 Jesus will give you his eternal life in exchange for your temporary one. Here's the problem when we view it from a religious mindset. I can sense a strong anoning on this right now. When we view it from a religious mindset, we think that it's up to us to do enough good to save ourselves. There are so many problems with this. There are so many problems with this. Number one, if someone actually believes that their good works save them, and then they believe that they're saved, they're trusting in their own good works and are not truly saved. And they're self-righteous and full of pride. This is why there will be many, Matthew 7 tells us who come to him and say, Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name? The Bible says in one translation, they'll come strutting up to him with confidence and then be stunned when he says, I never knew you, stunned. And then I love that same translation says all you did was use me to make yourselves important. And what we do is we wear Christianity like it's a nice decoration, a little bit of something that we added into our culture to teach the kids what good morals are. Something we do around the family table is we pray because it's a nice little idea and they use Christianity like it's a culture, like it's a decoration on their life rather than a total trust in what Jesus did on the cross. The Bible says this in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. God saved you by His grace when you believed. You can't take credit for this. It is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us a new in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. Here's how you know if you're living in a religious mindset. If you're constantly worried that you've made a mistake that's going to finally cost you your salvation, you believe a works-based gospel. Why? Because then you believe that it not only was you that saved you, but that's you that's keeping you saved. Think about this guys. Now should we live righteous lives? Of course, but this is why the gospel is such good news. The Bible says this in Romans chapter 10 verses 9 through 10 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shall be for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is where people get really paranoid because they say you can't tell them that because if you tell them that then they're going to go on sinning. I beg to differ. If someone truly comes to salvation and someone truly puts their trust in Jesus, he's going to transform their nature and give them new desires. So watch this now. So if you heard that in order to be saved there's this list of rules that you have to keep yes you ought to live a holy life, yes you ought to live good, yes you ought to do well, yes you ought to obey God's commandments, yes you ought to base your life off Scripture. You know this is what I teach, but I'm talking now to someone in this room and someone watching who cannot come to the Lord, who will not come to the Lord because you believe that when you do it's going to depend upon your own strength and I'm here to tell you that he said I'll take your heart, stony heart and I'll give you a heart of flesh. He said I'll take your old nature and I'll give you a new one. You're not going to be an old creation trying to develop a new mindset for if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. That's the miracle of salvation that by turning to him and saying I trust you, I'm turning from my sin and I'm turning to you now and I believe in what you said because it's your soul now we're talking about. Takes a lot, I mean you think about how very few people you trust with your kids, how very few people you trust with your car, how even fewer people you trust with your cell phone. We're talking about your soul that I would say to Jesus I have one soul, I'm going to die one time and eternity is a long, long time but I'm going to trust you with my soul. I'm banking on the fact that you are who you say you are. I'm going to believe that you really did pay the full price for my sins. I'm going to believe that you really did do what needed to be done on the cross. Jesus didn't say take it from here. He said it is finished. And so when we come to this place where we're humbling ourselves, we come to Jesus and we say okay I'm a sinner, I know that the punishment for my sin is eternal death, damnation, hell. And it's right that you do that. I'm not going to argue with it there. I'm not going to try to be philosophically how could a loving God, it's because he's loving that he judges evil. Okay I'm not going to try to get philosophical on him, try to reason. I accept it. I humble myself. I'm a sinner and I deserve that punishment. You're a good gracious God who's offered me a free gift of salvation and all I have to do to receive it is belief. Imagine that in front of me is one door. When I open that door and step through it, I shut that door and now I'm walking in a long hallway. At the very end of this long hallway is one more door. I'm not through that yet. Here's how it works. When I believe and put my faith in him and say what you did on the cross, I believe it. Not just say it because that's not what saves you, but truly believe it, truly put my faith in it. What I just did is I stepped through that door. This is the door of justification, say justification. I stepped through that door and I closed it behind me. Now we can debate all day. Can you get outside the door or not? I don't think that debate matters because when someone walks away from the faith, whether they were never really saved in the first place or whether they lost their salvation, we all agree they still need Jesus. So they open the door, shut the door behind them. That is the door of justification. Justification is where I stand before God in righteousness. It's a legal verdict. You're justified. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So now that door is shut. This long hallway is sanctification. It's the process. Justification, the first door is my position. The hallway sanctification is my process. Now when you put your faith in Jesus, you open that door and you shut it. We're so worried about doing this, which you do some days and then if you didn't get much sleep you do this the next day and if the traffic is bad enough you get close to the door there. Right? This is how you ought to see it. I'm sanctified. It's a process. I'm being perfected. That final door is the promise that's glorification. It's when I'm like him. But here's how religious people think their salvation works. I repented, I sinned. I repented, I sinned. They think they go in and out of that door and so they ask questions like, well what happens if I tell a lie and then I die before I say, Lord forgive me? Well then you're trusting in good timing, not the cross to save you. You believe that not only did Jesus have to die, but that you had to die at the right time to make sure that counted. It's not good timing that saves me my friend. It's the grace of God. And in that grace I'm walking, sanctified, processed. I may not look like him completely yet, but I know that one day I will. And no matter where I am in the process, I know where I stand in my position. So how do you get through this first door? How do you get to that place where you know that you know that you know that you're saved? You trust him? If it was any more difficult, we'd ruin it. It's simple enough and we still do. If I go in for an operation, I don't prep the night before by staying up late and reading textbooks on the operation I'm about to perform. Okay, I'm going to make the incision here. I'll apply anesthesia here. I'll make sure these medical professionals are, you're not the one doing the surgery. What do you do? You just get on the table. And by getting on the table, you're putting your faith in that doctor. Well Jesus is the surgeon of the soul. And so when I put my faith in him for salvation, I'm literally throwing myself on him saying, you save me. I'm surrendering my will. I turn from it. You save me. And then you know what happens? He saves you. And do you know what happens when he really saves you? Your desires start to change. And when your desires start to change, nobody has to tell you, hey, you know, just because you're saved, you can't sin. Why? Because everything in you is desiring now to fight sin. Well, doesn't Galatians say that the Spirit resists the flesh? People say, well, what do I do if I'm struggling with sin? Well, the very fact that you're struggling with sin is proof that you have the Holy Spirit. Because if you didn't have the Holy Spirit, who would be struggling against the flesh? Who would be there? If you wouldn't be struggling with sin, you would just be sinning. So there's some people who, because of that religious mindset, they can't come to the cross because they say, okay, I got a lot of work to do. My friend, you have one job, and that's to surrender completely to Jesus. You have one job, that's to get yourself on the table and let him perform his work. Admission is for those who believe by putting your faith in him. Number one, you're acknowledging you can't save yourself. Number two, you are acknowledging that you are a sinner. And number three, you're acknowledging that only he can save you, and you're throwing yourself on him. You're doing a supernatural spiritual trust fall. And saying, I'm going to throw myself into eternity with only my hope in you, and I'm going to trust that you catch me. And you watch when you truly put your faith in Jesus, you watch how he begins to change you. Well, this is why James chapter two tells us, show me your faith and I'll show you my faith by my works. We don't do works to be saved. We do works because we are saved. Thank you for watching EncounterTV. Don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. 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