it was up to God, to give us salvation, but there is a part that we have to play. We have to be the ones that receive the gift. Look at Romans chapter 6 verse 23. It says for the wages of sin is death. The reason why there's death, pain and suffering in this world, it's not because God wanted us to live like this. He didn't create us like this. No, he put Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. But because of sin, we've brought this judgment upon ourselves. We can only blame mankind for death. And then it says this, but the gift, there it is again, the gift of God is what? Is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So this verse very clearly tells us what the gift is. The gift of God is what? Eternal life through, it's through somebody, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So I shouldn't have to explain this, but very quickly, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, some 2000 years ago, came to this earth. Because he is God, he had no sin. He had no sin, but he was crucified. He was crucified on the cross, and instead of dying for his sins, instead of suffering for his sins, he took all of our sins. He took my sins, he took your sins, he took the sins of the entire world upon himself and God the Father punished Jesus on your behalf. Jesus took your punishment, he took your payment, so you can go free. It's a free gift. The gift of God is free. Jesus Christ, after three days and three nights, rose again from the dead, showing that he had victory over sin, he had victory over the grave, and that he is the Lord God Almighty. We don't worship a dead God. He came back to life, and he showed his power, his victory over sin. And so this gives us victory. This allows us to have salvation in Jesus Christ. Now back in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, there's a few words that I wanted to look at there. It says, remember, for by grace are you saved through faith. Now as I said, grace is undeserved merit, okay, undeserved. So if I came, and let's say Lockie over there, he's in the front row, so I'll just use Lockie. Let's say Lockie and I, we had a disagreement, we had an argument, we're not getting along. And I'm just thinking, you know what, I want to make peace with Lockie. I really want to sort this out, and I say, you know what Lockie, what can I give you? Here it is. I've got a gift. I've got a gift box right here. I might say to Lockie, look, I want to make peace with Lockie. Here's the gift. I'm going to give him this gift, and this will sort things out. This will sort out the difficulties that we have between us, right? And so I would go to Lockie and say, Lockie, here's a gift. Let's no longer be enemies. Let's be friends. Let's get along, right? There's a gift that's being given to settle that dispute between Lockie and myself, okay? There's a gift there. And so when you think about the word grace, it's undeserved merit. Did Lockie deserve that gift? He didn't deserve it, right? It's just I'm trying to sort out peace between us, okay? He didn't do anything to merit the gift, okay? It's not like he came to my lawn and mowed my lawn. It's not like he came and washed my car. It's not like he came and said, Lockie, you can have the gift, but you've got to give me $5, and he pays for it. Because if you paid for it, it's no longer a gift. It's a purchase. And so when we talk about a gift, it's something that's undeserved, all right? I mean, you know, we give our children birthday gifts. Hey, they didn't deserve their birth. Mum did all the work, okay? Mum did all the work. In fact, every birthday should be Mum getting a gift, right? It should be the other way around. But anyway, it's undeserved, isn't it? It's undeserved. It's your day. You get a gift no matter what happens, because it's your birthday. It's undeserved. So when we think of the word grace, you know, we have a word in Spanish. And I don't know if you guys like it when I get into Spanish. But the word free, the word free in Spanish is gratis, okay? If you say something is gratis, you're saying it's free. And the word gratis and the word grace have the same Latin root word. So grace in of itself is free. It's undeserved, okay? This is important for us to understand, because later it refers to the gift of God. And of course, gifts are free, okay? And so who did all the work? Who pays for the gift of God? If God wants to give you a gift, is he asking you to pay for it? Or will God pay for it? God paid for it. How did he pay for it? Through Jesus Christ our Lord, as we saw there in Romans 6.23. It's the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ that paid for the free gift of salvation, okay? So it's got the same root, gratis. Grace means free. Grace means free, in other words, okay? I know we don't think about it like that in our English sense, but the root word for it is the same as free, okay? It's the same idea. Now, when it comes to... By the way, the gift there, if you can see, it says God's grace, okay? So God is offering us a gift. It is the grace of God, okay? That's there. Now, within this gift, there's a few things. Now, I've written some things down here. And look, this gift is much more than what I have here on these cards, okay? But just to give you a rough idea, what's inside this gift, okay? It's free. What's inside the gift of God? Number one, we have... Sorry for my writing. We have eternal life. Eternal life. How long is eternal? Forever. If it could end tomorrow, is it eternal? No, okay? Eternal is forever. The Bible tells us in John 3.16, the most famous verse in the Bible, That He gave His only begotten Son, that's Jesus who died for you, okay? That whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Everlasting, eternal, that's part of the gift. It's in the box, okay? If you want everlasting life, you have to receive the gift. What else do we get in this gift? Well, you have your sins, right? And you know, justice would mean that God would have to punish you for your sins, but rather, as I said, Jesus died for us. He died for our sins. He took the punishment. He was our substitute, okay? So what do we receive then? If Jesus took on our sins, we receive forgiveness of sins, don't we? We receive forgiveness. Hey, sin was punished in Jesus Christ, we can go free. We've been forgiven by God. The Bible tells us in Acts 10.43, To Him, speaking of Jesus, give all the prophets witness, that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. What do you have to do again? Believe in Him. And if you believe in Jesus Christ, you accept His sacrifice, His death, being in resurrection, you receive, brethren, forgiveness of sins. So all the wrong things you've done, the wrong things you've done today, the wrong things you're going to do to the end of your life, because we're not perfect, have been forgiven. All of your sins were put on Jesus Christ. Not just some. Not just to the point that you believed in Christ. No, all. Jesus died for all our sins, okay? What else do we get? Hey, forgiveness of sins is wonderful, but there's something else even better than forgiveness of sins. What's that? I think that one's coming. Yeah, that one's kind of coming. We get Christ's imputed righteousness. This is awesome. This is a good one, isn't it? Because what this is, that Jesus took on our sins, He became a curse for us, He became sin for us, but then He gives us His righteousness. We go to heaven not because of our own righteousness, because we're not righteous. There is none good. No, not one, the Bible says. But we get Christ's imputed righteousness. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, it says, For He have made Him, that's Jesus, to be sin for us, Jesus became sin for us, who knew no sin, but that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And so now that we've believed on Christ and our sins have been forgiven, when God looks at us, thank God He doesn't see me in my righteousness, because I'm still messing up, brethren. I'm still sinning. I still make mistakes. But you know what? When God the Father looks at me, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He sees me robed in the righteousness of Jesus. What an amazing thing. So we receive the righteousness of Jesus. When God looks at you, He sees Jesus Christ. Now you can understand why the gift is eternal. Because no matter what mistakes you make in your life moving forward, when the Lord looks at you, the Father looks at you, He will always see His Son. We are in Jesus Christ. We receive His righteousness. The next thing that I have here in the gift is we are made, this is amazing, we are made kings and priests. Kings and priests. The Bible says in Revelation 1.6, He have made us kings and priests unto God and His Father. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Why is this amazing? Because we get to be part of the royal family. Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, He has made us kings. We get to be part of that royal family. We get to rule and reign with Christ. You know, Christ is coming back one day to establish His kingdom. One day the Father is going to create a new heaven and a new earth. We're not going to be peasants. We're going to reign. We're going to be kings and we're going to be priests. So what about priests? Well, when it comes to priests, this means we have direct access to God. We don't need to go to some man like the Roman Catholics do. They believe they need to go to some priest in order to have their sins forgiven. No, we are priests. We are kings and priests. We can go to God directly if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can go before His throne of grace. Pray before the Lord. Ask Him for what you need. Ask for forgiveness of sins as you go throughout the day. We have that direct access. What an amazing thing. Even the Old Testament saints had to go to the Levitical priesthood in order for their sacrifice to be received by the Lord. We don't have to do that. We have the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We have direct access to God as kings and priests. So we're given a lot of honour. That's a lot of honour. I mean, think about how much honour a king gets on this earth. Or how much more than a king of heaven. What an amazing thing. And queens, by the way. Kings and queens as well. Alright, the next one that I have here is we are made, as I said, we're made part of the royal family, so we become a child of God. Alright, a child of God. You know, if you are saved, if you believe in Jesus, you are His sons and His daughters. What an amazing thing. What an amazing thing that you are part of God's family. What an amazing thing that you can call God your Father. This is my Father and He looks on you and He says, these are my children. We are part of the family of God. The Bible tells us in John 1-12, but as many as received Him, that's receiving Jesus, to them gave Him power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Do you notice a consistent thread as we read these verses? Believe, believe, believe. Believing is what gives us all these wonderful things. Okay? And then it keeps going, which we're born, so we've been born, we have been born, not of blood, well we were born of blood, but this child of God is not of blood. It says, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. God, you know, through the Holy Spirit, we're born of the Spirit, alright? And we're given that new man. That new man inside of us is that child of God. And so we get that status with God the Father. Now, you know, I have a bunch of kids, alright? Now they've been born into my family, can they ever be unborn out of the family? What if one of my sons, you know, let's say Nicholas turns around, Dad, I hate you Dad, I hate the family, I'm done with this life. And he leaves the house and I never see him for the rest of my life. Let's say that happened, hope that doesn't happen. But it happens to families, doesn't it? It happens. But does that mean that person stops being the son of those parents? No, they're always a son. What's an amazing thing about being a child of God, it means that once you're born into God's family, born again, the new man, the new life that we have, you will always be a child of God. You cannot be unborn out of a family. Okay, so we have this great, that goes together with eternal life. It never ends, it never stops, alright? So we get that as part of our gift. And the last one, which we kind of started off with, is a home in heaven. A home in heaven, okay? The Bible tells us in John 14, too, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. Now we know that Jesus, you know, took on carpentry. He followed it after, he stepped farther into carpentry. So he's got the skills to build a mansion. I mean, he's built some, I don't know what he built on this life, okay? But he's a builder, he's into construction, he's a carpenter, he's in heaven right now, building us mansions, he's preparing a place for us in heaven. I don't know what you think of your house on this earth. Maybe some of you have a nice house. Maybe some of you are just like, I can't wait to get out, okay? In fact, the plumbing just broke in my house just yesterday. I showed the photos. Listen, the plumbing's always going to work in the mansions in heaven. It's never going to run down. These mansions are built by Jesus. They're going to last forever, okay? It's an amazing thing. And then it says in verse number three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. So we're promised a home in heaven, we're promised mansions, and if you know your Bibles, heaven has streets of gold. Man, you know? So when it comes to the quality of living in heaven, that's amazing. What an amazing promise that we can receive that in the gift of God. So God's grace, God's gift, contains all these things and contains more. I could keep going, but at least that gives you a rough idea of what it is. It contains eternal life and being part of the family of God. I did want to make one point that I forgot to mention. In John chapter one, verse 12, it says, Some people have this false idea that as soon as you're born in this world, that everybody is a child of God. Some people have this idea. No, not everybody is a child of God. We're all children of your mother and father or children of Adam, but there comes a time when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and He gives you the power to become the sons of God. This is being born again. To become a child of God, you must be born again, as we sang as well. You must be born again. What I'm going to do, if I can get Johnny. Johnny, can you get up here? I want to give you guys a bit of a visual of this. Get Johnny up here, please. You can just stand here for me, Johnny. Johnny doesn't deserve this gift. I know Johnny's a sinner. I know Johnny has disobeyed mum and dad sometimes, so he's undeserving of a gift. But hey, again, are gifts free? Absolutely. Undeserved favour is God's grace. Now, when God offers you a gift, don't you have a choice? You have two options. You have an option either to receive it. Wait, let's get you over here, Johnny. Just stand there. Just stand there. So, Johnny, you can either receive it or you can reject it. So, let's switch roles. Let's say Johnny wants to give me the gift. Okay, now offer me the gift. I say, no, I don't want it. You can reject it. You can reject the gifts, can't you? Like, if Locky and I were having that fight, and I said, I'm going to try to make peace, and Locky's like, I don't want that gift. I want to keep fighting you. He can reject it, right? He can reject it. Or you can receive it. Or you can receive it, okay? And how do we receive Jesus Christ? But as many as received him, to them gave you power to become the sons of God. Even to them that, believe on his name. How do we receive the gift? Okay, well, Johnny, I won't give you the full answers just yet. And so, he's got an option. Now, this is, everything that I've explained to you, when it comes to Christian churches, most people will agree a hundred percent with what I've just explained. They know it's God's grace. They know it's been paid for. How did God pay for it? How did he pay for the gift? By the sacrifice of Jesus. His death, burial, and resurrection. Okay? Now, the question is, okay, you know, this is obviously, God's not literally giving us a box like this, right? The question is, how do we receive it? How do we receive the gift? Okay? What do we have to do in order to receive the gift? And so, I've got two ways that people speak about when it comes to receiving the gift. You've got those that say, you've got to work at it. Okay? Works. Johnny, if you do enough good works, I'm going to give you the gift. Okay? The works. Some people really want to put that in the way to be saved. They say, you've got to have a clean life. You've got to live after the commandments. You have to try to change your ways. You've got to try to just live godly. You know, and hopefully, you've lived godly enough where God will receive you. Some people would include that in works. Okay? As part of works. Or, I think you know where I'm coming to. Well, we looked at this. Believe. Believe. We saw that many times in the Bible that we read. And another word that's very similar to belief, it's basically the same word, is faith. Faith is a noun. Believe is a verb. Okay? You've got to have your faith on Jesus. And to have your faith on Jesus, you have to believe on Jesus. Okay? You have to make a decision to put your faith, your trust, your belief on Jesus Christ. And so I'm hoping Johnny gets the right answer here. All right, Johnny, you have an option here. You can receive the gift, but you've got to receive it the right way. Which one are you going to use? You've got works. You can use works or you can use faith. Or, if you really want to be smart, you can maybe take both of them and try to receive it that way. Which one do you think is the right answer? Okay, show everybody. Did he get it right? All right, Johnny. All right. So he puts his faith on Jesus Christ. Okay? Does he put his faith on Johnny? Does he put his faith on baptism? Does he put his faith on New Life Baptist Church? Maybe his faith on dad. His dad's a pastor. They don't get into heaven, right? So he's got the faith, but he's got to put the faith in the right place. Okay, what was John 3.16? For God to love the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, and Jesus should not perish, but have everlasting life. And so this faith goes on Jesus Christ, and he receives, you want to stretch out your hands? He receives the gift of God. He receives God's grace. Okay? Now, hold it there for me, because some people might say, well, what about, yeah, yeah, I do believe in Jesus, but I also, you know, you've got to live right. Right? I mean, yeah, okay, I get it. You know, I'll put 99% of my way to heaven on Jesus, but I'll bring the 1%. I want to mix the works with faith. Now, listen. There's a lot of churches that give lip service to faith. They will tell you. I've spoken to a Christian. I've knocked Christian's doors. What do you have to do to be saved? Just believe in Jesus. Well, they got the right answer. You don't hear that very often at the door, but then as you keep going with them, yeah, but you've got to have this. You've got to have this or you're not saved. Really? What are they doing? They're mixing faith on Jesus and works on themselves. I believe I also have to contribute my way to heaven. Okay? Now, if I can get you to turn to Romans chapter 11 in your Bibles. Romans chapter 11. Because it sounds like they're well-meaning. I want to live for Jesus. Instead of Jesus giving his life to me, I want to give my life to him. Is that in the Bible? That's not in the Bible. Jesus gave his life to us. Okay? Now, while you're turning to Romans chapter 11, I'm going to read to you from 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8. It says, What's the gospel? It's death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then it says this in verse number 9. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. There's that word again. Grace. Which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Okay? Grace. Undeserved. But you've got to have a bit of this. Do you need a bit of this to get a free gift? If you add this, it's no longer a gift, is it? Well, look at Romans chapter 11. Look at Romans chapter 11 verse number 6. Romans 11 verse number 6. And if by grace, here's the grace, remember? If by grace, Johnny, then it is no more of works. No more of this. Those that say, well, you've got to live righteously. You've got to get baptised. You've got to clean up your life. You've got to go to church. Hey, it's not of works. Now, the next bit's so important. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What is it saying there? I want to put a little bit of work. Just a little bit. Well, then it's no more grace. You don't have it anymore. If you want God's grace, you cannot add this at all. You add any of this, it's no longer grace. What's grace? Undeserved. What's grace? Free. It's a gift of God. It is free. You start, a little bit of this. It's no longer free. It's no longer free. It costs something. Now, listen. This is, even though it's free, we don't have to pay for it. We don't have to work for it. Just because it's free, it's not cheap. It's not cheap. It's a very precious gift paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's a very expensive gift. Some people misunderstand by us believing that it's a free gift. Okay? And they think, oh, you just want to live however you want. No, no. The fact that we understand it's free is we understand how precious this is. And we understand how precious Jesus Christ is. That will cause us to desire to serve him. But listen, our works does not give us God's grace. Otherwise, it is no longer grace. Then you're now trying to get your way to heaven by works. Okay? Now, some people say, well, don't you have to repent of your sins? Johnny, can you sit down for a minute? Just sit down. I'll get you back up here. Just over here, Johnny. Sit down. Some people say, well, you've got to repent of your sins. First of all, repent of your sins is not in the Bible. It's in the Mormon Bible. It's not in your Christian Bible. Okay? First of all. Secondly, let's think about this for a minute. Repent of your sins. Okay? Can you please turn to 1 John chapter 3 verse 4. 1 John chapter 3 verse number 4. Let's understand what is sin. Someone says you've got to repent of your sin. What is sin? Let's understand this, okay? 1 John chapter 3 verse number 4. 1 John chapter 3. What is sin? It says here in 1 John chapter 3 verse 4. Whosoever commiteth sin, transgresseth also the law. For sin is the transgression of the law. And so God has given us His laws. Okay? We can summarize it in Ten Commandments or we can summarize it in Two Great Commandments, right? God has given us His commandments. He's given us His laws. And if you transgress or you break His laws, then you have committed sin. Okay? So let me try to explain this a little bit. Let's say this pulpit here, and I'll put the Bible open there. This represents the law of God. Okay? And I'll give you one example of this. You know, one of God's Ten Commandments is in Exodus 20-12. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Honor thy father and mother, and thy mother. This is important for the children. Okay? So when you're confronted with that law, when you're confronted with that commandment, let's say my right hand here represents obedience and this over here represents, on this side of the left, represents transgression of the law. Now, many times, my children will obey. They'll be like, oh, okay, I've got to honor my mom and dad. I've got to obey them. I've got to do what they say. I've got to follow their rules. And they'll be here. But if you've been a parent long enough, you know sometimes, oh, I've got to obey. I hope they don't find out. They're over here. Okay? So what have they done when they transgressed God's law? They've sinned, haven't they? They've sinned. All right. So someone's in this state of sin. Whatever sin it is, I'm just using honor your father. You can, whatever you want. Okay? Whatever sin it is, you know, that shall not bear false witness or tell him lies. Whatever sin you want to throw over here. Okay? You're in this position. Someone says, in order for you to be saved, you have to repent of your sins. Think about it for a minute. What are they asking you? What does repent mean? To turn or to change. All right? We don't use it too much in our English, you know, common, you know, when we normally speak to one another. It's used a lot in Spanish and other languages, but it means to turn or to change. Someone tells you, you've got to repent or turn or change from your sins. They're telling you, you've got to stop disobeying mom and dad. You've got to stop lying. You've got to stop doing these laws that transgress the law of God and what does it mean to turn? To change? You want to go over here? Isn't this repenting of sins? I repented now. Okay? I was disobeying mom and dad, but now I've repented and this is going to get me to heaven. Now I'm right, I think. Yet people use this term, this phrase, over and over again. So what are they actually saying to you? Though they don't want you to understand it in this way, they're saying when you're confronted by the law of God, by His commandments, you have to keep His commandments to be saved. Isn't that what they're saying? I mean, there's no halfway house. You either obey or you... Hold on, this was this obey. You either disobey or you obey. Right? There's no halfway house. So if you're committing sin and we sin every day, we're going to sin until the day we die. And someone's telling you, you've got to turn from your sins, you've got to repent of your sins. They're telling you, you've got to have clean living. You've got to obey the laws of God. This is for salvation. To be saved, they'll say. It's not just believing on Jesus. You know, yeah, yeah, you've got to believe in Jesus, but you also have to clean up your life. You also have to repent of your sins. You also have to obey the law. You also have to do the works of the law. Yet we saw that is not how we get saved. We know by doing the works of the law, then there is no longer grace. And so if you're trusting and turning from your sins to be saved, let me just tell you, you're not saved. Because you don't have the grace of God. You've not understood. You've been deceived by somebody. And if I offend someone, let me just say I'm offending you because I love you. I want you to know what you have to do in order to be saved. It's faith on Jesus Christ, 100%, plus nothing, minus nothing. It's all on Jesus Christ. Can you please turn to Romans chapter 3? Turn to Romans chapter 3, verse number 25. So when you hear a preacher get behind the pulpit saying you've got to repent of your sins to be saved, what they're telling you is you've got to keep the commandments. They don't want you to hear it that way, but that's what they're telling you. Okay? Romans chapter 3, verse 25. Romans chapter 3, verse 25. Reads, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. That means satisfied, satisfaction. It's been dealt with. Through what? How has it been dealt with? Through faith in His blood. Faith in His blood, the sacrifice of Jesus. To declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus. So you see verse 25 says faith in His blood. Verse number 26 says believe in Jesus. These things are interchangeable. The same thing. All right? Look at verse number 27. There is boasting then. It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay. But by the law of faith. Verse number 28. Therefore we conclude. Hey, this is the conclusion. This is the end of the matter. Okay? Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Without the deeds of the law. What's the law? The commandments of God. Without the commandments of God. You've got to repent of your sins. What are they saying? You've got to keep the commandments of God. That's what they're saying. Okay? That is according to the passage here without the deeds of the law. Hey, by what law? Of works. Of works. Nay. Nay. Nay. Repenting of sins for salvation is works. Works. And if it's of works it's no longer grace. You no longer have that gift of grace. You don't have that gift of grace which had all those wonderful promises contained within. Now, Johnny, can you get back up here please? Can you please turn with me to John chapter 10? Turn with me to John chapter 10. Now, there are other Christians that will say, well, yeah, okay. You're not saved by works but if you haven't got the works then you'll lose it. You can lose your salvation, they'll teach. I want you to think about that as well. Can you lose your salvation? Didn't we say it was not merited in the first place? So if Johnny was not good enough to get it in the first place, think about it. Can he be bad enough to lose it if it was never based on his performance? What else is contained in there? Eternal life. How long is eternal? If you could lose it, was it eternal? No, it's temporary. What else? You're born a child of God. Can you be unborn? No, you can never lose this precious gift. The Bible tells us in John 3.36, He that believeth on the sun hath, this is present tense, hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him. You have everlasting life now. You don't get it sometime in the future when you pass away when you believe in Jesus you have everlasting life now. It's in the present tense. Again, if you could lose it tomorrow, it wasn't everlasting. John 5.24 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath, there it is again, everlasting life, and then it says this, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life. So when you have everlasting life, you will not pass into condemnation. You cannot come into condemnation. You cannot be damned to hell. Otherwise that verse will be lying to us. Now once you have, once you believe in Jesus, you can never lose it. You can never lose your salvation. Okay? Once you're saved, you're always saved. Alright? Now you're in John chapter 10 verse 27. Jesus says, My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Verse number 28. And I give unto them eternal life. Now look at this. And they shall never, listen, never perish. Do we believe the truth of God's word? Then it says, Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Nobody can ever pluck you out of the hand of Jesus. What saves you, brethren? Is it you holding onto God? No, it's Jesus holding onto you. He says no man can pluck you out of his hand. Look at verse number 29. Just in case that doesn't convince you. Then he says, My Father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. Not only are you in the hand of Jesus, but greater than all that, above all that is the hand of the Father. No one can ever pluck you out of that hand. Okay? Now brethren, I'll just get you to hold the box like that for me. The best way to illustrate this, I've got duct tape. This is gorilla duct tape. Okay, so it's, I hope it doesn't hurt Jonathan. But, so this is powerful stuff. This is strong stuff. Okay? I'm even going to struggle to just pull it out. Okay. Now, do you think God's grip is stronger than this duct tape? It has to be stronger. Okay, so this should give us a decent illustration. So Johnny, you hold that for me please. Hold it out. Neither shall any man. Eternal life. Oops, sorry Johnny. Alright, I hope that's, I hope that gives you a decent illustration. When you believe on Jesus, you've got the gift forever. Okay? Now let's say Johnny wants to let go of the gift. Johnny, let go of the gift. Come on, throw it away, throw it away. Get rid of it, come on. Throw it, throw it. Alright? Can you get rid of it? No. Because it's not based on his grip on the grace of God. It's God's grip on him. No man can ever pluck him out of the Father's hand. You say, well maybe you can pluck yourself out. Are you a man? If you're a man, you can't pluck even yourself out of the hand of the Father. Once you believe on Jesus, you're born again, you're given everlasting life. Listen, he can never let go. He can never let go of that gift. Okay? Now here's the thing about Johnny, and it's not just Johnny, it's like the rest of us, right? Even though he's got that gift forever, the thing about human beings, we also have feet. We have feet. We'll get to that in a minute. So when I look at, I'll pretend to be God the Father. I'll look at this born again son, child of God. He received it by faith, right? He didn't make the mistake of choosing that or mixing these two things together. He says, no, I know faith or believing on Jesus is what gives me the grace of God, and he's got it for all eternity. Okay? That's not coming off. He's not going to be able to take it off, okay? So when I look at him, what's inside the box? The imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. So when I look at Johnny, I say, wow, Johnny's righteous. It's not his own righteousness. It's the righteousness of Jesus that he has, okay? But here's the thing. Just like your own son, you can have a good relationship. You can have good fellowship with a son, right? If your children obey mom and dad, they do obey the rules, and you have that love for one another, it's great. You can have a great time together and enjoy each other's fellowship, right? But like I said in the example before, isn't it true with his feet that he has he can walk away from dad? You know, he can actually get quite far away. He can commit sins. And you know what? God cannot allow sin in his presence. And when we commit sins, we walk away from God, right? He's walked away from me right now. But even though he's walked away from me, and he's on the side of disobeying the laws of God, he's walked away from me, what about the grace of God? Does he still have it? Does he have eternal life still? Is he still a child of God? Absolutely. Okay? And so listen, the right thing, once you have the gift, yeah, God wants to have a good relationship with you. You know, you go to the door and you ask somebody, what do you have to do to be saved? You've got to have a relationship with God. Well, that's not what gets you saved, okay? But you can have a good relationship, or you can have a bad relationship, and you're still saved. So that's not the basis of salvation. The basis of salvation is whether he has received the gift of, are you trying to take it off? The gift of God? By faith. By faith. And I'll get you to turn, you guys are in John. You're in Romans? Oh, maybe some turn to John. Can you please turn to Hebrews chapter 12? Turn to Hebrews chapter 12 for me. Because the question is, you're giving people license to sin, right? You're saying, you can still sin, you're saying, and they'll still go to heaven? Yes. Going to heaven was not based on you cleaning up your life. Okay? Your turn to Hebrews 12. I'm going to read to you from Romans 1 16. It says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Doesn't matter what nationality you are, you believe in Jesus, you're saved. Then it says in verse number 17, For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. How did he get saved? Faith. Now that you are saved, you have to go from faith to faith. Hey, there's another element now in the Christian life. Not only are you saved by faith, it keeps going, as it is written, The just shall live by faith. So the proper response for Johnny now is he's been saved by faith, now he should walk in faith. He should obey God's commands. He should obey the Bible. He should have sweet fellowship with his Father. He should be living out his faith and walking by faith by obeying God's commands. But whether he does or doesn't, he's still saved. He still is a child of God on his way to heaven. The Bible also puts it this way in Galatians 5 25. If we live in the Spirit, and he's living in the Spirit, he's got the new man, he's been born again, then it says, Let us also walk in the Spirit. And so there's your position with God, which is the righteousness of Christ, but then there's your walk. And your walk, you can get far from God. And this is where people mix up the walk, the living out the Christian life, with salvation. Well you know what, living out the Christian life, living by faith, you know, walking in the Spirit, all of this works. And should we do works? Absolutely we should do works. But not to be saved, we do works after we're saved. So we can live righteous life. It plays no part on your salvation. In fact it plays no part on proving whether you're saved. Okay? You're in Hebrews 12 verse 6. Because then you're accused. People that believe like us are accused. Or you're giving people a license to sin. You're saying just go ahead and sin and you'll still go to heaven. Well you will still go to heaven if you believe in Jesus. But there is a punishment that will come upon you if you do sin. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 6. It says, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. I know that it's unpopular today to discipline your children. Okay? But you know what the Bible tells us here? God disciplines His children. Look at verse number 7. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? And so look. He's my son. He's been born into my family. And when he disobeys the laws of God, guess what's going to happen to him? He's going to cop it. He's going to be chastised. He's going to have that rod of correction applied in his life. And so sometimes as Christians, the reason we go through certain, not always, but sometimes, when we go through trials and difficulties and hardships, it may very well be the hand of God's chastisement on your life to bring you back to Him, to get you to turn away from those wicked sins you were doing and try to live after the Spirit, to walk righteously. Okay? But the reason God chastises us is because we are His son. Okay? And the gift already has a home in Heaven. The chastisement is not, well, you can spend some time in Hell, or you can go to Hell. That's not the chastisement. The chastisement that we get from God the Father is on this earth. Okay? You know, if you're, you know, I don't know, if you, for example, you might be a smoker. Okay? Destroying your body with that. The chastisement is usually inbuilt. You'll destroy your lungs. You'll destroy your body. Things like that. There are certain chastisements that are inbuilt in certain sins, but then there are other things that might come from the hand of God because you've been far from Him. Okay? So, no, we do not give people a license to sin. I better speed up now. Are you guys in Hebrews? Okay. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 11. We'll end on this one. Hebrews chapter 11. Because there's another mistake, okay, that many churches do, many pastors, many Christians do. They'll say, yeah, I know, and let me just give Johnny the faith card, right? Let's just put it in here. So we know that Johnny has believed on Jesus, if you can hold that there. I know he's got faith. I know that. But the only, this is what I was saying. He says he's got faith on Jesus, but I don't know if he's saved. They'll say. I don't know if he's saved until I see, they'll say, the works. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Was salvation by works? It wasn't by works. So how can Johnny prove he's saved with works if works plays an up high in it? In fact, if Johnny is trusting in his works as proof of his salvation, he is mixing once again faith with works, okay? People say, well, there must be some evidence. What is the evidence? It's got to be his works. Surely he's got to be living a cleaner life now. Surely he's got to be doing something, going to church, reading his Bible, right? Surely he should have given up on that alcohol by now. And the fact that he's still struggling with those same sins must prove that he was never saved. I know that he's saved, they'll say, because his works either testify of his salvation, they'll say, or doesn't testify of his salvation. There must be evidence, they'll say, right? And maybe some of you think that this somehow is evidence of his salvation. But let me tell you something. When he received the free gift, did he not receive the free gift by faith? Did he not receive it without the works of the law? So in this state of faith on Jesus without works, is he saved? He's saved. Okay? He's saved. Does he have to do any work to prove that he's saved? What is the evidence? I really want to drive this home. If works does not play a part in salvation, how can works be proof that he is saved? They say, what is the evidence? Well, I'm glad you asked the question because the evidence is here. In Hebrews 11, verse 1, they say, what is the evidence of his faith? There must be evidence for his faith, they'll say. Hebrews 11, verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. What is the evidence that he's saved, brethren? Works? Is works the evidence? Nowhere in the Bible are you going to find works as evidence of his salvation. What do we see? His faith is the evidence. His faith is already the evidence. You don't need evidence for evidence. You know, if someone broke into my house and I had a video of that and I went to the court of law and I said, look, I've got evidence that brother Jason broke into my house. Wouldn't that be weird for the judge to say, yeah, but what's the evidence? It's like, that is the evidence. The video is the evidence that he broke into my house. Yeah, but what's the evidence of the evidence? That's a stupid question. That's nonsensical, doesn't make any sense. Faith is the evidence, okay, of things not seen. And so when Jonathan tells me he's put his faith on Jesus Christ, that he's received the grace of God, okay, and I can hear from him, even his own mouth saying, you know, it's just by his faith, just by believing on the death, very resurrection, and he's sure that he's going to heaven, that's all the evidence I need. That's it. That's done. Just because he's living a clean life, you know what? There's a lot of Jehovah Witnesses that live a clean life. There's a lot of Roman Catholics that live a clean life. There's a lot of Mormons that live a clean life. There's a lot of Muslims that live a clean life. Is that evidence that that person has put their faith on Jesus? It cannot be, because works never played a part in someone's salvation. What is the evidence? And here's the thing, if you think works is the evidence of your salvation, you may be saved, you might be, but you're going to be constantly doubting. You're going to be wondering one day to the next, am I saved today? Am I not? I don't know if I'm saved. And you know why you're constantly doubting? Because you're constantly not doing perfect works. You're never 100% serving Christ. Maybe some days you're serving God, and other days you're in disobedience, and you wake up one day when you're far from God, I don't know if I'm saved. Why? Because you think somehow this plays a part in your salvation. But when you understand this plays no part, let me rip it up, okay? It plays no part at all, and say, well, I know I'm saved. Even though I've sinned, even though I've done some serious mistakes, and listen, there are plenty of faithful Bible characters that really messed up their lives, okay? You say, well, even though I messed up my life, I know my faith is on Jesus. I know it's been fully paid for. I know that I've been born again. I know I have eternal life. I know I'm saved because it's not dependent on me, it's dependent on what Jesus Christ has done for me. It's dependent upon the grace of God. Johnny, you can sit down now. Sit down. Wait, I'll give you scissors. Yeah. Someone can work it out. Someone can work it out later. So let me end on this, guys. Johnny, just sit down. Paris, just do it later. So let me just end on this, guys, okay? This is a doctrine that, if you're a regular attendee of this church, I expect that you know this. You get this, okay? And, but, here's the thing, you know, do our children get it? Do they understand it, okay? Just because you get it, do your children get it? You know, maybe you're a regular attendee, you get it, but do your visitors get it? Do your guests get it? All right? When we knock on doors and they say, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just on Jesus, do they get it? You've got to check. You've got to find out. You've got to see if they've placed all their faith on Jesus Christ or they're still holding on to some level of works for their own salvation. This is something, brethren, that we can't take for granted. As I said when we began, this is the most important doctrine. The most important doctrine. I'd rather somebody at the door knock on their door, they get this, they place their faith on Jesus, Bible says, Whosoever shall call upon in the name of the Lord shall be saved. They ask Jesus for the gift. They receive the gift. I'd rather that. That I know they're going to heaven forever. They've got that assurance they're going to heaven and they never step foot in our church. They continue living a wicked life, whatever wicked life they may have had. Hey, I prefer that than someone coming to church, weak in, weak out, weak in, weak out, weak in, weak out, and they're still on their way to hell. They're still trusting in works to some extent. Okay? So this is the most important doctrine. All right, let's pray. All right, let's pray.