Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
In the Old Testament, everytime there is a ritual, the blood, the literal physical blood, not just the "symbolic death" of the bird or cow or whatever is always used for something
During passover, when God was passing over the people in Egypt, God said, "When I see the blood, I will pass you over" and he wasn't just looking for a dead lamb
The Bible says,"In whom we have redemption, through, his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace" 0:00:31.500,0:00:38:000 You see, it's the blood that cleanses away our sins, not just the death 0:00:38:000,0:00:50.000 So now, all that being said, it should be pretty clear that salvation is a free gift. [The Bible says] "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, Not of works lest any man boast"
A lot of people just don't seem to understand that, the catholics for example. I mean, why would you need the priest when you have this?
There are two very very common misunderstandings about how to be saved, the first is the [doctrine of] repentance
Ok, someone tell me what repentance is. Ok... anyone else have another take on this? Nobody?
Ok, now a lot of people will falsely associate repentance with sin. While repentance can associate with sin, it does not always. It's like how a square is always a rectangle but a rectangle is not always a square
You see, repentance does not always associate with sin, and I will prove it to you right now. Jeremiah 18:10, "If it do evil in my sight, and it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them"
Now this is God talking here, so notice that God is the one repenting. Does God have any sins that he needs to admit and turn away from? Nope.
Ok, and he said, I will repent of the good, so you see that repentance does not always associate with sin. And if repentance really does mean that you have to turn away from all of your sins to go to heaven, then wouldn't that be works salvation? By our own efforts? Because to be a good person takes a lot of work doesn't it?
If I had to turn away from all of my sins to go to heaven, I would go straight to hell when I die
So if repentance does not always associate with sin, then what is repentance in context with salvation? Now this is kind of a weird verse,
"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go onto perfection; not laying again the foundations of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God,"
So what this verse is saying is that you have to go beyond the principles of the christian faith and learn the other stuff in the Bible as well. But what I want to focus on is that God says the foundation is repentance from dead works and faith towards God
You see that? Repentance from dead works and faith towards God. Now what is repentance from dead works? It means, stop trying to save yourself and put your faith in God
So you when you repent when you are getting saved, you are repenting from dead works
Ok, how many of you have ever heard this before? "In order to be saved, you have to make Jesus savior and lord" Or "Lord and savior"
But what does it mean for Jesus to be your lord? It means that you will obey Jesus in everything you do! Now if you need to do that to go to heaven, then you will all split hell wide open when you die.
So clearly, that's not what the Bible teaches, so why do people teach this? People use Romans 10:9 from the (Guess which version!) the NIV to justify this teaching. Someone read it from the NIV
Confess that Jesus is lord? You can't confess something unless it's true! And if you confess that Jesus is lord, then Jesus really is lord, so you better not sin again, because when you sin, Jesus isn't lord anymore, you're the boss.
Now let's see what the real Bible says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"
You see, the NIV says, "Confess that Jesus is lord" this [KJV] says, "Confess the lord Jesus" Totally different
Now what are we confessing about the lord Jesus? Well I always say that the best way to interpret the Bible is to use the Bible to interpret the Bible. So let's look at an account of someone confessing something about Jesus
Someone turn to Acts 8:37 and read it... Whoever finds it first gets $1000. It's not there [in the NIV] is it? There's another reason to use the King James Version
Now let's see what the real Bible says, Ok, so this is the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch, Philip saw some guy in a chariot who was reading the book of Isaiah and Philip said "do you understand what you are reading?" and the Eunuch said "no, please explain it". So Philip explained it and also preached the gospel while he was at it.
So Philip understood, and they came across some water and the eunuch wanted to get baptized, but Philip said, "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God"
You see, before Philip let him be baptized, he had to make sure that he confesses that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
So when it says "Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus" it means confess that Jesus is the Son of God, not that Jesus is Lord
And to reinforce [the concept of salvation being a free gift], the Bible says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved"
So all this being said, I ask you, "How will you spend eternity?" Smoking, or non-smoking? [The Bible says] "And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever..."
I'm going to tell you something right now, you are all going to die one day, and there is no guarantee that you will have a long life to think this over. I don't want to be morbid or anything, but you might die tomorrow, by the end of tomorrow, you might be dead and buried already
And that is the truth, so, when you die, where will you spend eternity? I want you to think about that very carefully, because when you die and face God, your SAT scores will not matter
God's not going to say, "2400? you're in!" Your schoolwork is not going to matter. God's not going to say, "Wow 5 GPA in all honors classes and graduated from Yale University? You're in!" Your soccer game and sports stuff won't matter. He's not going to say, "Wow you won the world cup at age 13? You're in!)
Now just for a little bit today, I want you to think about this question. How will you spend eternity? I mean, why wait to get saved? It's easy to go to heaven, you don't need to turn away from your sins or obey Jesus in everything just accept the free gift of eternal life!
One of my favorite preachers, Dr. Jack Hyles once said, for everyday you delay salvation, you are playing Russian Roulette with your soul. Do you all know what Russian Roulette is?
Ok, you take a revolver, put one bullet in, you play this with 6 people, and you each take turns putting the gun to your head and pulling the trigger. If you get lucky, the cylinder pointing to your head is empty, and one unlucky person dies. The chances of dying are fairly low
But why would you even play that dumb game? Why would you take that risk? If you would't take that risk with your physical body, then why would do that with your soul? Ok, so I'm done. Any questions?