How to Get Saved

well there is hardly anything more important than this what we're talking about today I encounter different issues of theology and apologetics the Christian life but today it's basic basic basic it's how to get saved like how you how you can have salvation through Jesus Christ and this is the kind of thing where you know I could make so many videos and not think to cover this topic by itself but today we're digging right in what I want to do is I want to make sure that you understand clearly and understand well the gospel message at its core what Jesus did for us and how we can receive that how we can actually be born again and have our lives transformed I'm going to describe some of those terms to you because some of that's going to be foreign to a few people I want you to also be able to actually yeah get saved and now you don't need to know everything I'm going to share in this video in order to have salvation so I'm gonna because I'm going to explain things in a bit more detail than what is absolutely the bare minimum of what you have to know there's a link in the description to like a one-minute gospel presentation so that we have that down below there's like a one-minute short brief presentation of the gospel but I want to give you a detailed explanation an understanding of this issue in much greater detail I think that's really important to do and I'm also gonna do this I'm gonna pray with you at the end if you want to pray right now live or as you're watching this video playback later on if you want to pray to receive Christ to be saved you'll understand what you're doing here and then I'm gonna take a moment to lead you in that opportunity to pray and so just hang on that will be toward the end here's the good news of the gospel in brief this is this is a fun topic to do this guy's it's the good news man this is this is what what gets us going and keeps us going it is the good news of God's incredible incredible love for you and for me and for all of us and his provision to give us forgiveness for our sins and an actual relationship with God a real relationship with God that results in eternal life eternal life with him forever and each other and this is through Jesus through faith in Jesus that's us fulfilling our ultimate purpose is what God's created us for this is what we've been designed for we're like made for this kind of relationship and it's achieved through Christ now there's one verse in the Bible in particular that I think just sort of like says it all and so we're gonna be looking at a bunch of Bible verses tonight but I want to start with this one verse because I think Romans chapter 10 verse 9 gives us like a really good simple boom here's the whole story here's a whole story of the gospel and it's some people make this way more complicated than it needs to be Romans 10:9 makes it real simple so let me see if I can get the Bible verse up here for you guys to look at and make it a little bigger Romans 10:9 this is the verse it says right here if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved I mean the simplicity of the gospel is beautiful now it's it's simple but it's one of those things it's almost like one of those I've seen them do these fractals where they zoom in and just you just keep eating more and more detail as you keep zooming in and that's kind of what the gospel is it's this beautifully simple thing but there's all this detail as we zoom in and we're going to zoom in tonight to understand this more more carefully and more accurately like what does it mean to confess with my mouth what does that mean what is it that I'm being saved from and is that really all that I need to do is that really it and and it is if you understand it properly and what happens to me when I do this like what happens when I actually take the step of faith what happens to me so we're going to talk first about the issue of what we are saved from what we're saved from and in order to do this we're going to have an honest conversation about the issue of sin an honest conversation I'm not here I'm not gonna be yelling at you I'm not gonna be you know anything like that and I'm in the same boat as everyone else in fact that's the whole message the the bad news sort of precedes the good news when it comes to the gospel I gave you the good news of salvation but you're like salvation from what well that's the sin issue that's the bad news and we have to understand and comprehend the issue of our sin if we're to understand the cross if we're to understand what believing in Jesus means and why we need forgiveness in the first place now what is sin sometimes Christian knees can get in the way here and these that would be words Christians are using a lot that maybe the world not using the world doesn't usually use the word sin not typically I don't think I think that another way to put it would be mortal wrongdoing mortal wrongdoing and sin mortal wrongdoing would refer to the internal acts of mortal wrong that is that is in my my fantasies they're not just passing thoughts those aren't necessarily sinful behaviors but it's fantasies in my mind harboring things like bitterness or malice or hatred against other people harboring lust those types of things that would be moral wrongdoing internally also there's the external mortal wrongdoing of sins and you can name a list if you want of theft and lying and you gives name violence adultery blah blah blah but it goes on and on on the list it never ends because we are always inventing new sins so it's moral wickedness now the message of the gospel is to say hey before the the cross saves you you must realize that there is simply this condition we are all experiencing where we've all done moral wrongdoing we've all committed sin and this is much more significant than most of us realized so a verse I want to take you to in the Bible because this is you know Jesus his his Gospel message is preserved here in the pages of the Bible and it says right here it is as it is written none is righteous no not one no one understands no one seeks for God all have turned aside together they become worthless no one does good no not even one not even one that there's literally nobody who's out there just doing good being a good good person now this is this hits people strangely because they think but wait no but Mike you're I'm a good person I mean I'm a good person yeah I have issues but I'm a good person when it comes down to it and I'd like to I'd like to help clarify what we mean by the issue of a sin that we're not saying here that every single thing that any any person has ever done has always been totally depraved and wicked and I don't think that that's the message rather we do need to see how bad we actually are though that that's the issue we're not really seeing exactly how bad we are Romans tells us that everyone sin and fall short of the glory of God Romans 3:23 here all of sinned and fall short of the glory of God but people aren't realizing that this there's a connection here between sin and the glory of God that is that my wicked behavior is being compared to something it's been compared to God's glory and it's in the light of God and his holiness and his glory that I realized that my sin is actually a much bigger issue than I previously realized because I was only comparing it to other people around me and that's the mistake we make we often compare our sins to other sinners around us and so we don't feel like we're really all that sinful or all that bad or all that morally compromised though in reality we are so let's talk a little bit about that how big of a deal is it well let me give you a fun analogy hopefully I don't get copyright issues because of this but this is the freeze this video I'm about to share with you is a guy named the freeze and he apparently shows up at Braves games or did I don't know if he still does it or not and he suits up and he gets and he's like a superhero so to speak and he races against a person from the audience from the stands and they bring this guy out and they give this random dude a 200-foot lead and then they let the freeze go and you'll watch the freeze see if if if he can beat the guy when the guy has a 200-foot lead and this to me is a great illustration of us when we forget that we're being compared to God with our sin issues and not just to other sinners so here check this video out yeah I don't have the audio on but you see the guy running they're here he's right there and then there's the freeze okay he's coming he's coming and if you'll notice the guy doesn't realize he's being compared to the freeze he's not aware of this so he thinks he's doing pretty good he looks like a slug to us but he feel like he's doing good he's gonna celebrate it really a little bit here in a second there he goes look how great I am Oh oops it's a eats it I feel bad for that guy he became a parable and he eats it and the message is this it's it's that without realizing that the guy he was being compared to was that good he was celebrating he thought yeah I'm doing great I'm wonderful and this is what we do with our sin I think well I'm not so bad and I compare myself to other people who are also sinners we're also morally compromised and I don't realize that the one who I'm truly be compared to as holy is God and when I'm throwing my hands up I'm a good person if I look over my shoulder and I see God and his holiness and I go WOW Lord you are holy you're not just good you're perfect perfect then I realized that I'm in a lot of trouble and I fall on my face so to speak and that's a healthy thing this is not a bad thing this is a healthy self-awareness this is Christian self-awareness I realize I'm actually a problematic sinner this is this is the issue of sin how big of a deal is it yeah it's a pretty big deal let me give you one not-not-not a video from the internet but let me give you scripture that helps us understand this I think there's an illustration of this with Isaiah now Isaiah was a good person as far as people go so I don't mind using that phrase he was a good guy right but as far as people go but when he encountered God he realized in God's holiness that he had major sin problems and let's read through his experience his vision where he sees God and he realizes oh man I've got major sin issues and this just like one of the major steps we need to take as we're accepting the gospel of Christ and Isaiah 6:1 it says in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple above him stood Seraphim each had six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one call to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and when they talk about God they refer to God as holy holy holy this is three times in a row the same word because they're trying to emphasise how incredibly holy God is absolutely and totally perfect he's morally flawless he's perfect in every motive and in every action in every way he's perfect but look at how that awareness of God's perfection of God's moral goodness how it affects Isaiah and how maybe it should affect you and me it says in the foundations of the threshold thresholds shook at the voice of him who called in the house was filled with smoke and I said and I said woe is me for I am lost for I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts and Isaiah solved not only that he had sin issues but when he saw how holy God was he saw the sin of all the people around him - he's like we're all in so much trouble what can be done what can be done and then God of course has a solution which we're talking about today the solution I'm just you're pointing out the problem now maybe you're already aware of of sin issues in your life because God's given you a conscience according to Romans 1 we see this the God's giving us a conscience and the conscience is there to show us when what we're doing is good or when what we're doing is bad now we can't get a seared conscience or hard conscience but I think that if the Holy Spirit's working in your life right now then you're aware of sin it doesn't I don't have to beat you over the head to tell you about the sin issue it's like you're aware of it naturally you know that there's issues you know that there's problems you know there's things that you you're ashamed of and if you have if you've stood before God it would be like oh oh woe is me so you're already aware of this when you think of God perhaps or sometimes maybe if you try to pray and you become aware of the of the guilt issues that are going on this is this can be a bad thing if you stop there but it can be a wake-up call to help us see that we've got sin issues it's even the Holy Spirit working in our life it may in fact be God reaching out to you to show you that there's these sin problems that he wants to solve but he wants you to be aware of them you've got to know the diagnosis before you understand the cure right in John 16:8 Jesus says that the Holy Spirit actually will convict us of sin righteousness and judgment to come and so we've got these dis awareness of like oh I've seen issues and then there's the result of sins listen let's talk about that for a second here that's like the bad news right the the sin of mankind and the result of this sin that comes upon us the result is a few things it's separation from God relationally that's one of the results isaiah 59:2 God says to Israel your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and so that you know God when we sin we create separation from God now we get this in our relationships like if I sin against my wife if I'm lie to her and I I am cruel to her it's gonna create relational separation not maybe not physical exactly the relational separation and God saying that this is the case with him except the offenses against him are even worse because he's perfectly holy and so it creates a relational separation we see this in the Bible when Adam and Eve get kicked out of the garden this is a picture of the fact that sin they eat of the forbidden fruit sin causes a break in the relationship that's one of the consequences and when you come to Christ when you receive Christ this relationship is fixed it is repaired you enter into a real and healthy and right relationship with God but before Christ Colossians 1 21 tells us that we are alienated from God that were enemies in our minds because of our evil behavior so that every thought of sin every act of sin is is a rejection ultimately of God himself and that's the sad state of mankind there's other consequences to sin and that is what God is judged Scripture teaches us that God is a holy and righteous and just judge common sense gets you to understand this as well because you see it you see inequality and you see wickedness and you see cruelty in the world and you think God you know God's God's got to get that person God's got a deal with that person God's got to come down on that guy like he can't give this just get away with it if God is just he'll deal with that sin the the other side of the coin is but wait a minute but I'm a sinner too but I'm a man of unclean lips I'm a woman of unclean lips like I I'm the one who has sin in my heart sin in my life God's gonna deal with me too and Jesus actually spoke about this a lot I know a lot of people don't want to talk about these issues nowadays but this is this is part of the Gospel message is that there is final judgment where we're given perfect justice for our sin and that is a scary reality Jesus talked about it more than any of the other people in the Bible actually talked about the issue of Hell the issue of judgment and that is the the final future thing that's going to happen we will stand before God and we will deal with our sins and be judged and so it sounds like some pretty bad news but this is only we're only here showing you what it is that Jesus fixes the problem that Jesus is solving the the consequences Jesus is saving us from this is what we're trying to understand here Romans 6:23 puts it this way it says the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord so my weight is like the thing I've earned through sin that would be death and in the Bible there's like it's not just physical death it's like separation from God and judgment and hell that's what it's talking about in those contexts so I have a great need and my goodness just isn't going to do it I mean I'm not good enough like I've already failed the test already walked in intentional and purposeful sin so then we get to the message of Jesus where Jesus he's going to provide forgiveness through his death and resurrection but here's where I think a lot of people already they already get confused because sometimes people have like this sort of kindergarten version of Jesus in their head and as they grow up and become an adult they still keep that kindergarten level of understanding Jesus in their head and this Jesus is a is a mix right it's a mix of of culture cartoons and misunderstandings that you've gathered throughout your life perhaps I'm amazed at how many people don't actually understand why Jesus was crucified like what did it do what his death on the cross accomplished for us what was the purpose behind that why why was this something that according to Jesus it had to happen he says he must be crucified he must and he must rise three days later that this like had to happen so what was the purpose of it well let me give you an illustration from the Old Testament and you don't need to know the Old Testament to understand what I'm gonna share with you cause I'm gonna kind of catch you up I think that what God does in the Old Testament is he frequently draws these long pictures these big pictures using the people of the Old Testament and the historical events happening there he draws pictures that are meant to like be sort of like an allegory of what Jesus ultimately does for us and so here's an example of that and it has to do with the nation of Israel so when the scripture God calls one nation to be like his people to be to be faithful to him and he'll be he'll be faithful to them to be loyal to him and he'll be loyal to them and they have this this this calling to walk in holiness and then God will bless them and this is kind of like our situation right now hey if you live a perfect life great you're gonna be great before God but if you sin there's gonna be trouble so Israel's given the law the law of the Old Testament and this is something as a Christian I'm not under the law but I learned from the law and the law of the Old Testament given to Israel was to show them ultimately that they're failures morally I know that sounds a little counterintuitive sometimes but this is the purpose so God gives him the law and he says if you obey these rules and all these laws I'll bless you if you disobey them I'll curse you then if you read on the Testament you see Israel what do they do they disobey over and over and over and over and over and over again I mean it's just a catalogue of the failures of Israel this the disobedience to God's laws and so they're gonna have separation from God and they're gonna have judgement from God what did I say the consequences of sin are separation and judgment and these are the things that are gonna experience so what does God do there's a solution the solution is the sacrificial system of the Old Testament law and so God says I want to dwell with you but I can't cuz you're wicked people so you'll offer these sacrifices and these sacrifices will be things that are meant to pay for your sin to create fellowship between me and you and to give you forgiveness for your sins and that's the picture of that whole interchange of the two sort of sides of the law the rules of what you have to do to obey and then these sacrifices that are there to pay for the disobedience to create fellowship and connection with God and forgiveness so this is what Jesus is doing Jesus comes Jesus shows up and he's doing this for us not in a picture in the Old Testament he's doing this for it for us in real time in real life and for all of the world see Israel here was just like they were just like a test case in a sense a a dress rehearsal so to speak like this is just meant to be a picture of what Jesus is gonna come and do in reality these animal sacrifices just meant to be a demonstration of the kind of thing that Jesus is going to ultimately do for us so Jesus comes and what does he do he he shows up he lives a perfect sinless life he's the only truly good person he's the freeze in this case he successfully runs the race perfectly he is perfect and then he dies sacrificially and that's the part of the cross I think people don't understand oftentimes is that Jesus on the cross when I say he died for me I mean he died sacrificially like he died in my place just like those sacrifices would be killed in the place of the offering of the offerer of the person bringing them in the Old Testament times Jesus comes and he says I'm going in your place I'm gonna die for you there's a verse where we can get this from Jesus himself and it's in Matthew 26:28 oh and I should say guys I'm gonna take your questions too tonight as I always do at the end of the livestream just put a capital Q in the live chat right now if you have a question for me but but for tonight only I only want questions on this topic so something that relates to something I'm saying in today's video to the topic of how to be saved that's what I want to deal with exclusively in the questions tonight so please put those in the in a live chat so Matthew 26:28 says for this is the blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins this what we what we hear with Jesus right here is he's tying the picture together between the Old Testament law and sacrifices and what he's doing on the cross he's talking in Matthew 26 about how he's gonna go to the cross and die and he describes that his death is going to be him pouring out his blood like as if it were an offering as if it were a sacrifice offering where they would pour the blood out and he says it's in a new covenant or a new like a coming it's kind of like a contract where God's like here's the deal I'm gonna die for your sin and you can be forgiven that's what he's saying it's for the forgiveness of sins to wash us clean of our of our sin and this is what we mean when we talk about the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin that's what we're referring to so he has a vicarious tell me he dies like in my place when he goes to the cross like that sacrifice did in the Old Testament times and then he rises from the dead his resurrection is to show victory the resurrection of Jesus gives us like this this proof that he succeeded in his task right that when I died for you and I want to show you that this victory is real and the eternal life that I'm offering is real so I'm gonna I'm gonna you know give you a sample of that power and victory and that eternal life by rising from the dead so his resurrection is is like a proof of concept that people do nowadays right I want to show you that this is real and that this works that faith in me is real so my resurrection is the assurance of that look I'm alive and alive forevermore and so you when you believe in me you too will be forgiven and alive forevermore so then we get to John 3:16 and we have this verse that everyone knows or at least they think they know it John 3:16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should perish but have eternal life that word so is often misunderstood in this verse what it's what it means is God so loved the world we sometimes think it means he loves us so much and there's there's truth in that like he loves us so much that he gave his own son but what it really means I think here is God so loved the world or God loved the world in this way he loved the world in this way how did he love us he gave us His only Son Jesus is the Son of God who's dying in our place for our sins so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life God's agenda here is a rescue operation for for sinners he's coming to save this the wicked people the woe is me people the people who are are aware of their sinful state and they want forgiveness and they want salvation it's the incredible love of God he sent his son the results of this Hebrews 4:16 are that we can now and this is a bit of like a biblical language that you may not be familiar with but let me explain it says let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need this this whole verse is a beautiful amazing verse and it connects to all the picture of the Old Testament everything but the basic idea is this is because of what Jesus did even though I'm a sinner I can come confidently to God who would who would in other cases judge me but instead I say no Jesus has saved me I can come for your grace which means getting what I don't deserve and I can be washed and clean of my sins forgiven this is why we worship we're grateful this is why Christian worship isn't just like an action that we do because we're supposed to do this at certain times of the week or something like that but it's an action of a heart that says God you loved me I was just down in the dirt center and you loved me I was in rebellion and foolishness and I would rejected you and I did my own thing but you loved me I deserve to pay for my sin but you paid for my sin that's why we worship now this gets into the issue of just who Jesus is in the first place though and there's I don't want to get too much into the details of this but Jesus is he's God with us he's the son of God and so he's like actually God now this in our modern Minds this is what we go wait Jesus is God himself and we trip out on that a little bit in our modern minds but I think that what is more amazing is that he's a human the thing that should cause us to trip out in the context of the cross is that Jesus is a human is that God came and took on a human form the fact that he's human is them is the amazing thing is the thing that blows my mind because what he does when he comes up as a human is he comes to then represent all humans he's like I will be you I will represent all of you and I will pay for your sin all of it on the cross that this is God rescuing us from the punishment of our sin by taking it upon himself that is the remarkable thing about Jesus on the cross when I see Jesus on the cross I can say those nails were were at least metaphorically those nails are meant for me that that that death is ultimately meant for me or coming my way and you got in the way and you took it for me so that I could be forgiven so that I could be forgiven and we get we get to the question of what exactly do you have to do let's go back to that verse Romans 10:9 let's let's bring it back because this is the what do I do to get saved then after hearing all that I think people might actually start to miss the point and complicate things too much it was ten nine if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised from the dead you'll be saved well what do we mean by these things let me start with the second phrase right these two things are supposed to do confesses your mouth and believe in your heart so if I believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead what I'm believing is I'm believing that Jesus was actually risen like there's a just an intellectual a belief I think Jesus was actually risen and some of you were like I'm already there I already yeah I think Jesus rose I think that there's good historical evidence for it or MIT perhaps maybe the Holy Spirit's just working in your life you just know it's true you don't know how you know we just know it's true cuz God's just simply working in your heart in that way and so you just know it's true but there's there's more to this belief because this word believer pistou Oh in the Greek that word it means to trust to entrust this is about relying on so I'm not only knowing that Jesus rose I'm relying upon it that's the step that you need to take now to say okay I know it's true I know it's true but I need to rely on it I need to choose to trust I need to rely upon him to be my salvation and my forgiveness that's the believe in your heart god raised him from the dead thing an intellectual belief as well as a sense of commitment to trust and rely upon the work of Christ that he's done for you but then there's this other part if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and a lot of people will misunderstand this they'll think so often you say the phrase Jesus is Lord now I'm saved I just said it and I think God doesn't really entertain fools all that much if someone wants to go down that route they can but I'm assuming you're not that guy you're not that girl you're not that kind of person what are we saying when we say Jesus is Lord what is this minimal understanding of how to get saved it's simply the confession an honest confession or you mean it that this Jesus person who is the Son of God who died and rose again he's my Lord he's my Lord which means boss is not just a title like with no meaning it means that he's he's my boss he's the king of my life he's the king of of all and I'm yielding to him and so when I trust in him his death and resurrection for salvation and I commit to him as Lord I am saved that's it I just yield to Jesus man I just give in to Jesus that that would be another way to split it I think it's an attitude ultimately of turning from my rebellion against God my sin over to the lordship of God in my life a lordship of Jesus in my life so this is where we get that word repentance repentance and repentance doesn't mean you never fail again you never sin again it rather is just I have a certain way of living apart from God I'm doing my own thing in my life and now I'm turning to say God I'm coming underneath you I'm committed to your life your way of living I believe and I entrust myself to you I give in to your your way of living your way of me living my life I yield to all of it Jesus your Lord that's what you're saying when you say Jesus is Lord that is an attitude of repentance and that's what we need now I want to have a important side conversation about this the idea of works and the place of good works in a Christians life the the good works come after you're saved not before you don't do anything to to appeal to God to make yourself desirable to God you don't do something to get his favor or to get him to accept you you could literally all you need for him to accept you is to just be a sinner who's turning to Jesus that's it in a story but people complicate this and they think they have to do all these good works to be saved and that's just not what the Bible teaches so Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10 which says for by grace you have been saved by grace that means you didn't earn it right because it was by grace and you got saved how well through faith you just believed I got free forgiveness I just I just trusted and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works meaning your works like Jesus has works yeah but not yours you didn't do anything to earn this forgiveness for this grace and there's nothing you can do to get it you just trust him for it so he gets all the credit and it just causes you to love him and worship him so that no one may boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works those things come after the the results of my repentance and turning to Jesus as Lord it it comes afterwards as God works in my life to serve Him and to want even to follow him more and so I do those good things that God prepared beforehand I do them after I'm saved not to get saved but as a result of that salvation there are just countless people who no matter how much times you say it how many times you say they still think they have to be a better person to be saved so let me let me share with you the kind of person Jesus wants to pray this prayer we're gonna pray at the end of the the livestream the kind of person luke 18:9 Jesus tells tells them a parable about some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt why because Jesus can't stand the idea that you think you're righteous because you're not he wants you to live in the real world and to let him give you righteousness not try to be a good person on your own you just aren't so he tells him the story two men went up into the temple to pray once a Pharisee and the other a tax collector and the Pharisees gonna be like the the guy who thinks he's righteous the tax collector was the guy who thinks he's he's a total dirtbag the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus God I thank you that I'm not like Herman extortioners unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector he even points out the wicked tax collector I fast twice a week I give tithes of all that I get but the tax collector standing afar off would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner I tell you this man went to his house justified rather than the other for the one who exalts himself will be humbled and the one who humbles himself will be exalted the idea here is that Jesus says you know who I'm gonna receive it won't be the righteous who aren't even righteous they just think they are because they're not looking honestly their sin issues it'll be those who come humbly and say lord I just need mercy I need grace I'm lowly I'm a sinner I don't deserve it and he's like well then you're gonna get it that's that's what you need let me give you another example in mark 2:17 to show how your good works aren't going to do it but Jesus wants you at your lowest point he wants you when you're aware of your sin and Jesus heard this he said to them those who are well have no need of a physician but those who were sick which here is a is a parable basically he's like hey if you're well you don't need a doctor but if you're sick you do well in the same sense I came out to call it too righteous but sinners if you're a good person you don't need Jesus now you're not a good person but you may not realize it so Jesus came to call sinners to repentance to call us wicked people to come and turn to Christ this is a hugely pivotal issue because you will ultimately reject what Jesus has done for you if you think you're a good person who doesn't need it now I want to be careful how we use the word good person here cuz I will even sometimes say if someone like he's a good guy that's a good person and I don't mean it in the same sense that we're talking about here with salvation what would I mean is like you know compared to other people he's like a good person you know but I don't mean like he's morally perfect and holy and he has no sin to account for before God no in that sense none of us is good none of us so let me talk right before we go to prayer I want to talk about what what this results of our salvation are what we're saved - and it's more than just forgiveness if you're thinking okay so I get forgiven yeah that's part of it but there's a lot more that goes on there so let's talk about some of this first John 3:1 they says see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are this is the results of turning in faith to Jesus Christ you believe in him you trust in him he's you make him Lord you say you know Jesus is Lord and you mean it that when you do this you become a child of God you're adopted as his child you know you belong to him he belongs to you and you are forever in his family like what more of a loving relationship could you have with God than to be his child this is an adoption the Bible has actually a lot of verses that talk about adoption to become children of God that were that were forever in God's family so to speak it's Christianity is very relational it's very much about having a real living and eternal relationship with God and a loving relationship with other human beings and that's kind of the core of it all another thing we get not only adoption we get the indwelling of the holy spirit the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and this is this is where you become and the terms we use are born again we say born again what we mean isn't that you become a little baby again rather but that you were given such a new life as the Holy Spirit God Himself enters into and joins with you that you become like a new person you know first Corinthians tells us if any man is in Christ he is a new creation that we're like we're new there's a new dimension a new thing going on in your life and this happens when you put your faith and trust in Christ it may or may not come with warm fuzzies I wouldn't mean I wouldn't shrink down the work of the Holy Spirit to warm fuzzies we're talking about an actual newness of life that comes from the Holy Spirit here's a verse that talks about this Titus 3:5 it says he saved us not because of our works done done by us and righteousness but but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit he gave us the Holy Spirit this is how he saves us is when you when you confess the Lord Jesus and you just entrust your life to Christ he fills you with his spirit with generates or causes a new life to happen in you and whom the Holy Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that I'm now given the Holy Spirit I have this incredible relationship that happens with God as a result and this is what Christians talk about all the time so much so that other religions have started to copy-cat us right like like I have a relationship with God I've heard I've heard Muslims talk about having a relationship with God even though their theology does it has nothing to do with that right this is Christian teaching and this is the ultimate work of the Holy Spirit so we have adoption we have indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have the forgiveness of our sins we talked about earlier all washed away all your sins taken care of by Jesus Christ we also have eternal life eternal life now in this regard eternal life means living forever with God and with God's people in joy and bliss and it's as good as it gets yeah and this is what God has planned for us and it's not just like an ethereal existence you know scripture says he'll make a new heaven and a new earth and then we will dwell there and perfect righteousness and fellowship this is this is in other words it's bigger than than the kindergarten version of the gospel that a lot of people have in their head but it's not more complicated than that it's so simple right you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved you don't need to know everything I just share with you what you do need to do is make that simple choice that act of will God I'm turning to you and I'm trusting in Christ I believe he died and rose again and I I want you as my Lord you're the one in charge now and you receive the complete forgiveness and grace that God has given you through Christ what I'm gonna do right now is I'm gonna pray I'm gonna lead in prayer I'm gonna lead a prayer that you can you can affirm simply by affirming it either by repeating it out loud or just by firming it in your own mind God knows your mind and your heart he knows if you're agreeing with these words and if you are then it's your prayer too but before I do that I want to ask you do something if you want to receive Christ if you want to be saved you want to turn your heart in your life to Christ here's no.1 ask that you do I want you to pause this video in a second and I want you to have a moment of confession your own private honest personal can to God where you're just open and honest about like you're like the tax collector have mercy on me where he was just honest about his sin issues or you're honest but you know that you're coming to the God who loves you and the God who will forgive you and wash you but you're being honest and open about those sin issues and I want you to have your own prayer where you're asking God for forgiveness where you're trusting in Christ and then I'm gonna lead in a prayer as well because some people may have a hard time with that and I just want to make this as accessible as possible for you so the count of three always you pause the video I care if you're watching live or not pause the video and have your own prayer of trusting in Christ and of repenting of sin admitting your your sin issues before God realizing that you're still gonna struggle later but you'll do it with the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life and he will enable you so go ahead pause the video right now okay I'm assuming that's already been done and what you're gonna do right now is agree with me in prayer and let this be your prayer to receive Christ and you don't have to do this you can simply turn to Christ without having uttered a prayer but it sometimes helps people to have like a step right that like step of faith where they step on the okay here's and here's the moment for me and if you want that moment while here it is you can pray with me now God I admit that I have had many sins and rebellions against you and I've had moral failings and I don't deserve heaven I have judgment coming my way but I believe in Jesus I believe he died for my sin I believe he rose again from the dead and I confess that now he is my lord you are my lord I trust you I thank you for the forgiveness that you've given me through the cross I thank you for the love that you have shown I thank you that I am washed and clean and now fill me with your spirit and let me walk in a new life let me live out the the glory of God and the work of Christ through my life for this world to see the Lord let me be a new person and a new creation and thank you in Jesus name Amen amen amen I want to know if you prayed that prayer with me and if you know it's okay if you don't want to do this but if you'd like to share a comment down below that you did that would just bless me or send me a note on bible thinker don't work on the on the website that will be a blessing yeah god is good okay we have a lot of questions from you guys tonight so I want to try to answer as many of them as I can in the time we've got let me get to the top here okay from Solomon Dahlberg who says is baptism in the spirit the same as being saved or is it extra equipment for ministry or something else entirely I I think that the phrase about being baptized in the spirit there's a sense in which it's just when you get saved you are in dwell the Holy Spirit comes in into you and so I think that that's talking about the moment of salvation but I do think that there's a case in the book of Acts that there are time multiple times where someone is said to have been filled with the spirit and there are some who are filled with the spirit in a unique way in a different way and in a in a greater way then not only indwelt but also sort of this overflowing work of the Holy Spirit in their life so we see this in other places and I don't know if the right term for that is baptism of the Spirit I think that probably refers to salvation itself I think for those who prayed and received Christ just now you were just baptized in the Holy Spirit however aware you're you're you're you are of that yeah that was the case Coquette so methey be says are people who believe the prosperity gospel still saved well that depends Coquet so a lot of people who believe the prosperity gospel aren't really believing in a gospel of prosperity they just have false expectations about what God will do in this life versus eternal life like they're projecting all the eternal blessings into blessings right now and they're mistaken so they're probably disappointed but that doesn't mean they have the wrong gospel they may well have the right gospel sometimes the word prosperity gospel is the wrong term we say that's why I like to say prosperity preachers and not prosperity gospel because they're really not even talking about the gospel they're talking about what kind of prosperity they expect in this life so I'm thankful that you can expect more prosperity in this life than God's promising you without it being a gospel issue now that being said there are at the same time many of these prosperity preachers that do get the gospel wrong and so it does happen but it's not necessary Marton Vivian says Matthew 7:21 through 23 talks about Christ professing charismatic believers is enter the kingdom of heaven salvation or something else how did Jesus not know them was where was their faith I'm really confused by that but let's read the verse itself so Matthew 7 read the verse itself chapter 7 verse 21 not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven 3:23 so on that day many will say to me Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name and he will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness so these are people who profess they in a sense they say with their mouth Jesus is Lord but it's only with their mouth like it's not a sincere proclamation that Jesus is Lord truly he's not the Lord of their life and they're workers of lawlessness and he says he never knew them they've never they were never saved is the idea in that verse so is it talking about charismatic believers I don't think it's about at all about casting out demons or prophesying it's not saying that if you prophesy or cast out demons you are saved or if you prophesy cast out and cast out demons you're not saved I think it's it's saying it's irrelevant it's saying that those kinds of good works are not proving your salvation your actual relationship with Jesus as genuinely saving you and being your Lord and him knowing you relationally that's the salvation Mariano Rajoy says why do you think as we as humans are apt to believe in part or in full that our works will save us I think that that's that's interesting because just about every mean every religion I know of every false religion that I know that I've ever spent any time studying they all teach that you have to have good deeds to ultimately accomplish salvation now they always have grace they have some measure of grace like God has Grace on you but you need to do X Y Z ABC and one two three or else you're not really going to be saved and these actions are earning salvation at least in part and the Bible clearly refused like it's totally free man Jesus just saves you he just wants your heart to turn to him it's just a heart change and then the life change comes as a result of his work in your life but your question is why why are so many of these religions and different people thinking that their good works I think that for those who know that they're lost that their sins have then they're much closer to becoming Christians if they realize that their good works aren't going to do it they're much closer to being Christian in the first place they're more likely to get saved in the long run but those who think that they're good there's it's a common thing proverbs actually talks about it it says that each man will proclaim his own goodness it's normal it's like people always think they're good people i-i've doing domestic violence counseling which I did for years not anymore but I did for years I found this to be the case that all the guys in my DV program who most of our world would look at these guys as being like modern-day tax collectors right like you abused your wife or your kids and I are in a domestic violence program like you're the lowest of the low they would think right well but these guys don't think they're bad guys they think they they like saying things like well she's crazy she's crazy she wants me to hit her I've heard guys say this kind of thing and when you look at them and you think how can they be so wicked and think they're good people and I think God looks at all of humanity and says the same thing we we tend to adjust our expectations of goodness based on whatever life we're living right now how good do I have to be well how good am i that's how good I have to be I'm good Devin Knicely says I have a Mormon friend I've been witnessing too but he doesn't respond to any of the evidence from your videos and shrugs off passages where the Bible differs from Mormon doctrine what can I do find out what he cares about Devin try to ask him say like what what what does matter to you what do you care about does he care is it important to him that Joseph Smith was an accurate prophet is it important to him is it just the testimony of the Spirit that he thinks he thinks the Holy Spirit has showed him Mormonism is true is that the only thing that matters is that the only thing that matters I'd find out what matters to him and then talk about that issue find out where why he is actually believing and then deal with that pick and be my recommendation so use a lot of questions and don't cut him off let him talk just go digging for to figure out what's going on here Damien chummy AK says you've said it maybe Catholics own lack of knowledge that has saved them if they believe Jesus suffered died and rose again for us regardless of what they believe about works wouldn't they be saved they do believe Jesus died suffered died and rose for them I think Damien what I'd recommend is read the book of Galatians because in the book of Galatians they're making an error that is about works it's about thinking that works can save them not even initially they think that they initially come to Jesus by grace but then they think they're gonna have to obey the law to like maintain salvation to be and stay saved they have to do these good works and what what Paul says to the Galatians is that their actual salvation is in question now and that would be my answer here to if I think my good works are saving me or contributing to my salvation in some significant fashion then I have to think that what applied to the Galatians seems to apply to me as well so I'm basing that off scripture I know that's not a popular view but what right do I have to say anything other than what Scripture is actually declaring here James farmer says if Abraham was justified by faith then why Jesus couldn't we just believe like he did and become righteous like Abraham yeah James you you can become right just like Abraham Abraham had accurate belief in what God had already revealed to him right but Abraham wasn't believing in but all or one of the other false gods that he was aware of at the time he was believing in the true God who had revealed himself the same God who's revealed himself in Christ now if Abraham heard the gospel today he of court and I think he has at this point he of course receives it immediately and believes it because he's already believing in the God who proclaimed it to him in the first place in in sort of seed form as we get in the Old Testament and so you could be safe like Abraham you're being saved like Abraham would just be I have even less knowledge but I'm still accurately trusting in God the one who forgives me and washes me so it's that accurate trust in faith by the way it is raining pretty good out here in California right now this is like an uncommon thing we've been getting a lot of rain this this year and last year after a lot of drought years a drought yeah so read romans 4 in context and that's actually what he's saying in Paul's talk about in Romans 4 I have a video I've in my Roman series which I've linked in the description I have my Roman series down there check it out there is actually a a a verse by verse treatment of romans 4 and i encourage you to check it out i think that you'll i think you'll enjoy the series mister Kev's 1664 says what does it mean to believe unto righteousness given first john 3 7 let's look at 1st john yeah i'll give it to you guys to little children let no one deceive you whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous and your question is what does it mean to believe unto righteousness given I'm not sure if I understand the question I will say this is that this has to do in my opinion first John it has to do with when you yes is talking about the one who is saved is doing good works they're walking and righteous living right and they're saved but he's not saying that's how they get saved he's saying it's the result of them being saved so here's how the formula works right here here's me unsaved in my sin lost I believe in trust in Christ and I'm given the Holy Spirit boom I'm a new creation and I start living it out in my life and you see me loving people and walking in more holiness just naturally turning away from sin not that I don't have struggles or setbacks but naturally doing those things and the reason why I'm living that way is because I've been regenerated I've become a child of God and first John he argues he's like hey if you're a child of God you're gonna love like God loves if you're a child of God you're gonna walk in holiness the way God does and doesn't mean you'll be perfect because even in 1st John he talks about what to do when believers sin and admits that we struggle with sin so that's interesting that first John's came up came up last week as well I think it's a challenging book for us to read I think it really is I think he's setting out these to these extremes he doesn't talk about any middle ground although there isn't middle ground or confusing questions to ask about these things but he wants to really establish the extremes so that we understand that becoming a child of God has has actual results in our lives let's see here sweet role thief hmm who is a Skyrim player says is once saved always saved factual according to John 10:28 through 29 let me just I'll look at just this verse and we'll talk about how it weighs in on the issue I'm not here commenting on the whole issue as a whole because I'm not sure what my own opinion is on this topic John 10 20 29 says I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand so Jesus says he's gives us eternal life and no one can take us away from his hand if you if you interpret this really strictly all it is affirming is that no one else can take you out of God's hand no one's able to snatch so no one can take you out of God's hand this doesn't defer more than that it doesn't affirm you cannot ever turn away from Christ willingly or something like that it just doesn't I'm not saying it gives you the ability to do that either I'm just saying it doesn't talk about that so this verse by itself would say that no one else can threaten your salvation that would be that would be the the interpretation I would have for this passage I mean I'm not affirming you can lose your salvation here I'm just talking about that one passage léa léa who leaned hoots says hey Pastor Mike his salvation an instantaneous event or is it a process along those lines how would you teach us to do evangelism I'm not the guru of evangelism so when it comes to that issue I would say just experiment and do more and more evangelism I mean evangelism is encountering real people with a variety of scenarios and situations and you're trying to point them to the goodness of Christ you may do this through your life examples you may do this through your your just preaching to them just telling them the truth you might do it through with apologetics where you're like defending why they why they should believe these things to be true in the first place you might do it through relationship where you come alongside I think there's a massive variety of ways to do it and I'm not I'm not the guru of it but I would say I'd rather have you doing it sloppy than not doing it at all and just going for it I think that's the thing is just getting us to just go for it now your other question was is salvation an instantaneous event or is it a process and it's kind of like all of the above and so we are in the Bible that uses the verbs in different ways it says we are saved like past tense we we've already been saved it says that we're being saved and it says that we will be saved and it uses all three of those terms and I think that the instantaneous part is that I'm given new life by the Holy Spirit I am washed clean of all my sin and I am given brought into a position with God positionally I'm in Christ I I know God I'm saved but I'm still in this world where I still have sin issues that I fight with the flesh and I deal with all these issues and in that I'm being saved God is preserving me from the impact of the world around me I need to I need to come alongside this with with following him and staying close to him being the word that kind of thing and and and being obedient in my life devoting my life to Christ so I'm like being saved in the process of God working in my life and sanctifying me and all that kind of thing and then eventually I will be saved that was when Jesus returns he's gonna set up his kingdom on earth and we're gonna enter into the fullness of all that's been promised to us then we'll have proper prosperity preaching because there will be all prosperity all the time and that'll be the appropriate time for it and then we're looking at sort of my relationship with God instantaneous salvation my my process as I go through this life God is preserving me and he's and he's helping me and he's saving me so to speak in a different way and then eventually I enter into eternal life with Christ in which case it's like a complete Mouse Crusader has a question according to Matthew 7:21 Jesus says those who do the will of my father shall be saved I know salvation is by grace but what does it mean to do God's will and will you go to hell if you don't do something specific if God commanded you to do something before I answer this question I want to point out those of you who you just you just are putting your faith in Christ right now and your what do I do now you really do need to get involved in like a local fellowship a local church that's important they're not gonna be perfect and it's okay to just go somewhere and try to figure things out as you go obviously at the moment no one's even capilla Church at the Mona talking long term you need to be involved in fellowship if you can't go to fellowships right now because restrictions which is understandable my fellowship is not meeting at the moment due to coronavirus stuff that's totally fine I get that but it but start surrounding yourself with Christians in your life start connecting with believers you really need to be around other believers they will help build you up and strengthen you in your faith and your walk with God and in this relationship you have now and also in though be in the word I've put down in the video description a video called the Bible for beginners and I think that one meets people who have little to no biblical knowledge and it gives them a lot of biblical knowledge and like a one teaching it's a ton of content in there help you understand the Bible though the whole thing a lot better even believers who read the Bible a lot might really benefit from that I think there's a lot of stuff in there for them too then I also have a series going through the entire book of Romans and a series going through the book of Mark which I'm still in the middle of right now those are things I recommend you check out and they're in the video description now the thing here is Jesus says do my will he says if you don't let's read the verse Matthew 7:21 okay so not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven and so it all I take this to mean is it's not an empty declaration Jesus is Lord like it's empty this is where God will not entertain mockers right mockers who say they're lying Jesus is all but it's not really Lord he's like no no you have to actually really make Jesus your Lord that's like a legit thing you got to do but if you asked like what is the will of God there's this first I want to take you guys to John 6:29 they alright um then they said to him what must we do to be doing the works of God jesus answered them this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent that's the work that God wants you to do his belief the ultimate work is trusting and entrusting yourself to Christ that's the idea I hope that that answers that question God's God's will for you that with the will you must do is to trust in Christ and then out of that flows the work of God in your life of obedience to Christ jadon Havener says hey Mike many like Steven Anderson teach that saying to repent of your sins isn't biblical in his works paste what's your opinion on that I have a whole video on that I think it was just called like I think that actually the the thumbnail says like must preach repent so if you just type mike winger and repentance in the search engine you should be able to get up in my video that deals with that and as you with in great detail my short answer is this is that jesus preached repentance and repentance is absolutely part of the gospel i think the confusion is when people think repentance means living perfectly that that would be works right repentance isn't even a work it's an attitude change it's a heart change returning from sin to God in my heart that's the attitude of repentance the works that flow from that and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life that's not repentance Stephen Anderson may I say is it is a I really highly highly recommend you guys know buddy click on his videos nobody watch his stuff he has so much really weird weird weird and nutty things that he says that I'm not trying to insult the guy of course obviously this is insulting to him but I believe it's just absolutely true here's a teacher you do not want to listen to you don't want influence in you or your family you will think he solid cuz in some places you're like man that was so good man that was so good until he comes out with these wacky weird things about King James only ISM which is which is not healthy or or true creates tons of division in the body of Christ where he's weird stuff about repentance and his I have a there's a whole flock of his followers who anyway they're problematic I'll put it that funny so yeah I would I don't think Jaden that it would be wise at all to listen to Steven Anderson I think he's on a list of teachers I recommend everyone completely and utterly ignore Andrew Hearst says how he central is believing in the deity of Christ and the Trinity to salvation can you believe God raised Jesus from the dead without believing Jesus is God I want to be careful how I answer this I would say that you can you can be ignorant of the Trinity and be saved but it's something else to deny the Trinity so I don't think that you have to understand the Trinity the try that God is three persons and one being I don't I don't think if they understand that in order to be saved but that is true about God and if you're denying that truth about God's very nature and character it does make me question whether or not a person is really safe when they're overtly and loudly you know proclaiming things that are not true about the God's very nature or about Christ and when you say God is not God this is like the reverse of idolatry idolatry is taking something that's not God and pretending it's God but what is this when you take God and you say he's not God that's pretty serious it's the whatever the reverse of idolatry is so yeah being ignorant is one thing but actually actively affirming lies about Jesus's very nature would sound to me like you're not really saying Jesus as Lord like when you say Jesus is Lord you have to have the actual real Jesus it's like you got to fake Jesus you have a false version of Jesus so this wouldn't even be affirming you know I trust that Jesus died for me but she described Jesus as someone who he totally isn't then who are you really believing in maybe that's not the way to look at Kenny kada says what if someone believed Christianity was true but decided that they didn't deserve or want mercy and weren't worthy of being with God forever they believed it but they don't deserve mercy okay so first off let me say every every Christian thinks they don't deserve mercy that's the nature of mercy in fact if you deserve it it's not Mercy Mercy is not getting what you deserve right if I deserve salvation it's not mercy it's not grace I've earned it I deserve it so that's a healthy thing to go I don't deserve this I don't I I don't I haven't earned it I'm just being given freely the salvation of God that's a healthy healthy place to be in but coupled out with this they don't want mercy because they think they're not worthy of being with God forever so in other words this person is saying either I want salvation by being a good person where I'm not even being saved it's not even salvation I just want to earn eternal life by being a good person if I can't earn it I don't even want it I think that there was a serious pride problem going on with that individual most likely I mean that sounds like a price it sounds like his humility but it's not I think it's actually pride in that this in the disguise of humility Lord you know if I have to have mercy from you I reject your mercy I'm here's kind of what is saying I'm too good for God's mercy I'm too high and mighty to bow down and receive the kindness and mercy of God I think it's a pride issue and I I think I would just tell the person that I think you have as a major pride issue you think you're too good you're like a person who's who won't ask his neighbor for eggs instead you'll you'll you'll act like you have all the food you need you'll go home close your door and let your children starve because you're too proud to accept help from others I think that that's what that comes down to Michael Francisco says when I was baptized I didn't literally say the words Jesus as Lord but they asked me something along those lines and I agreed does that count absolutely the Lord knows your heart and so that's why the the same Jesus is Lord with your lips it doesn't apply totally literally in every situation so for instance let's say that somebody's a mute they're mute they can't speak well can they be saved they can't say Jesus is Lord with their mouths they can't say well I know obviously God knows he knows what he's trying to tell us to do which is to have that heart attitude where it's like Jesus you're my lord that's the idea and it's good and healthy and important to say it with your mouth as well but it's not like essential where you have to do that with your lips to be saved I honestly guys no one led me in a prayer when I got saved I heard the gospel and I believed it I received it I did I did repent but I didn't I wasn't really super aware of all those kinds of things because I had no one I wasn't churched and I didn't have anybody around me to tell me about all that kind of stuff and so it was just my natural reaction of the word of the Holy Spirit in my life and it was years later where I'm like well I didn't someone lead me in a prayer am I still saved and I think the answer is absolutely someone leading inter pares not required what what's required is the actual response of a living person saying God I'm responding to this Gospel message I receive Christ that's that that's the thing I see Jacob duncan says I grew up in church and was baptized when I was in elementary school as a result of being saved how can I be sure that I was truly born again is it okay for me to have these doubts I think that people who were baptized pretty young often go through this trouble they're like gosh was I why did I get baptized what was really going on and here I think parents have to have a struggle with what point do they encourage their kids to get baptized at what point do they give them this this moment of baptism and I think that that's a legitimate thing to wonder about yeah Jacob your baptism didn't save you and your lack of baptism doesn't keep you from being saved baptism is not necessary for salvation it's a super important thing that we do to say publicly I'm a follower of Christ I believe in Jesus I'm proclaiming it right with my life I'm getting baptized this represents his death and resurrection and me dying and rising with him super super important to do it but it's not like am I saved or not saved based upon whether I'm baptized or not baptized I have video content on that as well the whole debate on baptism that was four hours long that's used but Mike when your baptism debate you'll probably find it so yeah the real question is this right now Jacob are you trusting Christ for your salvation you believe that he died and rose again you-you-you confess Jesus as Lord honestly sincerely and if your answer is yes then sir you're saved now live out not in the confidence of your what you've done to be saved but in the confidence of what Jesus has done to save you walk in that Combe Bauman's sucked musaka kumoemon sucka says what does it mean to believe in Jesus and how does one do it this this is a great question kuhmo to believe in Jesus is is I considered having two pieces that helps me process this one is an intellectual like I just affirm that something's true like Jesus he really is the Son of God he really did die on the cross for my sin he did rise from the dead like I just I believe those things are true but it's more than that right because I'm not just believing things about Jesus I'm believing in him and so I went I'm actually having a relational trust in Jesus I trust him you you do this when you get married when you get married you choose to trust this person with the rest of your life because you were bound together so I'm believing in them in a whole different way and with Jesus I'm believing in him in a sense of relational trust I'm relying upon him I'm choosing to trust in his forgiveness of my sin his love for me his provision for my salvation and his promises for my eternal life as well as the fact that he died and rose again and that he is the son of God JB bleep says hey I'm struggling with assurance of salvation I just doubt if I'm safe sometimes could you talk about this yeah I think that would be probably a whole video sometime I wish I should probably do on this topic JB ask yourself this are you struggling for reasons you don't understand like I'm worried I'm not saved and if I asked you why you would be like I don't know I'm not exactly sure if that's the situation you don't you can't put your finger on it then I just take that as being this is pure emotional doubt or psychological doubt psychological fears this has nothing to do with reality because you can't even figure out why you're feeling that way so let it go trust in Christ this is your choice of trust he died for you he rose again what advice here's a good thought what advice would you give to someone else who's experienced in your same struggle now give yourself that advice now the the other side is that if you're struggling because you feel like you have like sin issues that you're struggling with that you're making you feel like you're not really saved first thing I would say is this is that I don't believe in sinless perfectionism Christians aren't perfectly and perfect and without sin in no way shape or form that's not the case we are different because of Christ and our lives do change and we do grow in Christ but that doesn't mean we can't be caught up in major sin issues but if you're caught up in such major sin that it makes you wonder if you're genuine and your commitment to Christ that might not be such an unhealthy thing and the solution is for you to deal with that sin and to trust in Christ it's the same solution every time turn to Jesus turn to Jesus turn to Jesus and trust in him for forgiveness Brande med vet says we are sinners as Christians do we go in front of God for judgment or no because of Jesus we do in first Corinthians I think chapter 2 talks about it is that I might have the book and chapter wrong but it's in either first or second Corinthians and it talks about this how we stand before God and there is a type of judgment for Christians but the judgment for Christians is different than the judgment for non-christians and I actually have a video on this it's like a Judgment Day for Christians I think is either on the thumbnail or the title so if you type that you might find it like when your Judgment Day for Christians and you should see it's a shorter clip that deals with this issue of how we're judged we're not judged to see if what worthy for salvation we're actually God examines the works we've done it in his name to reward us with blessings not salvation but with just blessings treasures of some kind for the things that we did in his name like Jesus said if you give someone a cup of cold water you'll have a great reward if you did it in his name so that's the kind of judgment we're under it's not to see if we're saved it's rather for reward Michael Bakewell says do we have to keep being saved as we still sin even after believing in Jesus and asking to be saved I don't think so I don't think you're like losing your salvation getting it back over and over again this is this is in Catholic teaching this is what what happens like if you miss Mass you you don't go that's it that's considered a mortal sin like you you've lost your salvation if you didn't show up on Sunday and and partake of the communion in the Eucharist and stuff and so then that would be a Catholic view you're losing and gaining salvation all the time all the time and if you died in that sort of mortal sin state like if you you you skipped Mass and then later that day got hit by a bus and you haven't had a chance to confess and all this then you're you're doomed to hell ultimately that's one scenario now this is this is not the case thank God but our sin does cause relational issues in my walk with God just like with my marriage me and my wife if we're having sin issues between each other if I'm sending against her it hurts my really ship with her but it doesn't undo our marriage and it's the same sense for Christians I think when Christians and we hurt our relationship with God but it doesn't undo it completely we don't lose our salvation because of those things all right fill agape has a question thank you for answering my question last time about Ephesians 2:8 oh you're welcome welcome Phil I have a follow-up question regard to salvation does saving faith originate within ourselves is someone who's spiritually dead capable of that so this is about issues of between Calvinism arminianism and Calvin's Calvinists are saved or minions are saved and the in-betweener people like myself are saved this is not a Salvation issue thank God I think that the Holy Spirit works in us to help lead us towards faith but I think faith is a choice that we make I think that that seems to be clear in Scripture you're making a decision to have faith otherwise it doesn't really make sense where Jesus says things like have faith or believe in me he tells the disciples believe in me now obviously he's helping them by being present by revealing things to them whatever the work of the Holy Spirit is in their life he's helping them but the choice is theirs to make so all I would say about faith is while it's in many ways a work of God in my life I have a decision to make whether or not I will choose to put faith in Christ that's it is a choice I actually make and I think that seems to be clear just based on the commands to have faith you're commanded to have faith have faith have faith and to choose belief Gail forger says is faith of work is the faith to believe a gift and Gail I know exactly where you're coming from I'm not gonna try and get into this whole detail in detail this whole thing but I have a video called why I think Calvinism is unbiblical that's the video that you want to watch that talks about this issue in great detail is faith the gift is faith is it a work if I'm believing in if I choose faith is that a work and the short answer though if you don't want to watch that video the short answer is no faith is not a work that's the whole nature of faith the nature of faith is you're just believing like I trust you that's not a work that's just it's something you do but it's not a work in the sense of meriting anything all right we're running low on time here but I'm gonna try and get through a few of these real quickly for you guys so Darren peep Isles here's our speed round are there any major apologists that you can think of that don't believe once saved always saved Michael Brown a lot of them are on the fence like I think I heard Frank Troy talk about it he seemed like he was on the fence and I actually don't know what the beliefs are of most apologists on this topic I think William Lane Craig I think he does not believe once saved always saved I think he thinks you can not that you're gonna send your way out of the kingdom but rather that you can choose to reject Christ it's a willful choice I turn away from the gospel of Christ intentionally so no one would be like have I done this on accident like it wouldn't be the thing but there's just you ask there's some examples Montana Padilla says what is the cost of salvation well all these things I'm turning from right I'm turning from sin to God so I'm gonna have to give up the pleasures of sin I have to give up the rebellion and rebellious ways against God I may be persecuted I may lose friendships I may even lose my life as a result of turning and following Christ but that cost as big as it is is nothing nothing compared to what I gained in Christ Jesus says what is it worth a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul so yeah that would be the potential cost of salvation but the cost everyone has to pay is turning from my sinful desires and saying I want to die to that I want that part of me to die I want to live unto God and that is that is the big cost everyone has to pay take up your cross Tim jaws why would God make us only for us to be sinners separated from him at birth and the only way to be in union with him in this is this one specific way which is mote which most people will not believe in well Tim I want to answer partially by saying first this there's it's not really my job to be honest to be able to answer why God would do one thing versus another like it's it's a good question I'm interested in the question but it's a wrong expectation if you think that we can like because I'm a Christian or a pastor because I make videos about God that I can answer every question about God why did God make it so that dogs had tail and and and not longer noses like I don't know why he did things the way he did in many cases and there's just some measure of humility that's healthy there for us to realize it's okay to not understand why God does something okay the the more important thing is did God do that like did God actually make it so that Jesus is the only way and the answer I think there is yes I do think there's hope for those who've never heard the gospel I have a video on that what about those who never hear the gospel that's the title of that video if you're interested but why why would God make us sinners at birth and the only way for union is through Jesus I think it has to do with a lot of things and only some of them are probably aware of but some of them would be the reality that mankind now has a freewill choice to make we all actually have to choose whether we want God or not so that when I enter into a relationship with God is it is not something forced upon me by nature of my birth but it is a relationship chosen by love chosen by acceptance of his kindness towards me and so it's available to all it's freely available and there is hope for those who've never heard the gospel that like I said I got a video on that so I think it has to do with establishing true and freely loving relationships and I think we all recognize that that's a really valuable thing that that one Christian says I want to be saved and changed through Christ sometimes I feel like I'm not saved what can I do to better follow Christ into to know I'm saved I feel like I don't understand the severity of Hell well that's okay if you don't understand the severity of Hell I probably don't either it's not our job to just meditate on that stuff all day long not I mean we need to understand that it's severe but but do I fully understand the severity of Hell or the glory of heaven I probably don't fully understand either to be honest I do want to be aware of them though but you said sometimes I feel like I'm not saved well it looks like you might be and I'm just gonna guess that you might be trying to measure your salvation based on how you feel now this is important there's there's that question people ask you when you have a birthday right well I just turned 52 I just turned 20 21 I just turned 19 whatever it is and they come to you and they say and they still ask it do you feel any different and it's funny cuz we're like no like it's one day like I don't really feel any different and none of us thinks if I don't feel like I'm 21 then I must not be 21 and I've had plenty of times where I don't feel like I'm this age or that age but I'm still that age whether I feel like it or not and especially to get older people ask me how older and you give the wrong number because you just don't you don't pay attention anymore but it doesn't change anything about the objective fact that you are that thing or that age in the same sense if you're a Christian and you have put your trust in faith in Christ he has saved you even if you're sitting there going do I feel saved do I feel safe well what do you think feeling safe feels like do you think it feels like reading the Bible and having a really good moment or having a wonderful time of worship I've had those moments and I felt like I was saved at that moment but not at another I just want to say don't don't trust in your feelings about your salvation trust in the death and resurrection of Christ trust in the death and resurrection of Christ you will not find much to trust in if you're relying on your feelings and that'll affect marriage and will affect all sorts of things in life you'll be you'll be you have a hard time sticking to things for what it's worth that I hope I'm helping you out here as I share these things what can you do to better follow Christ and and know that you're saved I think the knowing you're saved come back comes back to the original gospel message not by works by his incredible grace you're just trusting in him and you're like Jesus your Lord now the better follow Christ thing is going to be about putting off sinful behaviors and taking on seeking first God's kingdom with your life doing things that are for God in your life and and whatever you are doing your life doing it for God there's a short answer I hope you'll meditate on what I just said there Benjamin Handelman hey Ben says can you discuss how you see Galatians 5:6 - the definition of faith in relation to salvation all right all right we're gonna try and do this we're about to call it quits here pretty soon I think I don't know going a lot longer than I originally planned but we had so many questions tonight so Galatians 5:6 says I'll put it up for you guys to you it comes for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love how does it account how does it work for salvation I don't think that he's okay so let me just guess you're saying okay maybe the phrase faith working through love means that what gets me saved is faith working through love but that's not what he's talking about in this passage I don't think I think he's saying that the thing that God wants you to do is in your faith in Christ now go out there and love and serve others and that counts like God cares about that but as far as whether you're circumcised or not circumcised God doesn't care it doesn't matter I think that that would be the idea so the Galatians are dealing with two issues one is they want they want to obey the law to be saved and the other is they think obedience to the law is also important to God for sanctification and in Galatians he's dealing with both of those problems so I think verse 6 probably deals more with the sanctification issue or pleasing God in my daily life it's not about being circumcised or obeying the Old Testament law in its all its particulars it's rather about the faith I have working through love I hope that helps Ben so I don't think it relates to how we're saved first verse 25 question 29 Jennifer Lynn Smith says what to say to someone who honestly thinks they've been a good person their whole life and doesn't understand their own sin um I like to go with their own conscience so you might ask them have you ever done anything that you knew was wrong now if they say no then I don't know what else you can do for them except to say you're full of baloney right like of course you've done things that you knew were wrong right and if they say I'm a good person I'll then just ask them say well then do you mind telling me all the stuff you've done that you knew was wrong and of course they're not going to want to tell you and you don't really wanna hear it anyway I think you're just asking a question like that to help them see that they're not only aware of sin but they're ashamed of it as well God's given us a conscience that helps us to be aware of those things so if they think there have been a good person their whole life and they don't understand their own sin with what they what they know of God in Romans 1 it says that God gave and in Romans 2 that God has given the conscience to mankind in order for us to become aware of sin so that we can realize we've fallen short so we can know that we need Jesus so use her conscience use this person's conscience or his Andrew Bashan hey Mike first Corinthians 6:9 says that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom that kind of frightens me and I was wondering if I still fall victim to sin every now and then am I still saved my short answer lightning round yes you're still safer scrin the--and 6:9 is talking about the those who are living rebelling they haven't made that decision to make Jesus Lord to trust in Christ they're living rebellious lives against the will of God they're not going to be saved there's always the chance that someone says Jesus was Allah with their mouth but they're still living that lifestyle indicating that perhaps they're never they never were saved it was empty proclamation of faith and that may be the case for some people and I think that first Corinthians is getting us at that warning David fester in the book of Acts the Apostles laid hands on people for them to receive the Holy Spirit how does this work today well they did lay hands on people and I think it had to do was because they were the apostles now you kin lay hands on someone but they didn't hold him before I answer that second part the Apostles didn't always do this the Holy Spirit fell upon Cornelius and all these Gentiles and the Apostles didn't lay hands on them at all until afterwards so there's times where the Holy Spirit's just you know in Jesus when he gave the Holy Spirit to the disciples in the end of John he just breathes on them they receive the Holy Spirit so this laying on of hands isn't necessary but it was important because it shows that the Apostles are the ones carrying the first gospel message and it's asurs hey guys the message these guys are sharing that's the real gospel I want you to stick to that and never change it that would be the importance of the Apostles in that scenario so yeah so then I don't think that we I think we can do that lay hands on people I don't think it's required Gregory Nicholas so Pastor Mike what about hidden sins we don't see that I don't confess how can I answer that biblically for someone you're always going to have stuff that you're not even aware of that was sinful and all you can do is you can come to God and say Lord for everything I'm aware of I confess to you and everything else I'm you know my weakness and yours honest with the Lord about it and what else can you do God knows and God meets you right there I don't think any of us have ever confessed every sin and nor will we because even aware god knows so you come with that awareness of general sin that you need to take to God now the Old Testament law talked about the people of Israel that if they're committing a sin that they suddenly they don't know is a sin and they later realize it's a sin it's like now they're gonna come and they're gonna deal with it at the temple with sacrifice so the idea is this if you ever become aware of some sin that's been hanging out in your life for a while and you're suddenly aware of it you're like oh my goodness I can't believe then you come to God you deal with it Jeff Ross says if you completely have faith in God and believe in him wholeheartedly but a certain sin constantly has been a vise in your life for decades does it affect salvation Jeff that's it here's the reason why this is challenging because I think there are Christians I'm confident there are Christians who will say that's me and I would say you are still saved but there are also probably other people who are simply not even Christian and they want forgiveness but they've never committed their lives to Christ truly and they're like that's me and I want to feel better about me staying in my sin and so there comes this like gray area where I don't really know how to counsel people well I want to say the grace of God covers you trust in Christ your sinlessness does not you know create or maintain your salvation but then there's also another side where I want to say but there is some point at which a person says have I really committed to Christ like is this genuine that I really mean it and for that person I say the solution is not to beat yourself up and die on this hill of your sin is to repent and trust in Christ and be forgiven that's either way the solution is the same you turn to Christ deal with that sin issue yeah but you will struggle every Christian I know struggles with sin today and they're gonna stroll in a decade and in two decades in three decades so that that in and of itself is not indicating you're not saved I don't think Miguel pots mm-hmm says it we're almost done here guys for reals this time what would be the quick and easy way to respond when a non believing friend ask me if God chooses who is saved it would be it would be to say okay there's actually you wanted a quick easy response I want to give you like the five minute lowdown to say God chose to tell you to choose him like this is a choice that he says you need to make that was his decision that you have a choice to make and if he's doing this to like like an immature child well you chose it'll be shaved and it wouldn't be shaved and then then they're they're confused he's confused I'm not a Calvinist though so I don't have to debate about that as much as they would but God chose for you to make a choice about salvation Darren peepal says question what's the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation well he before were saved he convicts us of sin and righteousness and judgment to come so he makes us aware of our need for Jesus he also can just help affirm to us and some awareness of the truth of Christ when we put our faith in Christ he indwells us he regenerates us makes us a new person and then he dwells within us empowering us to serve and follow Christ to live out the life of Christ in other words to be to be Christians and live like a Christian to say no to sin and to walk in the spirit so the so the goodness of a Christians life love joy peace patience and gentleness faithfulness goodness self-control that's the fruit of the Spirit in our life also he helps us in our prayers and helps us in our communication and fellowship with God so and he enables us with gifts and the ability to serve God as well Donald J says I love you Mike when I listen to you teach and preach my spirits always lifted God's using you for great things Donald I'm I'm humbled and I'm not worthy to be used in in big ways but God is glorified in using broken and flawed people to accomplish wonderful things and I'm humbled mmm so thank you for the encouragement Cassie says if we become saved for years and never move from milk to solid foods are we still saved I think so I just think that we're not producing much fruit as far as for you know rewards sorry I'm stumbling over my words here as far as getting rewards in our in our future things that you can you can say God look what I did for you this was for you and you can glorify Him with it you're not doing much in that regard and I have some teaching online where I talk about that but I can't remember what video it's in yeah the idea of a carnal Christian Michael Francisco last question when I studied the Bible I wasn't allowed to be baptized because they felt I hadn't fully repented or submitted since I didn't break up with my boyfriend like they suggested is this biblical that's tough Michael that's really tough for me to answer because I don't know you and I don't know your situation well and so I mean it could be that not being willing to deal with a sin issue in your life that that's revealing that you're not really submitting to the lordship of Christ that's possible it's also possible that this was just your progressively becoming more and more christ-like over time and they should just set that aside and have you baptized as you confess but it's a little difficult to come to Jesus and say you're my Lord but here's that here's the area of my life you can't have it I'm gonna do whatever I want with it I would hesitate to when i baptize people I would ask them you know like do you turn from a life of sin to a life of following Christ and and if they say only a little bit well then I probably would stop de Bab to them so I I think we have to wrestle with those things so guys I'm gonna do another video tomorrow and the plan is the plan God willing is is 1 p.m. with Natasha crane we're gonna talk about parenting your kids as Christians but in particular a book resource hold on right here talking to your kids about Jesus we're gonna talk about her book Natasha crane brilliant and really really helpful work for raising your kids in Christ and I think this is the kind of thing where you if you're a parent I want you to be there I hope that you'll be there or that you'll watch the replay later so that's tomorrow at 1 p.m. and yeah that's about it Lord bless you guys I hope this has been a help and a blessing to you and maybe maybe tonight you got saved maybe tonight you've been you've been born-again regenerated by the Holy Spirit you've begun your walk with Christ as part of the family of God then we rejoice with you and we're your family too and we praise God so have a good one

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 61,425

Rating: 4.8827114 out of 5

Keywords: how to get saved, how to be saved, how to become a Christian, how to have your sins forgiven, the gospel, what is the gospel, the gospel message, what do I need to know to be saved, salvation, forgiveness, gospel

Id: ajWdkuvrT6s

Length: 90min 5sec (5405 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020