** You need to be saved from your sin and from God's judgment!
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Rom 6:23 the wages of sin is death.
** You cannot save yourself
Eph 2: 8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith ... and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God ... not by works, so that no one can boast.
** Jesus has already provided a way for you to be saved
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
** You can be saved from your sin and its penalty by receiving Jesus Christ as your savior.
Rom 10: 9-10 If you declare with your mouth, " Jesus is Lord ", and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the children of God even to them that believe on His name.
BELIEVE + RECEIVE = BECOME
** The results of salvation
Hebrews 10: 17-18 Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.
2 Cor 5: 17 if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation: The old has gone, the new is here!
What should you do now that your sins are forgiven?
** Make a public declaration of your faith.
Acts 2: 38 ... be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for (because of) the forgiveness of your sins ...
** Study the Bible
2 Tim 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
** Live and look for Jesus
Titus 2: 11-13 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say "NO" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope ... the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Matt 16: 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, " If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
2 Thessalonians 1:7-10 ... the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power,10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed...
** Attend public worship regularly.
Heb 10: 24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in habit of doing, but encouraging one another ... and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
** Demonstrate you are saved by serving Christ and others.
Jam 2: 17 & 26 ... faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead ... As a body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead
Acts 26: 20 ... I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.
Are You Doing Or Are You Done?
How long do you tie your shoe laces?
You DO a job until it’s DONE. While you’re DOING, it's not DONE. When you’re DONE, you’re not DOING. You can't be DOING and DONE at the same time.
This is also an idea which applies to the accomplishment of our eternal salvation.
If you are still DOING (attempting to merit your own salvation) I have some very good news for you, you can finally be DONE!
Yes, according to the Bible, God’s Holy and infallible Word, you can come to a point where you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are going to heaven when you die.
Jn. 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Is the word have past, present or future tense? Present, right now today you can know that God has declared you innocent of your sins. No, it is not a sin of presumption to simply claim what Jesus has already promised you. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God you can take Him at His Word!
Jn. 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Do these verses say you must work to merit your salvation or simply believe? Will YOU hear God’s word, will you believe what He has said? What does Jesus promise you will have if you do?
Do you resist this based upon the traditions of men which you have been taught in the past? The apostle Paul warned,
Col. 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
You have a choice to make. On the one side is man’s hollow and deceptive philosophy, tradition which comes from man who himself is fallible. It is based on your constant DOING. On the other side is the infallible Word of God which says that you can be DONE! Now, which are you willing to stake your eternal soul upon?
Jesus warned the religious leaders of His day,
Mk. 7:8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.
On which are you holding?
With human traditions, you are DOING, with the commands of God you are DONE. The DOING path goes on forever with no promise of peace, security, or assurance. Just ask your pastor or priest, who teaches salvation through tradition, when you can know that you have done enough. He will tell you that you can never know! The best that you can hope for is that you will have enough concerned loved ones who will pray and work diligently until your soul is released from Purgatory.
There are not too many verses in the Bible that talk about the purging of sins, but I would like to show you one. It speaks of Jesus,
Heb.1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
What exactly did Jesus do on the cross? He purged our sins. Did He need your help? No, when He had by Himself purged our sins. My dear friend, the purging of sins is not some future event but one that has already taken place, it is DONE! So, there is no need of a Purgatory! As Jesus Himself said, “it is finished.” Can’t you see, Jesus is no longer DOING, He is DONE, and you can be DONE as well if you will just take Him at His word!
Now, realize this, a great deal is at stake here. On which are you counting for the salvation of your eternal soul? The infallible Word of the living God or the traditions of fallible man? To find out, answer this question. Someday you will die. Before then, is there anything you must DO to be sure of Heaven? ______________ If you say anything but trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross, you are on the path of DOING.
Romans 4:24,25 ... It (God’s righteousness) shall be imputed to us who believe (not work) in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses (Jesus died because of our sins), and was raised because of our justification (Jesus rose again to prove that by our faith in His finished work God declares us innocent of our sins).
Do you want to try to merit your own salvation by good works? Here is what all of your works amount to in God’s eyes.
Isa. 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags...
The best you can merit in God’s eyes is the repulsiveness of “menstrual cloths”!
If you do not submit to God’s means of righteousness you are reduced to DOING something for your salvation. This is the theme of all of the world’s false religions. They all require you to DO religious works to get to Heaven. Every DO is a counterfeit of God’s DONE, even if they include faith in Jesus. But what does the Bible say? Can you be saved by your self-righteous efforts?
Eph. 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Saved by works? not of works Then how are we saved? by grace you have been saved through faith. This does not say that we are given the ability by God to do works necessary for salvation, rather that salvation is given as a result of God’s unmerited favor, without respect to our works.
The facts are that your righteous works can never earn you a right standing before God.
Rom. 4:4-5 Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly (We are justified by Jesus not our works. He did not open the gate of heaven to make it possible for you to get to God but completed a substitutionary work on your behalf that brings you to God), his faith is accounted for righteousness. We are not saved by faith in the operation of God in the sacraments, rather our standing before God is due to His judicial decree that, because we have faith in the finished work of Christ, we are fully justified.
Rom. 5:9 ... having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
How are we declared to be innocent of our sins before God? By our works or by the blood of Jesus sacrificed on the Cross?
1Pet. 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.
How many times did Jesus need to die? Once! For how many people did Jesus die? All! What did Jesus accomplish by His death on the cross once and for all? Look at the verse and let God tell you. He removed the barrier of your sin and reconciled you to God.
Every DO religion has three things in common: they rely on man’s effort to complete salvation, they are unscriptural and they are unsure. Is this really what you want the salvation of your soul to depend upon?
You can’t have it both ways, either you are DOING or you are DONE! If you are DOING, today, I have got wonderful news for you; if you come to God for salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, without works or sacraments, you can stop DOING, because it is DONE!
Titus 3:5-6 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us (Are we saved by our merit or God’s mercy?), through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (we are saved from sin not by water baptism but by the regenerative work accomplished by the Holy Spirit which makes us one of God’s children and thereby guarantees us eternal life John 3:1-16), whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
My dear friend, God is telling us in His holy word that if we are trusting in Jesus plus our own DOING, we are believing a false religion and are living in rebellion against God and His only provision of salvation. By our actions we are saying “God your way is not good enough, I have got to add to it. Jesus, your death for me was not powerful enough to wash away my sins, I must help you to pay for them.”
Gal. 2:16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
It can not be made any clearer than that!
Let me stop and say my desire is not to win an argument but to simply tell you what God’s Holy Word says and how perfect our precious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ is. How perfect is Jesus and His sacrifice?
Will you believe an infallible God who cannot lie or fallible man and his traditions?
1 Peter 1:18,19 ... you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
You DO a job until it’s DONE. While you’re DOING, it's not DONE. When you’re DONE, you’re not DOING. You can't be DOING and DONE at the same time.
Heb. 10:10 ... we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
What did that say?
Are we made holy through our DOING or through what Jesus has DONE?
We are save by what Jesus has DONE!
The sacrifice of Jesus, which makes us holy before God, was completed once and for all and needs never to be repeated. That’s right, the mass is not necessary for salvation!
Heb. 10:11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
According to that verse, how many of your sins can a pastor or a priest remit? None what so ever! Jesus only can absolve your sin.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
There is no other mediator or mediatrix upon whom we can depend. That job falls on Jesus alone. Thank God, that is a position He fulfills perfectly. Jesus kept the law perfectly and it is His imputed righteousness that gives us a right standing before God.
Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith (not by works, not by the church, not by the sacraments, not by the virgin Mary, but by faith), we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (we are declared to be innocent of our sins based entirely on the sacrifice of Christ by His shed blood).
All of us are sinners.
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Because of our sin we are all separated from God.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death...
Jesus exchanged our sentence of death for His righteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
All that is left for us to do is to believe that it is DONE!
Heb.10:12 But when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
How many times did Jesus need to be crucified in order to pay for your sins? Once! That is why Jesus is sitting down, He is no longer DOING, He is DONE!
Heb. 10:13,14 Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
What is the result of what Jesus has DONE?
We are made perfect and holy in God’s sight!
By our works? No, by Jesus sacrifice!
When Christ died on the cross for your sins, He purged them with His own blood. He doesn’t need your help, you couldn’t do enough anyways. If you will believe Him and trust His work to save you, He will forgive you and give you eternal life right now, today. You do not receive Christ by taking the Host into your mouth at the Mass, you consciously invite Christ into your life as your only Savior.
Put your name in this text.
1John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
I’ll use my name, you use your own.
I write these things to Doug Rhine who believes in the name of the Son of God so that Doug Rhine may know that Doug Rhine has eternal life.
Won’t you give up on all of your futile self-righteous efforts at earning salvation and place your trust in Jesus Who completed a substitutionary work on your behalf that brings you to God? Forget about the human traditions which have no power to save your soul and trust in Christ and His finished work on Calvary! My friend, do you want the assurance that your sins have been forgiven and your debt has been paid in full? Then stop your DOING as an attempt to gain a right standing with God, you are doing nothing but competing with Jesus as the savior of your soul. Start believing that it is DONE. If you would like to go on record with God that you are trusting in Jesus’ finished, pray this prayer, but only if you mean it.
Dear God, I come to you now, admitting that I am a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin. With Your help, I’m willing to turn from it. I realize that I could never pay the debt I owe. I believe Jesus paid my debt in full and arose from the dead proving that You were satisfied. I receive Him into my heart by faith. I want Him to have control of my life, from this moment on. I ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Jesus said;
John 5:24 I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.
Did you hear God’s word today?
Do you believe God sent Jesus to die for your sins?
