How to be Saved. First, the bad news...

HOW TO BE SAVED:

    Jesus Christ said the following important words in John 3-8:

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

To go to heaven, you MUST be born again!   So, are you saved?  Have you been born again by the Spirit of God?  If not, why not read the following verses to see what God says about how to be saved:

THE BAD NEWS

                Psalm 9:17: "The wicked shall be turned into Hell." 

Whether you believe in Hell or not, it is still true. 

That's why you must be saved. 

Saved from what? 

Saved from HELL! 

       Revelation 20:15  "...whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE." 

Will you be one of those cast into the LAKE OF FIRE? You don't have to be. 

Jesus Christ can save you. 

But you must first realize that you are lost.

    Luke 12:5 says, "But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him." 

Do you fear death?  Are you afraid of dying?   Are you afraid of God?

The Bible says that death will pass upon all of us.  Hebrews 9:27 says, "...it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." 

Are you prepared for death?  How about JUDGMENT?

According to the Bible, you will someday stand before God and be judged.  

    Romans 14:12 dogmatically states: "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." 

Are you ready to give account to God almighty for your wickedness?

    Matthew 12:36 tells us "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." 

How many bad words have you used lately, how many dirty jokes, how many cuss words?

    Revelation 20:12-13 describes the judgment thusly, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God...and they were JUDGED every man according to their WORKS."

How will you fare in that great and dreadful day? 

    2 Peter 2:9 tells us "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be PUNISHED." 

                The punishment is ETERNAL SUFFERING in HELL.  But why would God allow man to suffer in Hell?  The answer is simple.  The Bible tells us that we are all unjust sinners. 

            Romans 3:23 tells us:  "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  

            And Romans 3:12 states, "They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."

John 3:18-19 tells us our status:  

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

                According to the Bible, every lost person on the face of the earth is a sinner bound for hell.  SIN is utter and complete rebellion against God.  This is either by doing what God told us not to do (the "Thou Shalt Not's), or not doing what God told us to do (not keeping his commandments).  Because of Sin, man has offended God and separated himself from Him.  This is why he cannot enter into eternal life.  Man must first be saved.  But to be saved, he must FIRST realize he's LOST, and on his way to hell. 

    How about you?  Have you realized you are lost?

THE GOOD NEWS

Though man has offended God and is bound for hell at death, God loved him enough to give him a way to heaven, if he's willing to take it.  That way is through the Lord Jesus Christ!  The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus is "God manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).  In other words, God himself came down to the earth, was born of a virgin, and walked among us.  But the most wonderful thing is that he gave his life for us in our place for our sins. 

      1 Timothy 1:15 tells us "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 

      Hebrews 7:25 states of Jesus, "...he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

In the Old Testament, when a man sinned, God demanded a blood sacrifice.  So, to obtain forgiveness, man had to sacrifice a lamb to God, for

       Hebrews 9:22 tells us, "...without shedding of blood is no remission." 

God will not and cannot forgive man based on his goodness.  Man must have a blood sacrifice, something or someone dying in his place for his sins. 

Today our sacrifice is Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins! 

When he came, John the Baptist called him, "...the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" 

Jesus came to die for the sins of the whole world!  He was our lamb, or sacrifice for our sins.  

        1 John 4:10 says "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 

What great love God showed in giving us his son to die for us! 

        John 3:16 states:  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

God gave us Jesus so that we could have everlasting life! 

Even Jesus himself stated in

        John 6:47, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life."  

       John 11:25-26,   Jesus said ... I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.     

Clearly, salvation, or eternal life, is only through Jesus Christ!

The Gospel, or Good News of Christ's blood sacrifice, is found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.  There it states:

            "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are SAVED, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

   The Good News is that you, too, can be SAVED. 

    How?  By FAITH in the blood atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ! 

            In Ephesians 2:8,9 the apostle Paul says, "For by GRACE are ye SAVED through FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  Not of works, lest any man should boast."

     Salvation cannot be earned by your WORKS, or what you do, but rather by FAITH.  But the question arises:  Faith in What? 

    The answer is simple – by faith in the shed blood and finished work of Christ Jesus on the cross when He died in your place for your sins!

                Romans 3:25-28 tell us: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law."

           To be saved, a person must TRUST THE BLOOD of Jesus Christ, which He shed at the cross, as sufficient to SAVE his SOUL.  God will not accept our works, he will only accept those who receive his gift of love by faith.  God is the JUSTIFIER, we cannot justify ourselves.  We must come to God and trust him to be saved.

                Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

    You have a choice. 

    You can try to earn your way to HEAVEN by rejecting the blood sacrifice of Jesus, or you can take God's free gift of eternal life by FAITH. 

    What will it be?

                Let's look at three more verses to make this as clear as possible:

         Rom 3:24  "Being justified freely by his GRACE through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:"

          Rom 5:1  "Therefore being justified by FAITH, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:"

         Rom 5:9  "Much more then, being now justified by his BLOOD, we shall be SAVED from wrath through him."

                According to the Bible, salvation or JUSTIFICATION, is by GRACE through FAITH in the BLOOD of Jesus Christ, like it says about in Romans 3:25!  In other words, when your faith is solely in the Blood, you are SAVED!

                 How about it?  Won't you trust the blood of Jesus Christ today to save your soul from a devil's hell? 

                God wants to save you. 

                1 Timothy 2:4 says "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

                Romans 10:17 states, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." 

        If you've read this, you've heard the word of God, the Gospel of truth.  Now will you receive it? 

        Will you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour with a repentant heart by simple childlike faith, trust only in his shed blood to save your soul from hell?

"Wherefore he [Jesus] is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."  - Hebrews 7:25

"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"   -  Acts 4:12 

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