The Free Gift of Eternal Life
1️⃣ The Simplicity of the Gospel
📖 Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
📖 Romans 6:23 KJV For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal lifethrough Jesus Christ our Lord.
🔷 The importants of this sermon is that by understanding how a gift works we can understand salvation clearly and simply, because everybody understands a gift and how that concepts works of giving and receiving a gift its quite simple, and I believe that the gospel is purposely made simple so that everyone can have a chance to be saved.
📖 John 3:16 KJV 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.
📌 What we see here is that God so loved the world and he wanted all to be saved, so God made salvation free and easy to understand.
📖 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 KJV But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (4) For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
📌 So the importance of this sermon is making sure we understand the simplicity of Jesus Christ as there are many people teaching another Jesus, another spirit, or another gospel? It might sound right but is it! It might even sound clever, but is it!
📖 1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
📌 Don't be fooled by wise words, if its not in the bible and we aren't comparing the bible with the bible it has no weight, its not of God, we must use the bible and the bibles interpretation and thats achieved by comparing verses with other verses.
2️⃣ Receiving a Gift
📖 Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
🔷 Now to receive a gift this means you first need to understand that someone pays for that gift, and in salvation Jesus paid for that gift.
📖 Ephesians 1:7 KJV In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
📖 Romans 6:23 KJV For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
📌 We know that salvation is a gift which means that some had to pay for it (which is Jesus) now secondly you have to be willing to receive that gift, just because Jesus paid for that gift it doesn't mean you automatically get it, you can choose to reject that gift, this is a simple concept, even the calvinist get this wrong calling this "double jeopardy" they say how can God pay for the gift for all the world if not all are going to be saved? Folly, Jesus paid for the gift already for the whole world yet not everyone will receive it, "Who here has ever turned down a gift" it happens and in the case of salvation it happens way too often.
💭 So main point is how do we receive that gift, is it by going to church, is it by serving the church, is it by baptism, is it by being a good person?
📖 John 3:18-19 KJV 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.
📌 The good news and the best news is, that Jesus paid for that gift its free and all you need to do is accept that by believing that Jesus died for your sins and rose again. Some can argue what makes Jesus special that we should believe on him? Well first he was born of virgin (meaning he had no physical father but God)
📖 Matthew 1:20-23 KJV But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (21) And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (22) Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, (23) Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
📌 Jesus is the only person to live a sinless life, no one other than God could do that,
📖 2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
📌 No one other than God could live a sinless life, and he died for no reason other than it were prophesied, that he might fulfill the scriptures, he died for our sins and rose again the third day with many eye witnesses and people that wrote it down.
📖 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 KJV Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; (2) By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. (3) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (4) And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (5) And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: (6) After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. (7) After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. (8) And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. (9) For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (11) Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.
📌 This is why we believe in Jesus and no one else, we don't believe in Joseph Smith, or Mohammad, or the Mormons, or the so-called Jehovah witnesses, neither believe we in the pope, the catholic church, or any Jew, or even our ancestors, no one is greater than Jesus, even in stats he has more followers and readers then any religion or famous person, the bible will always trump any book in the world and Jesus is his name.
📌 Lastly, once we recieve a gift we usually say thank you, this is acknowledging that we have receive it and we are thankful for that.
📖 Romans 10:9-10 KJV That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
💭 So what we normally do is once you have believed that Jesus died for your sins and that you believe he rose again the third day, we pray with you thanking God in our prayer for that gift, because prayer is the way to communicate to God. Once you have done this then I believe you have eternal life and no man can take that away from you.Jesus
3️⃣ No Strings Attached
🔷 When you receive a gift theres no strings attached, it doesn't matter if you deserve it or not, or even after the fact you good or bad.
📖 Titus 3:5-7 KJV Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (6) Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; (7) That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
📌 No good works of ours before or after can be given to the gift that has been paid for already, its like you buying me a gift that your were so happy to give me but then I say "oh no, I will pay for that" you would feel disrespected and your say "no I got this for you its a gift" also there is nothing like sin or any person that separate us from God after Salvation.
💭 Some people complicate it by using the word Repent of sins to be saved, meaning you have to do something to achieve this gift, but if Jesus paid for it and he said its free it should have no attachments to it, so then repentance means to have a change of mind and believe on Jesus what he did (not what you do or about to do) but rather believe what Jesus did on the cross and we can receive that gift. Do we see how simple this is through the illustration of the gift.
📖 Romans 8:38-39 KJV For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
📌 God promised eternal life, there is nothing that can take away our salvation not even sin, not even tomorrow, not even the past, not even death or life, not even any power can separate us from love of God. If I gave you a gift but the next day you became mad at me and for whatever reason we had an issue, would it be right of me to get that gift back? Its wrong because giving a gift means that there is no attachment to it, its not really a gift if we have to do something to retain it.
📖 2 Timothy 2:13 KJV If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
📌 Even after Salvation for whatever reason we believe not, God is faithful to keep his side of the gift, God did say its eternal life.
4️⃣ The Gift is Eternal Life
📖 Romans 6:23 KJV For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal lifethrough Jesus Christ our Lord.
🔷 This gift couldn't get easier to explain, its eternal life, if you could lose it, its not eternal to begin with, now this becames a issue many pastors don't like because the fear tactics are there ways to make or control people to do church activities, but I prefer to have someone who is willing to serve God because of the grace, wanting to give back because of that gift that Jesus paid for with his life, then someone who is forced to serve God. Everyone will not grasp that concept of grace as much as others, some people will understand grace more than others because some will be forgiven more and it’s those types of people that will be more thankful to God just like the apostle Paul how he persecute the church and was involved with murdering Steven. Yet once he was forgiven by God he was sold out, and we see this idea in our next verse.
📖 Luke 7:47 KJV Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
📌 So Jesus makes the clear statement that those who are forgiving much will love much this is referring to grace, and you see this women is sold out for God because she is thankful so there is a difference in love for God with different people, some will do more and some might do less, some might do nothing at all and carry on with life, either way if they believed on Jesus they have the gift regardless.
📖 John 10:28-29 KJV And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.
💭 It’s not up to us to decided if people are saved or not, we aren't to force people or condemn or to judge peoples salvation, because at the end of day we would never truly know if someone is saved or not.
