(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

I'll see you in the next video. See you in the next video. If it's salvation by grace through faith, as Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 declares, then it's not salvation by grace through faith plus surrender plus promises plus enduring to the end or plus anything else. It's salvation by grace through faith, period. You can tell right away when you say you're Baptist, they know certain things about what you believe. There's going to be no sprinkling, no pouring, at least you know you believe in the Trinity. At least you know that you believe salvation is by faith and that you can't lose your salvation. They're going the way that our forefathers came out of. You see, it was our forefathers in the independent Baptist world that years ago, when the Southern Baptist started going that route, they came out from them and they started doing right. They separated from them and they stood for the word of God. For 29 years, I've been pastor of this church and for 41 years I've been preaching and I don't aim to change my message for anybody, nobody, nobody, nobody. That's what makes us Baptist. It separates us from everybody else. What separates salvation by grace through faith? What separates us from eternal security? What separates us from inspiration and preservation of scripture? What separates us from biblical authority? What separates us from autonomy of the church? What separates us from pastoral authority? What separates us from biblical baptism? What separates us from personal and ecclesiastical separation? What separates us from individual soul liberty? What separates us from priesthood of the believer? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? What separates us from God? You're about to embark on a journey with us through history. We're going to learn of a people whose lineage goes back through the apostles to the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and the movement of Christianity that he started. We're going to learn of the beliefs of these people and how their beliefs have distinguished them through history and have separated them from false teaching and false churches. We're going to learn of the rich heritage of these people and the role that they've played and the impact that they have made through history. Get ready because we're simply going to learn about being Baptist. The bottom line of being Baptist is a lineage of people who can trace their roots right back to the very first church that Jesus Christ built. And we see that flourishing in Jerusalem. That's where we would say that the New Testament local church movement began. It began of course with the Lord Jesus Christ and history would tell us that it started around 30 A.D. and we know that the clock begins as far as the timeline with the birth of Christ and the movement that the Lord Jesus Christ started, this new movement of Christianity started around 30 A.D. and of course he began to gather followers. He began to preach the gospel and it continued on even after his death, burial, resurrection, after his ascension with the starting of local New Testament churches. Twelve apostles, they basically spread Christianity worldwide and beginning at Jerusalem and it spread mainly through the apostle Paul to the Gentile world. That goes back to the church that Jesus started. We saw it empowered at the Jerusalem church. From that we saw him go through Samaria, into Antioch, through Cyprus, into Asia Minor, developing all these churches like the church at Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira and so on. From about 30 A.D. to 64 A.D., this movement of believers was persecuted by the Jews. Now simply saying that is offensive to some people. Some people act like if you say anything negative about the Jews at all, you're anti-Semitic but if you read the gospels, if you read the book of Acts, you can't walk away from it without realizing that it was the Jews who crucified the Savior and you say well the Romans took a part in that. Yeah but it was the Jews that pressured them into crucifying and manipulated them into crucifying Jesus and then it was the Jews who were persecuting the early church. In fact in 1 Thessalonians chapter number 2 and verses 14 and 15, the apostle Paul is speaking to Gentiles believers at the church of Thessalonica and he is talking to them about their own persecutions and he brings up his persecutions. He says for ye brethren became followers of the church of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, notice what he says, even as they have of the Jews. So he says look you've suffered things of your own countrymen like they have of the Jews. Now notice what he says about the Jews in verse 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men. So notice the apostle Paul there says look it was the Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and also have persecuted us. In the book of Acts it's very clear who the main persecutors of Christianity were. I mean they persecuted Christ, they killed him, they nailed him to the cross and they murdered him and so that carried on in the book of Acts and as you go through the book of Acts you can't miss it in every single chapter pretty much that the Jews were stirring up the Gentiles to try to wreak havoc against the church. When you begin the history of Christianity and if you look at it in the book of Acts it's extremely clear from the moment that this local New Testament church movement begins, New Testament believers begin with the Lord Jesus Christ in 30 AD to about 64 AD you have the Jews persecuting the believers. That's who you see as the main persecutors of Christianity from the time that Christ appeared on the scene until the end of the book of Acts and it also details it in the epistles. Also around this time this group of believers began to be called Christians. Acts chapter number 11 in verse number 26 notice what it says, So I believe when they were first called Christians this was a derogatory term. It was a name given to them by unbelievers. The community there in Antioch was watching these New Testament believers and they were saying oh you're like that Jesus Christ, you're one of those Christ followers, you're a Christian. It was a mocking term but the believers they embraced that term and we've been known as Christians ever since. During that time, during those first 30 years of this movement called Christianity there were already false doctrines and false religion being spread that was separating from the New Testament believers that started with the Lord Jesus Christ, that started with John the Baptist, that started with Peter and with the apostles, there was already false doctrine and false religion creeping in and dividing itself from real and true and pure Christianity. Let me give you some proofs of that. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 the Apostle Paul in a New Testament writing refers to the fact that the Word of God was already being corrupted. Notice what he says 2 Corinthians chapter 2 in verse 17 he says, Notice he's acknowledging the fact by the time he's writing the book of 2 Corinthians he's acknowledging the fact that there are already many who are corrupting the Word of God, who are taking the writings of the apostles and the writings of the gospel and changing them and corrupting them and falsifying them and he says look even now Paul during his lifetime acknowledges the fact that there were many which were corrupting the Word of God. There are false scriptures being written during the first 30 years, 30, 40 years of Christianity but there was also false doctrine and false teaching creeping in as well. Notice what Galatians chapter number 1 in verse 6 and 7 says, it says this, So notice the Apostle Paul is referring to the fact that there are already people who are perverting the gospel of Christ, who are changing the gospel of Christ, who are preaching another gospel. There are people who are already corrupting the Word of God. Early in the history of Christianity there was already an attack on the Word of God and on the doctrine of the local New Testament church. But then in 64 AD we enter into a transitional period. This is where the biblical account ends and we rely on secular history to know what happened. The major shift at 64 AD is that New Testament believers go from being primarily persecuted by the Jews to being persecuted by the Roman Empire. Christianity was no longer, after 64 AD, it was no longer primarily persecuted by the Jews and it was primarily persecuted by the Roman Empire. Now the Roman Empire was the world power at the time and the Roman Empire, if you study history we're told that there were 10 major persecutions made by the emperors of Rome that they tried to basically end Christianity, stop Christianity because see Christianity was having such an impact on Rome and on the Roman Empire that they wanted to fight against it. This is where you have the Christians being thrown into prison and they're being made to fight against each other in coliseums and fight against wild animals and they're being tortured. The Roman Empire's persecution on Christianity began I believe mainly with Nero. Nero was like one of the main persecutors that you read about in history, hated Christians. He did terrible things to the Christians, even lighting his garden with the martyrs of the saints. He lit the city of Rome on fire and blamed it on the Christians so that they would be blamed for it. Nero was a twisted reprobate that there's just things that I can't talk about in a family documentary but he did a lot of terrible things and it wasn't just him, I mean Caligula, he was a persecutor also and they were literally feeding Christians to the lions and having them fight against wild beasts in totally unfair situations as entertainment for the Roman Empire. You say what ended the persecution of true believers by the Roman Empire around 313 AD or 312 AD? Well in 312 AD we have a man by the name of Constantine the Great. He was an emperor of the Roman Empire and there's many accounts of what happened with this emperor. The story goes that he has a vision. He sees a cross, he sees a burning cross in the air, he sees a banner over it, it says by this symbol ye shall conquer and keep in mind the Roman Empire has been for years now trying to destroy Christianity, trying to stop Christianity so Constantine the Great he basically takes this approach where he says if you can't beat him, join him. So he decides when he goes down in history as being the first quote unquote Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity. When he wanted to use Christianity, Christianity so called as his way to maintain control over the Roman Empire. Now if you read what Constantine the Great believed and what he said salvation was the guy did not get saved. What he believed was not true Christianity but he basically converted to a false religion of Christianity, a false belief system and he decided hey let's make Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. Let's make Christianity the religion of the the one world power and he decides to have a meeting and he convenes this meeting where he calls all Christians to this meeting where they're going to gather together and they're going to figure out how are we going to make Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire. What they did is they invited all these bishops and basically said if you don't follow what we're putting together here then you know you're cast out and basically called a heretic. When a government leader sets up a meeting and says hey I want to make Christianity the religion by law of all of Rome people are going to have to convert to Christianity they're going to be Christians we're going to legislate Christianity and I want you guys to help me set that up. Here's what you need to understand no true Christians are going to show up to that meeting because you know what true Christians believe? They believe that you can't legislate Christianity. There was a group of Baptists, Baptistic people I'll say, the Anabaptists, the Paulicians, the Waldensians, the Albigensians who during that first meeting of churches at Nicaea they had taken the position that we, churches should not sacrifice their autonomy they should not be organizing themselves into a hierarchy organizing themselves into a network an association or convention as we would call them today but rather we should continue under the headship of Christ for each church and the Holy Spirit administration of each church and that will be our unity and leave the work of the ministry and the ministry work mission work up in up to the Spirit of God as he leads. So when Constantine the Great had this meeting to try to bring Christianity into the Roman Empire no true believers showed up to that meeting but you know who did show up? Who did show up was that group that was already from the time of Paul corrupting the Word of God bringing in false doctrine bringing in false belief system they showed up and they set up what they referred to as the Roman universal church. Now they called it the universal church because of the fact that Rome was the universal empire it was the empire that ran the world they called it the universal church now the word universal in Latin is Catholic what they set up was the Roman Catholic Church and Constantine the Great goes down in history as being the emperor who sets up this Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church began its official existence in 313 AD with Constantine calling a council of Christian leaders in his realm he didn't want there to be any bickering or fighting amongst Christians he wanted all Christians to be united as a political force that would just help him come to power maintain power so it was in his political best interest that they don't fight amongst themselves that they coalesce and be a force that he could use to further his agenda of taking over the whole Roman Empire for himself and having all that power so he called a council together and said that basically they were going to hash out their differences and all come together and agree on things so he formed that official church structure that would later become the Roman Catholic Church. Constantine had pulled together and sanctioned a meeting of churches and as a result of that Catholicism was invented Catholicism meaning universal. The Catholic Church formed based on Constantine he was what we would consider today in sociological history he was the first converted emperor of Rome to accept Christianity now whether he understood it unknown whether he embraced it unknown there's a lot of myths out there there's a lot of truth out there but what you have to do go back and understand about Catholicism is without Constantine there is no Catholicism. What happened with the organization of Catholicism was it broke away from the true lineage of churches and they organized a man-made structure which became quite powerful throughout the Middle Ages and we know as Catholicism today and then eventually the Protestants. And understanding some of this history might shed some light into what we see today before Christianity the Roman Empire was just a pagan Empire they were polytheistic they believed in multiple gods they had all this Eastern mysticism and when they basically united Christianity to their Roman pagan belief system all they did was they intermingled their Eastern mysticism with Christianity so where before they used to worship a female deity they just exchanged that female deity with Mary now they're going to worship Mary they had all these multiple polytheistic gods where they just exchange all their polytheistic gods that they used to pray to now they're just going to pray to saints you ever wonder why the Roman Catholic does all these weird like Eastern myth I mean they're lighting candles when you go to their funerals they're they're lighting these scents and they got like I don't know what they've got some bag like a like a vacuum bag that they're like dusting out you know they do and you say where do you get that from because look you don't get that from the Word of God you don't get that Eastern mysticism from the Word of God but you said where did it come from it came from the Roman pagan worshipping Jupiter and it came from that Roman Eastern mysticism being just kind of thrown in with Christianity if you look at the origins of the Roman Catholic Church what you have is pagan Romans being converted to Christianity many times against their will as Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century so you have a marriage of paganism and Christianity because you're bringing in all these pagans a lot of them aren't even really becoming a Christian because they want to they're just doing it because it's now the official religion they have to so they bring in all kinds of pagan ideas and then that mixes with Christianity so that's where you get a lot of the hocus-pocus elements of the Roman Catholic Church is from all these pagans that came in when it became the official religion of the Roman Empire true believers that descended from that were saved by that were connected to the true believers that came from the Lord Jesus Christ those believers always maintained autonomy from this Roman Catholic Church and as a result they were persecuted see once the Roman Catholic Church was established there was still persecution of true believers now it went from the Jews to the Roman Empire to the Roman Catholic Church once they started the Catholic Church you know you weren't allowed to do anything else so that's kind of leads into where other Christians true Christianity started to be persecuted not only by you know they're already persecuted by the Roman Empire and now the Roman Catholic Church became a persecutor of Christians also and the Roman Catholic Church is the church that has more blood on its hands for killing saints I mean have you ever heard of the Dark Ages the Dark Ages is a period in history that covers from 500 AD to about a thousand AD it's known as the Dark Ages because it's a time when the Roman Catholic Church suppressed the truth they kept the common man in the dark by not allowing him access to education and primarily by not allowing him access to the Word of God during this time believers who attempted to practice true Christianity were put to death everybody that is really doing anything for God you can expect to be persecuted you can expect the hard times to come and it only makes sense that when you have the Dark Ages and you have the control of the Roman Catholic Church and and everything that was going on during those you know the 1400s and 1500s but as we come out of the Dark Ages the Roman Catholic Church suffers its first major division this goes down in history as the Great Schism in the 11th century you had a major split in the Roman Catholic Church around 1058 AD the Great Schism it's known as where you have the break between what we now know as the Roman Catholic Church and the East Orthodox Church some of the issues that that split was over were baptism because of course the Orthodox baptized by immersion Greek being their native language they understand that the Greek word baptizo means to immerse so they stuck with baptism by immersion Roman Catholic Church doing sprinkling pouring things of that nature so about 500 years after the Great Schism the Roman Catholic Church suffers its next major division and this is known as a Protestant Reformation in 1517 something happened and it goes on in history as the Reformation of the Protestant Reformation and in 1517 to 1648 there were basically these Catholic priests who realized that the Roman Catholic Church was a bad church that had taught bad things we're talking about men like Martin Luther we're talking about men like John Calvin we're talking about men like John Knox these men were in the Catholic Church many of them were priests leaders spiritual leaders of the Catholic Church and they came out of the Catholic Church and they protested against the Catholic Church which is why they're called Protestants they were protesting the Catholic Church they're also called reformers because they were trying to reform the Catholic Church they were trying to take away all of the evils of the Roman Catholic Church and these Protestants came out of the Roman Catholic Church interesting that the the founders of all these Protestant denominations were pretty much Catholic priests I mean if you look at Martin Luther was studying to be a Catholic priest John Calvin same this event because here's what happened you have the Roman Catholic Church basically before the Reformation you had two lines of Christianity you had true Christianity that came from the Lord Jesus Christ from the Apostles and from those that descended from that belief system and then you had the Christianity that was basically corrupting the Word of God that was corrupting the gospel of Christ that was corrupting the doctrines of God that eventually became the Roman Catholic Church you had these two lines of Christianity you had the false church and then you had the true believers but then the false church gave birth to a more false churches out of the Roman Catholic Church comes the Lutherans and the Presbyterians and all of the Protestants Martin Luther said I didn't leave the church the church left me so he saw himself as the continuation of the true Catholic Church that's why when you go to Protestant churches they recite the Apostles Creed and it says we believe in the holy Catholic Church they still consider themselves Catholics they believe in that universal Church doctrine they believe that they are the one true church and they just see themselves as continuing the true Catholic tradition and that Roman Catholics have apostatized okay so they're not against being Catholic they're just against being Roman Catholic so you have Orthodox Catholics Protestant Catholics and your average Protestant today would say well I'm not Catholic I'm Protestant but I'm saying when you talk to the actual the scholars the theologians the pastors they will say well yes we are Catholic and you know things that Martin Luther said and John Calvin said back that up that they saw themselves as the true Catholic a Catholic priest like Martin Luther cuz that's exactly what he was who had no intention of leaving the Catholic Church when when he created his you know his 95 theses you know and post on the wall he all he wanted was just a reformation of the church he wanted to reform and he wanted to restructure it just enough to try to get back to what he perceived to be biblical doctrine but he had no intention of leaving the Catholic Church and many of his beliefs still completely lined up with the Catholic Church there were just some changes that he wanted to make and ultimately the Catholic Church that decided that's too much you know and kick him out she gave birth to all these false religions they all aren't Protestant save look Protestants are Catholic light and that's why Martin Luther and John Calvin and all these men just brought with them look they were protesting some good things but they brought with them a bunch of false doctors that's why the Protestants today they sprinkle babies that's why the Protestants today they believe in work salvation now they'll give lip service to salvation by grace to the faith but when you talk to them it's like yeah but you got to live a good life yeah but you got to get baptized yeah but you got to do all these things and look these Protestants these reformers they did not come from pure New Testament believers they came out of the Roman Catholic Church Martin Luther's given credit for inventing the word Protestantism and what does Protestantism mean it means to protest what were they protesting well they were protesting Rome that's well documented we know the 95 faces but this whole time this whole time there had been believers there'd been a line of believers outside of the Roman Catholic Church outside of the Protestant line that believed that came forth that had their heritage from the book of Acts from the Lord Jesus Christ from the apostles as far as the Baptist is concerned we see that our lineage coming from an apostolic lineage versus say the Reformation or any of those things now these individuals these individuals went by different names different groups went by different names at different times some of them were called Waldensians some of them were called Paulicians some of them were called Albigensians they went by different names at different times but these individuals were individuals that believed certain things they had certain distinct belief systems that did not allow them to join up with the great whore the Roman Catholic Church and did not allow them to join up with the Protestant Reformation movement that basically just came out of the Roman Catholic Church the Paulicians were an interesting group that found their way and kind of found a home in Armenia they were a fascinating group and and I use the word fascinating because I can't find a better word for them they were Christians but I would call them fundamental Christians and so when you talk about them they were intellectuals they were intelligent they weren't in any way shape or form ignorant they were just fascinated by the New Testament now in some circles they've been called anti-Semitic I do not believe that that was their case I just don't think they followed or wanted to follow some of the Old Testament teaching and some of the let's call it Israel-like ways of doing things they are a group that's very early in the the medieval period who are reputed to have been practicing believers baptism this is one of the groups that people who will say that there's a continuous thread of Baptist practice all through Christian history they'll cite groups like this of saying that the idea of believers baptism kept going in the church after that kind of fourth and fifth century turning away from believers baptism from what I've read is that they did undergo a lot of persecution you know from from other denominations from the Catholic church from from areas like that and they seem to have a a pretty strong hold on biblical concepts real similar to what I was just explaining as far as what a Baptist is so when we reference groups like the Paulicians the Albigensians the Waldensians we're obviously not endorsing everything that these groups believed just like today you can find Baptists who believe heresy you could find heresy in those groups the purpose of citing those groups is to show that there have been groups and not just these groups but also unnamed groups that have been lost to history but there have been groups that have stood outside of mainstream Christianity outside of the lineage of the Roman Catholic church and the Protestant movement here's what's interesting after 1517 when the reformation begins now these believers that have never been a part of any of these organizations now they're not only being persecuted by the Catholic church now they're actually being persecuted by reformers themselves I mean John Calvin in Geneva was persecuting true believers the same thing that they were mad at the Catholic church for doing to them they were doing to people that weren't willing to join up with their views the Bible says in second Timothy chapter 3 and verse 12 yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution this verse is proven by history true believers have been persecuted from the beginning and they will be persecuted until the end the Bible tells us that in the end times there will be major persecution of believers and even today there are Christians being persecuted all over the world we're even starting to see minor forms of persecution in the United States for example back in 2016 there was a major protest organized against our church for our biblical beliefs there has always been a line of believers that came from that has their lineage from the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles themselves and it's and they did not come from the Roman culture they went by different names they went by you know they were called different things but eventually they all began to be called the same thing this line of believers during this time of the dark ages and during the time of the reformation you had this group of autonomous believers local churches that were independent of any sort of structure of Christianity and these people were not only separatists they were also soul winners this was an evangelistic group they were getting people saved and they were getting the gospel you know what the people down here that came from the Lord Jesus Christ were doing they were getting catholics saved and they were getting protestants saved they were reaching these groups and they were beginning to teach them what true salvation is and they began to disciple them and help them grow you know one of the first things that they taught their converts whenever a convert would come from the catholic church or when a convert would come from the protestants the one of the first things they taught them after salvation is that they needed to be re-baptized say why would they teach them that because they would teach them look your baptism was not scriptural your baptism your infant baptism the bible does not teach that the bible does not teach baptizing babies the bible does not teach baptism before salvation your baptism wasn't scriptural so we need to re-baptize you now that you're actually saved so these individuals these different groups the paletians and the waldensians and the albigensians and different groups are called different things they began to be commonly known and they began to be called a name that that was a mocking name just like christianity was a mocking name that christians embraced they began to be called a mocking name and they were called anabaptists now the word ana means re and they were called re-baptizers and it was a mocking term they're saying oh those people they are the those are the re-baptized everyone that they get saved they just tell them you got to get re-baptized they don't accept anybody's baptism and they began to re-baptize these individuals and they began to be called anabaptists you know what they did they just embraced the name they said yeah we're re-baptizers call us anabaptists and eventually the the term ana was dropped and they were just known as baptists the anabaptists is is really the name that's been given to these groups that we just got through talking about except for the fact that that's became a derogatory term that a lot of the the catholics and then later on the reformists uh like to tag along with this and they got that name because of the fact that that we we did not believe in sprinkling for salvation we didn't believe in baptism for salvation we didn't believe in infant baptism we always had the same beliefs that a person was saved and then immersed in baptism and in cases where they came from a different system we would require or they would require an anabaptist would cry require somebody to not not only be saved but then be baptized with a proper baptism under a proper authority of a church and so it became kind of a derogatory term if it makes sense because they would say the anabaptists you know we we have our own ideas on baptism and those things and once again the big difference between us and all the other say religious groups i guess you would say well the paulitians the alvagensians the waldensians and just generally the anabaptists these are groups of people who have been labeled anabaptists because they resisted the baptism and teaching of catholicism they rejected popes the pope's authority they rejected the the practices and doctrines of the catholic church as baptists we're not protestant many people like to group christianity into two groups of you're either catholic or protestant and we don't fall into either of those groups because the word protestant many people don't even know this as the word protest in it and that's just the the protestant movement where they're protesting the catholic church we're gonna tell you oh baptists are protestants no we're not there's always been a group of people there's always been a line of people there's always been a movement of christianity that's been outside of the catholic church that's been outside of the protestant reformation that's been outside of false doctrine and they've been they've gone but i'm not saying they've been called baptists their whole life they've gone by different names at different times but they all had distinct beliefs that separated them from the false doctrine and the belief system and here's what i believe here's what i believe i believe if salvation if salvation was a physical chain you know just an illustration but if salvation was a physical chain that when you got saved you literally attached yourself to and i if i could take that chain and pull back on it you know it would bring me back to the individual that got me saved which was my dad my dad gave me the gospel when i was a kid and got me saved and if i would grab his chain and pull back on it it would take me back to some missionary baptist that got my dad saved when you know he was a young man and if i was to pull back on that chain it would bring me to the individuals that got those baptist missionaries saved and the individuals that got those people saved and the individuals that got those people saved and here's what i believe i believe if i were to take that chain and just shake it i believe it would take us all the way back to the shores of galley where the lord jesus christ began the movement of new testament believers because there's always been a group of people outside of the mainstream false teaching church that i believed certain things that made them distinct and i believe that we as baptists fall in that heritage you know we've talked about the heritage of of baptist people the history of baptist but let's talk about the baptist distinctives what makes us uniquely baptist or distinctly baptist to truly understand baptist heritage you have to understand the baptist distinctives that is because of the fact that there is a strong connection between our heritage and what we believe it is the beliefs of the baptist people that kept the anabaptists from aligning themselves with the false roman catholic church baptist heritage was formed because of the baptist distinctives these beliefs go hand in hand with our heritage it is because of these beliefs that those christians did not join up with constantine the great did not join up with martin luther did not join up with john calvin it is these beliefs that have kept a pure line of christianity and these are the beliefs that make us uniquely baptist let's begin where it matters what are the baptist distinctives what makes us different from other religions and other types of so-called quote unquote christians well number one we believe in salvation by grace through faith according to the bible by grace are we saved through faith and then not of ourselves it's the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast so we receive salvation by believing on the lord jesus christ relations 216 says this knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of jesus christ even we have believed in jesus christ that we might be justified by the faith of christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight i mean could you get any more clear we derive a gospel of salvation which is saved by grace kept by grace and we believe in the deity of jesus christ because you have to have the right god saving you the right way and the way i i like to term it is you have to have who saves you and how he saves you correct or you don't have the right salvation oh being saved is very simple it's all based upon faith it's not of works whatsoever what makes us uniquely baptist is that we believe in salvation by grace through faith you have to turn there ephesians 289 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works lest any man should boast you say well i thought everybody believed that oh really because the catholics don't catholics don't believe in salvation by grace through faith they believe you got to work your way to heaven they believe you got to keep the seven sacraments they believe you got to live a good life and be a good person oh really because the protestants don't the protestants don't believe in salvation by grace and faith don't give lip service to it but when you talk to them you got to get baptized you got to live a certain way and do certain things you better make sure you were in church i'm sending you know i thought everybody released salvation by grace of faith really because the pentecostals don't they believe you gotta get baptized to be saved they believe their steps to salvation which include believing is one of them and repenting of your sins which means quitting sinning is another one and getting baptized and speaking and all those things are part of the pentecostal charismatic what about the mormons do they believe in salvation by grace they believe you got to live a good life they believe you got to repent of your sins they believe you got to get baptized what about the jehovah's witnesses what about the seventh day advantage what about the amish what about the mennonites here's what i'm trying to explain to you most people don't believe salvation by grace through faith but how about this here's another you know distinct doctrine of baptist people not only do we believe in salvation by grace of faith but we believe in eternal security the believer virtually no one believes in the eternal security believer but baptists catholics they don't protestants they don't assemblies of god they don't foursquare they don't charismatic they don't only baptists believe in the eternal security believe let me just give a couple of verses you john 1028 says that i give them to them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father which gave them me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand titus 1 2 says in hope of eternal life which god that cannot lie promised before the world began so the bible is very clear that we get our salvation as a free gift through jesus and its eternal life that means it lasts forever that means it never ends that means it never terminates look if i don't believe i gotta do anything to get saved but i believe i've gotta do something or not do something in order to stay saved you're still believing in works you're still believing you're fake you know if you believe well i'm saved as long as i don't commit adultery i'm saved as long as i don't kill someone i'm saved as long as i don't you know commit suicide well then your salvation is dependent on you as long as you don't but see the eternal security believer is on jesus christ he said i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall i man pluck them out of my hand how about this one we believe in the inspiration of scripture we believe in the bible and take a grammatical historical literal interpretation of the bible believing that god has inspired his word and given us a text to derive doctrine and truth from and it was given to us because it can be understood now look most people today if you talk to most people i don't care who it is they're going to give lip service to everyone believes in the inspiration of scripture in the originals right and the bible talks about this second timothy 3 16 all scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and righteousness the bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of god second peter 121 says this for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost most people believe in the in the inspiration of scripture in the originals you know how are we different well number four we also believe in the preservation of scripture i believe that god preserved his word unto all generations so it doesn't make any sense that the true word of god would be buried for thousands of years so i reject all of these new modern archaeological findings because why would the true word of god just disappear off the face of the earth why would we have to go dig it up and look for it we've always had it it's been passed down copy of a copy of a copy that's what we preach that's what we believe it's what we've had our whole lives and before us and before that and before that so that's why it's called the received text because it's what that which we've received that which has been passed down the traditional text versus a new text that is relying upon something that was just dug up out of the earth the received text is basically what churches have received as being god's word over time and they're the the texts that have been you know also lines up the most with the majority text psalm 12 verse 6 says this the words of the lord are pure words that's inspiration they're pure they're holy they're god's words the words of the lord are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times verse 7 says this thou shalt keep them oh lord thou shall preserve them from this generation forever see we as baptists not only believe in the inspiration of scripture look everybody says they believe in the inspiration of the originals no whoever you talk to will tell you they believe in the inspiration but you know what we also believe in we believe in the preservation of scripture thou shalt keep them oh lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever so people will tell you today oh yeah the originals were inspired but we've lost the word of god because the translators messed it all up now wait a minute it's god who preserves the word of god the king james bible in the english-speaking world is the word of god for us today today even those who believe that we have the preserved word of god in the english language in our king james bible will sometimes want to split hairs and argue about whether we have the inspired words or the preserved words but what they don't understand is that if god preserved his inspired words then we hold in our hands the inspired and preserved word of god inspired means they were spoken by god that he spoke them holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost did we preserve the words that god inspired then look i've got the inspired and preserved word of god right now then if we believe in the preservation of scripture which we do psalm 119 89 says this forever oh lord thy word is settled in heaven isaiah 40 and verse 8 says the grass withered the flower faded but the word of our god shall stand forever see as baptists we believe in the preservation of scripture by the way in the english language that's the king james bible we believe in biblical authority first symphony 213 says this for this cause also thank we god without ceasing because when he received the word of god which he heard of us he received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of god which effectually worketh also in you that belief see because we believe in the inspiration and preservation of scripture because of that we also believe in biblical authority the bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice we take the bible the bible is our authority it's not the pastor it's not the people in the church the the authority comes from god's word and and which is inspired which is preserved and also is the authority over what's done in the church and what's done in our lives you say well doesn't anybody believe that well no look when we believe in biblical authority we just lost the catholics again because they because they believe in the bible but you know what they hold their church traditions on par with the bible don't believe me look it up they they will they put the words of the pope on par with the bible they call them the vicar of christ he speaks for christ on this earth whatever the pope says trumps what the bible says you know they call him the vicar of christ he's the vicar of hell but they put their traditions on par with the bible they don't believe in biblical authority we just lost the pentecostals with their word of faith i got a word of faith i got a word from god well look i got a word from god too it's called the king james bible and i i don't get to change it every time i want to by telling you well i had a vision that told me look here's what i'm saying we're never going to change what we believe why because as baptists we believe in biblical authority i used to have a pastor tell us this when the bible is your boss you're a baptist number six we believe in the autonomy of the local church like we as baptists are independent autonomous churches whereas if you look at the evangelical lutheran church of america or the the uh anglicans or the episcopalians they all have these sort of denominational hierarchies you know in the church of england they have the archbishop of cantaberry that's sort of like their pope or you know the king is sort of like their pope in a way so they have these people in these positions of power that form like a pyramid of cardinals or archbishops or bishops instead of just being independent autonomous churches look we just lost anyone who is organized under a denomination i mean roman catholics united methodists church of christ lutherans assemblies of god presbyterians episcopalian church of god church of christ even the southern baptists calvary chapel anyone that's organized under some sort of hierarchy we just lost them why because as baptists we believe in the autonomy of the local church what does that mean that means independent churches so why do you guys call yourself independent fundamental baptists because we're independent colossians one and verse 18 notice what it says and he now you can go back and look at the context if you want the he there is referring to jesus and he is the head of the body what's the body the church ephesians 5 23 says this before the husband is the head of the wife even as christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body see the bible tells us that god created an institution on earth called the local new testament church jesus said i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against me the lord acts the church he builds the church he died for the church he loves the church jesus created an institution called the local new testament church and then the bible tells us that he is the head of that church see who is the head of verde baptist church it's not pastor he meant it please i've had people say to me like oh well you're the head of this church and i'm like no no no no don't don't give me that term the head of the of this church is the lord jesus christ you say well how does jesus lead this church well he leads it through his word see as a pastor i have to submit myself to the word of god because as a baptist i believe in biblical authority which means i can't get up here and tell you to do something the bible doesn't say to do have you ever noticed everything we believe around here we back it up with scripture you ever notice why most churches you go to they read like three verses and they tell like four stories they read a poem and then they're done say why do you guys have so much bible i mean you guys have so much bible in comparison to other churches because we believe in biblical authority because everything that we believe has to come from the word of god because the bible is the uh final authority in all matters of faith not just faith and practice not just what we believe but how we do it now when you have a church that has anyone giving it orders other than the bible now you don't have an autonomous church and by the way this is why those anabaptists refused they refused to join themselves with the roman catholic church why because they understood the autonomy of the local church that jesus is the head of the church and that jesus started local look by the way because we believe in the autonomy of the local church let me just explain this to you we do not believe in the universal church there's no such thing as a universal church the word church means assembly it is a congregation of believers you say are we a church in sacramento we are a church only because we are assembled together in a few minutes when we all leave here and we go our separate ways we won't be a church anymore and on sunday night when we come back together and we're united again in a congregation now we're a church again and when we all go our separate ways we're not a church anymore people people call the building to say oh i'm going to go down to the church this building is not a church my friend a church is a group of believers that comes together and unless you're united with every believer physically in a congregation in the entire universe there's no such thing as a universal church the bible is very clear that a church is a congregation in psalm 22 22 the bible says i will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will i praise thee so the bible uses the word congregation there and if you flip over to hebrews chapter 2 and verse number 12 it say it says saying i will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will i sing praise unto thee so the bible uses those two words interchangeably and in the new testament you know most people call it the church not necessarily the congregation but that means the same thing and basically what a church or congregation would be is a is a group of believers that are baptized and they come together and when they come together they form the church in a local assembly there's local churches with local assemblies and that's what you find in the new testament that's what separates us from most other churches number seven we believe in pastoral authority within the church pastoral authority and again any church under denomination does not believe in pastoral authority any church that has a deacon board that tells the pastor what to do does not believe in pastoral authority any church that has an elder board that tells the pastor what to do does not believe in pastoral authority one of the biggest things i have to do you know with new people and new believers when they come into church like that one of the first things i need to teach everybody is how this church runs and that we are a pastor ran church because it's just so unique to people because most people are used to having a pastor that's being told what to do by the elders or being told what to do by the deacons or being told what to do by the superintendent or just being told what to do by the women of the church or whatever you know it's like no no this is a baptist church the pastor actually runs the show the pastor it's it's a pastor-led church it's part of the autonomy of the local church you know the bible says that pastors are the overseers of the congregations and it's not some pope it's not some some representative of of your region you know the the bible is very clear that the pastor is the one that oversees the church the lord jesus christ is the head of the church and the pastor would be the under shepherd when the whole protest happened in 2016 people kept calling and saying we want to speak to whoever is in charge of pastor jimenez we want to submit our complaints to him who's your superintendent who's in charge of the sacramental region of the baptist convention they had this form they were petitioning the southern baptist convention to fire and remove the retirement of roger jimenez the southern baptist now here's the thing i feel really bad if there's a guy named roger jimenez in the southern baptist convention he's like what it's three weeks from retirement you know whatever but they were petitioning and people would call here and they're like we want to speak to his boss and you know i'd be like well here's how you do it you get on your knees and then you put your hands like this because that's my boss because i don't have anybody telling me oh you shouldn't preach that you shouldn't do that you shouldn't go there it's local churches pastoral authority acts 2028 says this take heed therefore unto yourselves into all the flock over which the holy ghost have made you overseer to feed the church of god which he had purchased with his own blood hebrews 13 17 says this obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you right there in first peter five looking verse one the elders which are among you i exhort the word elder there is talking about a pastor spiritual leadership he said who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of christ and also a portaker of the glory that shall be revealed verse two feed the flock of god which is among you notice what he's telling the elders he's telling the elders right verse one the elders which are among you i exhort here's what he's telling them taking the oversight thereof what what does that mean that means the elders the pastors they run the show they take the oversight now they're not to do it to the point where it becomes like a cult notice what he says not by constraint but willingly not for filthy looker but of a ready mind verse three neither as being lords over god's heritage but being in samples to the poor so look my job is not to lord over you i don't walk into your house and tell you you know how you should you know how your wife should dress or how your kids should dress or how you should where you should live you know my job is not to lord over you but my job is to be the overseer of anything that falls under verity baptist church you say why are all these churches so liberal here's what happens some southern baptist pastor gets up preaches a sermon somebody don't like so they called superintendent now listen superintendent i'm brother so-and-so my wife was offended and you know i give this much money every week and the superintendent calls pastor and says don't ever preach that again or you're fired and they control them and that's why god says hey not for filthy looker not for filthy looker he says look you're supposed to be as a pastor you're supposed to be able to run the show and that's actually something that makes us uniquely baptist pastoral authority number eight here's what makes us uniquely baptist where we got our name from biblical baptism phillip apparently had correctly baptized them with water and immersion because we know that the word baptism comes from baptit so a greek word meaning immersion biblical baptism now you say what does biblical baptism mean acts chapter 8 are you there look at verse 36 i'm going to show you just real quickly what biblical baptism is acts 836 and as they went on their way they came unto a certain water and the eunuch said see here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized now the eunuch just got the gospel preached to him and now he's asking what's hindering me what's stalked me me from getting baptized and phillip said if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayth so according to the bible how do you get scripturally baptized well it happens after you believe because he said what does hinder me baptized and the answer to the question is if i believeth all thine heart thou mayest and he answered and said i believe that jesus christ is the son of god right there we do away with infant baptism because unless you're six-week-old is able to stand up and say i believe that jesus christ is the son of god and understand it newsflash six-week-olds aren't even condemned all right if they die they go to heaven salvation baptism happens after salvation notice verse 38 not only is baptism after salvation it's also by immersion look at verse 38 and he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both phillip and the eunuch and he baptized him notice he doesn't say grabbed a cup of water and poured it over his head he didn't say he filled up his spray bottle with water and sprayed him with it he said they went down both into the water why did they have to go down into the water because he needed enough water to get his whole body underwater because baptism is by immersion scripturally and so we know from baptism from the book of acts the baptism has to have particular particular criteria fulfilled it has to be in water it has to be by immersion matthew 3 16 says this and jesus when he was baptized notice what it says went up straight way out of the water why did jesus go up straight way out of the water well because he first went down into the water see the bible teaches baptism by immersion he was baptized and he went up straight way out of the water and lo the heavens were open unto him and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and lighting upon him and lo a voice from heaven saying this is my beloved son in whom i am well pleased you will never find any baptism in scripture that was not done by immersion because baptism is a picture of the death burial and resurrection of jesus christ when someone is getting ready to be baptized and they are standing there and the water crosses their body that is a picture of the cross when the pastor then takes that individual and puts them under the water that is a picture of the death when they come up out of the water that is a picture of the resurrection of the lord jesus christ when someone gets baptized what they are publicly stating is that they believe that jesus died on the cross was buried and that he rose from the grave as a payment for their sin but they're also stating is that they believe that one day when they die they will be resurrected at the rapture when you turn baptism into a pouring on of water you mess up the whole picture biblical baptism is after salvation it's by immersion but notice it also matters who baptizes you in john chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 the bible says this when therefore the lord knew how the pharisees had heard that jesus made and baptized more disciples than john though jesus himself baptized not but his disciples what we learn in these verses is that jesus did not physically baptize anybody however the people that were baptized by his disciples under his ministry were identified with him what we can learn from this is that it doesn't matter who physically literally dunks you under the water because in many churches the pastors don't do the baptisms you may have been baptized by a deacon you may have been baptized by an evangelist you may have been baptized by an assistant pastor it doesn't really matter who actually baptized you as long as you were baptized by a church or a ministry that you can identify with so look if you're not a tongue speaking pentecostal and you got baptized at a tongue speaking pentecostal church you need to get anabaptized this is where we came from this is where we got our names from we're anabaptists this is what we believe what separates us from other christians not only biblical baptism but number nine personal and ecclesiastical separation 2nd corinthians 617 says that wherefore come up from among them and be separate saith the lord and touch not the unclean thing and i will receive you the bible says come out from among them and be separate romans 12 2 says and be not conformed to this world say pastor pandas why don't you bring in the world's music you know let's get all the world the cool music let's just we'll change the words make it all about jesus but bring in all the world's music i think people would like that more more people will come no the bible says be not conformed to this world my god doesn't run his train on the world's tracks we don't get our ideas from the world we're not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god look if it's from the world we don't need it we don't want it we believe in personal and ecclesiastical separation yet that makes us different we're not to be of the world the bible says we're to be in the world but not of the world people walk in here and say you know you guys are like little house on the prairie i'm thinking myself you ever watched little house on the prairie because we're not we're not like little house on the prairie but when people say that to me i think to myself great i'd rather be like little house on the prairie than like the church down the street that looks like a nightclub the church down the street that looks like you walked into a casino the church down the street that looks like you walked into a rock and roll we believe in individual soul liberty individual soul liberty what does that mean that's why the anabaptists right that's why those politions and those waldens and that's why those people did not join themselves with the roman catholic church did not join themselves well that's why the believers the new testament believers that came from the apostles did not join themselves with constantine the great why because we believe that you cannot legislate christianity individual soul liberty means that you must of your own accord choose to be saved you must decide to believe it is a choice that you must make and listen we just lost all of the calvinists right let me read for you out of romans 10 verse 9 it says that if now it says if because you get a choice that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shall believe in thine heart that god is raised from the dead he's saying if you believe in your heart that god is raised from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made into salvation for the scripture saith whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for there is no difference between jew and greek for the same lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him romans 10 13 for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved see we believe as baptists an individual soul liberty god doesn't choose who gets saved god opens it up for everyone anyone who wants to can be saved the the price has been paid he offers it to all and you must choose whether you want to come or not whether you want to believe or not whether you want to be saved or not basically what that means is you're not born into the religion that you are you have the right to choose to be saved and as christians we don't try to force people to believe what we believe we ultimately just leave you with a choice are you doing revelation 22 look at verse 17 and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come don't miss this and whosoever will whosoever will let him take of the water of life really see we believe in individual soul liberty you want to be saved you can be saved you want to reject it that's between you and god we're going to try to warn you we're going to try to get you saved but we don't believe that god chooses who gets saved it's individual it's your own of your own free will number 11 we believe in the priesthood of the believer there go the catholics again there goes any religion that you need to go to someone to be in contact with god see as new testament baptist christians we believe in the priesthood of the believer meaning that as new testament believers we don't need a priest to mediate between us and god when we got saved we became kings and priests unto god and his father and we became priests and we have access to god first 72 5 for there is one god and one mediator between god and man the man christ jesus i have access to god the father through his son jesus christ i don't need a priest i don't need a saint i don't need a the virgin mary as a mediatrix that's what the roman catholic church calls her i don't have to pray to mary and hope she gets my prayers to god i don't have to pray to a saint i can go to god myself through jesus christ because of the priesthood of the believer hebrews 4 16 says this let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need see i can come boldly i can come boldly into the throne room of god because i became a son of god you know as the pastor of a church here i have i i have my office here and if you ever come to my office on on a sunday morning or sunday before service man there's people coming in and out of my office all day long people you know asking me questions and needing this and needing that you know and what people generally do what people generally do because it's the acceptable respectable thing to do is they walk up to my office they knock on the door i say come in and they come in you know what my daughter lydia does i watch her because we have the security cameras she comes in skipping she's so rude she never stops she never knocks no matter what's going on i could be meeting in there with you know a counseling session whatever she just comes in i see her i can hear her coming you know singing and skipping and she just flings the door open runs in my office sits on the couch daddy what you're doing you know why it's okay for her to do that because i'm her daddy she can come in boldly into my office she don't have to ask she don't have to knock she can come in boldly to her father and with anything she needs she wants candy or she got hurt or whatever it might be and you know what you and i as the sons of god through jesus christ we can come in boldly into the throne of god into the throne room of god i don't need a priest i we believe in the priest of the believer you know what that makes us uniquely baptist what else is unique to baptist well we believe in confrontational soul winning and we believe as baptists that it's our job here on earth it's not god's not going to come down from the sky and preach the gospel to them he left us here for that job and as baptists we believe it's our job to go and tell dying world that's going to hell how to be saved please understand this when we say confrontational so we're not talking about going out and picking a fight all right not contentional solely confrontational so we mean we take it to them we're confronting them with the gospel we're not on the defense we're on the offense mark 16 15 says and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature matthew 28 18 says and jesus came and spake unto them saying all power is given unto me in heaven and earth go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i've commanded you lo i'm with you only even unto the end of the world amen now that's our faith right our faith our belief is that we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature how do we practice that right because the bible is our final authority in all matters of faith and practice well the faith is that we go into all the world the belief is that we go into all the world here's how we practice it act 542 and daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to teach and preach jesus christ here's how we practice it acts 2020 and how i get back nothing that was profitable to you but i've showed you and i've taught you publicly and from house to house so why do you go out in the community from house to house on in the highways and hedges compelling them to be saved why do you do that because that's what the bible says you do that's how the bible you say did you get that from the mormons no you know what the mormons and the jehovah witnesses have been corrupting the word of god for a long time but you know that you know as far as actually christians people who are actually saved going out door to door preaching the gospel you're not uniquely baptist it's baptist that's what makes us baptists it separates us from everybody else what separates salvation my grace of faith what separates us eternal security what separates us inspiration preservation of scripture what separates us biblical authority what separates us autonomy of the local church what separates us pastoral authority what separates us biblical baptism what separates us personal and ecclesiastical separation what separates us individual soul liberty what separates us priesthood of the believer what separates us confrontational soul here's a question i have for you are you baptist and if you're not you should be so as you've learned on this journey there always has been and there still is a group of people who are being like the old testament prophets who shook kingdoms with their bold proclamation of thus saith the lord god there are still a group of people who are being like the first century christians who took the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth whose enemies would say these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also there are still people who are being like the historic anabaptists who defied mainstream false religion and who stood on the truths of the word of god there are still people in this world who are being baptist so so hi this is pastor roger himenez from verity baptist church in sacramento california i'd like to take a few minutes and speak to you about how you can know for sure that you are on your way to heaven first john 5 13 says this these things have i written unto you that believe on the name of the son of god that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the son of god this verse explains to us that we may know that we have eternal life and i'd like to talk to you about how you can know for sure that you are on your way to heaven first you must admit that you are a sinner romans 310 says as it is written there is none righteous no not one the word righteous is referring to someone who's without wrong you and i might say someone who's perfect and here the bible says there is none righteous or we could say there is none perfect no not one romans 323 says this for all have sinned and come short of the glory of god the bible defines the word sin as the transgression of the law when we break god's law we've sinned so for example god says i shouldn't lie if i tell a lie that's a sin god says i shouldn't steal if i steal something that's a sin and this verse says for all have sinned that word all includes everyone that means that i'm a sinner that means that you're a sinner secondly we must realize the penalty of our sin romans 6 23 says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord the bible says that there are wages for our sin the word wages means payment it's something you earn when i go to work what i earn is money but when i sin what i earn is death now this verse is not simply referring to a physical death because in revelation chapter 20 verses 14 and 15 the bible says this and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire you may be wondering what is the second death well notice what it says they were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death see when someone dies physically that's just the first death or the initial death but when that individual then gets thrown into hell the bible calls that the second death and in romans 6 23 when it said for the wages of sin is death it's not just referring to a physical death but it's also referring to the second death see we need to understand that our sin has condemned us to health revelation 21 8 actually gives us a list of who's going to hell the bible says this but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and that's a pretty bad list most people would say a murderer is a pretty bad sin but at the end of that list he says this and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death and here's what you need to understand with all life the bible says let god be true but every man a liar and the point that god's trying to make when he adds that sin at the end of the list that we've all committed is that there is none righteous is that we are all sinners and our sin has condemned us to hell and you may be able to say and i may be able to say well i've never killed anyone but i've at least told a lie before and that's enough to send us to hell james 2 10 kind of puts it all together it says for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offending one point he is guilty of all thirdly you must accept that salvation is a free gift romans 6 23 said for the wages of sin is death we understand what that means now right the payment of sin is death not just a physical death but the second death being cast into the lake of fire the second part of that verse says this but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord and the bible says that god has a gift he wants to give us and that gift is eternal life and it's through jesus christ ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god verse 9 goes on to say not of works lest any man should boast now let me use an illustration to explain this concept let's say today was your birthday and i was going to give you a gift let's say i was going to give you this bible and i said here you go happy birthday what would you have to do for this bible to become yours well all you have to do is accept it now if i said well you know this bible cost me ten dollars i'm gonna give you this free birthday gift but you need to give me ten dollars is that a gift the answer is no because as soon as you give me money for it now you're paying for it's no different than you going to the store and buying it yourself what if i said all right i'm gonna give you this free birthday gift you don't have to give me any money for it all you have to do is wash my car is that a gift the answer is no because as soon as you're washing my car now you're working for it now you're earning it see a gift by definition is free you can't pay for it and you can't earn it that's why the bible says not of works lest any man should boast salvation is not something we earn by the way that we live our lives or by being religious some people think yes but you have to repent of your sins to be saved they think that you have to turn away from your sins in order to go to heaven but here's what you need to understand in jonah chapter 3 and verse 10 the first part of the verse says this and god saw their works that they turned from their evil way here we see an example of people who turn from their evil way and god referred to that as works so see if you believe that you have to repent of your sins or turn away from your sins to be saved you are actually adding works to salvation and salvation is a free gift that is not of works in matthew 21 and verse 32 jesus said this for john came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the publicans and the harlots believed him and ye when ye had seen it repented not afterwards that ye might believe him see the bible teaches that repentance is a change of mind and here we see jesus saying you did not believe and if you would have repented you would have believed see repentance in regards to salvation is simply going from unbelief to belief or from believing in the wrong thing trusting in your works or in your religion to save you and from and turning from that to trusting on the lord jesus christ alone fourthly you must believe that jesus christ paid for your sins romans 5 8 says this but god commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners christ died for us you need to understand about the lord jesus christ that he was not just a man he was not just a prophet he was not just a good teacher matthew 1 23 says this behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name emmanuel which being interpreted is god with us one of the names of jesus was emmanuel which means god with us now why would you name a child god with us well because he was god with us he was not just a man he was god in the flesh john 1 1 says in the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god john 1 14 says and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth first timothy 3 16 the first part of the verse says this and without controversy great is the mystery of godliness god was manifest in the flesh see the bible tells us that god was manifest in the flesh it tells us the word was made flesh it tells us the word was god these are all references to jesus and the fact that he was god in the flesh because he was god he was also without sin the bible says in second corinthians 5 21 for he hath made him to be sinned for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of god in him the bible says about jesus that he knew no sin and what you need to understand is that the gospel is this that jesus came to this earth he was born of a virgin he was god in the flesh he lived a sinless life he never sinned and he died on the cross not to pay for his own sins because he had no sins he died to pay for our sins the bible says that he was buried and he rose from the grave three days later as a payment for our sin the bible tells us that for those three days and three nights his body was buried but his soul went down to hell acts 2 31 says this he's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of christ that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption john 3 16 the most famous verse in the bible says for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life see the gospel is that jesus through his death burial and resurrection paid for our sins and not that we pay for our sins by living a good life or being religious there's a fifth thing you need to understand about salvation and that is that salvation cannot be lost if you look at the last part of john 3 16 it says but have everlasting life john 3 15 the verse right before says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life all throughout the bible we're told that god wants to give us everlasting life which is life that will last forever or eternal life life that will never end now let's say god said i'm going to give you everlasting life starting right now eternal life starting today life that will last forever it's never going to end when would that life end would it end five years from now no would it a thousand years from now no it's never going to end now what if god said i'm going to give you everlasting life and let's say hypothetically that five years from now you walk in a bank and you rob the bank and you kill somebody you think god would take away your everlasting life well he can't take it away because if he takes it away five years from now then it didn't last forever and that would make god a liar titus one two says this in hope of eternal life which god that cannot lie promise before the world began see the bible says that our hope for eternal life is that god cannot lie when god makes a promise he keeps it and if he says i'm going to give you everlasting life then it will be everlasting now don't misunderstand what we're saying we're not saying that because you're saved you can run around robbing banks and killing people of course we understand that on this earth there are consequences for our sin we understand that on this earth we reap what we sow and on this earth god does chastise us and disciplines us for our sins but what you need to understand that once god saves you once he gives you everlasting life he'll never take it away the beautiful thing about salvation is that when god forgives you your sins he forgives you all your sins your past sins your present sins and your future sins lastly you must call upon jesus christ to save you if i said i was going to give you a gift and i went out and i bought this bible i wrap it up i put a bow on it i put a tag on here and i write your name and i said here you go happy birthday and let's say you said to me thanks but no thanks and you rejected my gift did this bible ever become yours no why not because you did not accept it now was it paid for it's paid for because i bought it was it meant for you has your name on it but it never became yours because you did not accept it the gift of god is the exact same way jesus christ already paid for on the cross and he offers it to all of us freely but we get a choice whether we'd like to accept it or reject it now if you could accept the gift of god would you do it well the bible tells us how you can do that in romans chapter 10 and verse 9 it says this that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the lord jesus the word confess means to admit what are you admitting well you're admitting that you're a sinner and you're admitting that you deserve to die and go to hell but you're calling upon christ to save you romans 10 13 says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved and you need to understand that it's not just saying words that saves you romans 10 9 says that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the lord jesus but it goes on to say this and shall believe that's the faith in thine heart what are you believing that god hath raised him from the dead you're believing that jesus christ died on the cross was buried and rose from the grave as a payment for my sin not that i pay for my sins by living a good life or doing good things or turning for my sin but that his sacrifice was enough to purchase my salvation the bible says this that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shall believe in thine heart that god is racing from the dead it says thou shall be saved it doesn't say you might be saved it doesn't say you hopefully will be saved god says i will save you if you can confess with your mouth and believe in your heart i don't know if you noticed but everything i showed you came straight out of the bible if you believe what i've showed you from the word of god today if you're willing to admit that you're a sinner if you realize that your sin has condemned you to hell if you accept the fact that salvation is a free gift which means you don't earn it you don't work for it if you believe that jesus christ who was god in the flesh died was buried and resurrected as a payment for your sin if you understand that salvation cannot be lost because it is the gift of eternal life and it'll last forever no matter what you do if you believe all of that then i would like to help you form a prayer i want you to understand this is not a magical prayer the prayer in and of itself does not save you but god tells us that when you confess with your mouth and if you believe in your heart he will save you so if you believe all that just repeat after me jesus i know that i'm a sinner and i deserve to go to hell please forgive me of all my sin and please give me eternal life i'm not trusting in myself i'm only trusting in you amen if you believed in your heart and you called upon christ to save you i'd like to congratulate you because according to the bible you are saved and you never have to worry about where you will spend eternity thank you very much for listening to this video god bless