The Bible says in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. the Bible defines sin as the transgression of Gods law.
So God tells us not to lie, not to steal, so on and so forth, and we do it anyway. the Bible even says that the thought of foolishness is sin (proverbs 24:9). So not only have a broken Gods law with my deeds, but also with my words, mind and heart. Jesus said if you look upon a woman with lust in your heart you have already committed adultery already with her (Matt 5:28). There is an example of a sin according to the heart and mind. Proverbs 23:7 says as a man thinketh in his heart so he is.
So in this fallen world we have all sinned, we have all come short of the glory, the perfection, the righteousness of God. We are not perfect and because we have sinned we earned something. the Bible says in Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death. So because we have sinned, the repercussion or penalty is that we will die, and that is twofold: your body physically goes into the ground when you die, but your soul spends eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell.
Hell is real indeed. The Birmingham News, April 10, 1987 had an article entitled "Earths center hotter than Sun's Surface, Scientist say". The article stated that scientists have recently discovered, "THE EARTH'S INNER CORE HAS A TEMPERATURE OF OVER 12,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!"
Have you seen pictures of a volcano erupting, spewing a lake of fire from inside the earth — consuming everything within miles just from the heat? When Mount St. Helens erupted in May 18, 1980, it was described by reporters, "when HELL surfaced upon the earth." The book, Volcanoes, Earth's Awakening (p.91) describes an erupting volcano as "descent into HELL".
Thousands of years ago, the Bible described a place called hell in the heart of the earth that matches exactly what science is discovering. Revelation 14:10 says, " . . . and He shall be tormented with fire and BRIMSTONE . . ." And Job 18 describes the " . . . PLACE of him that knows not God" (vs 21), in verse 15 as, " . . . BRIMSTONE shall be scattered upon his habitation."
Do you know what brimstone is? It's sulfur. And do you know where sulfur or brimstone is found? INSIDE THIS EARTH! According to the book Volcanoes by Pierre Kohler (p. 43), when Mt. St Helens erupted in 1980 — 150,000 tons of sulfurous gas was ejected! Job is the oldest book in the Bible, written over 3,000 years ago, and yet Job knew what science wouldn't know for years — inside this earth is brimstone!
Rev 21:8 says, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Yes, even all liars! I recognized that we are all in trouble; we are all on a line that is heading towards a cliff so to speak and I wondered, how do I get off of this line? This is the dilemma because God does not want to send us to hell, but someone has to pay for our sin.
This is where God comes in and provides salvation because he loves us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Don’t miss that: while we were yet sinners; while we were yet fornicators, while we were yet liars, while we were yet thieves and adulterers, while we were yet idolators, etc etc. Now watch this, the Bible says the wages of sin is death and here it says that Christ died for us, meaning that the punishment or penalty I deserved, Christ paid that for me and not only for me but for the sins of the whole entire world.
Now here is what you have to understand about Christ: he was born of a virgin and lived a sinless, perfect life. Jesus was without spot, without blemish and the perfect lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. And Jesus performed many miracles: he walked on water, healed the blind, deaf, lame and dumb. He preached great sermons and men heard him and they said never man spake like this man. There is something different about this man. He proclaimed to be the Son of the living God and not only that but he said I and my father are one. One what? One God. He claimed to be God.
Jesus is not some ordinary man. He is the God man; God manifest in the flesh. The Bible says in John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 1 John 5:7 says that the father, the word (son) and the Holy Spirit are one. These three are one. Hebrews 1:8 says, “But unto the son he saith, thy throne O, God, Is forever and ever.” So, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, died for your past, present and future sins and paid the fine on the cross.
He was buried in a tomb for 3 days and 3 nights and on the 3rd day, gloriously, he physically rose from the dead and conquered hell and death. So that is the gospel, that is the crux of what we have to believe to be saved. So the Bible says in acts 16:30-31, it asks that question, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Then it says in verse 31, “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
THIS IS KEY. Salvation is very easy, very simple. It is as easy as drinking a cup of water and walking through a door. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is putting all of your trust and faith on Jesus alone for salvation, putting your trust in what he did to take you to heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 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.” Romans 4:5 states, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
See, it is not by works and it is not of ourselves, so that we won’t boast. Of course, God wants us to do good and do what is right, but that is not required for salvation. You see, many people like to say that there are thousands of religions, but there are really only two: Christianity and the rest, because every other religion aside from Christianity is salvation by works, like Buddhism with Nirvana, which is the goal of the Buddhist path and extremely difficult to attain, very few do. However, in Christianity you are saved only by faith and anyone can be saved.
Only by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. By putting your trust on what Jesus did for you. Jesus Christ is also the only man to ever claim to be God. No other religious figure from any other religion every claimed to be God. Keep this in mind. Romans 10:9 says, “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.”
So in this fallen world we have all sinned, we have all come short of the glory, the perfection, the righteousness of God. We are not perfect and because we have sinned we earned something. the Bible says in Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death. So because we have sinned, the repercussion or penalty is that we will die, and that is twofold: your body physically goes into the ground when you die, but your soul spends eternity in one of two places: heaven or hell.
Hell is real indeed. The Birmingham News, April 10, 1987 had an article entitled "Earths center hotter than Sun's Surface, Scientist say". The article stated that scientists have recently discovered, "THE EARTH'S INNER CORE HAS A TEMPERATURE OF OVER 12,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!"
Have you seen pictures of a volcano erupting, spewing a lake of fire from inside the earth — consuming everything within miles just from the heat? When Mount St. Helens erupted in May 18, 1980, it was described by reporters, "when HELL surfaced upon the earth." The book, Volcanoes, Earth's Awakening (p.91) describes an erupting volcano as "descent into HELL".
Thousands of years ago, the Bible described a place called hell in the heart of the earth that matches exactly what science is discovering. Revelation 14:10 says, " . . . and He shall be tormented with fire and BRIMSTONE . . ." And Job 18 describes the " . . . PLACE of him that knows not God" (vs 21), in verse 15 as, " . . . BRIMSTONE shall be scattered upon his habitation."
Do you know what brimstone is? It's sulfur. And do you know where sulfur or brimstone is found? INSIDE THIS EARTH! According to the book Volcanoes by Pierre Kohler (p. 43), when Mt. St Helens erupted in 1980 — 150,000 tons of sulfurous gas was ejected! Job is the oldest book in the Bible, written over 3,000 years ago, and yet Job knew what science wouldn't know for years — inside this earth is brimstone!
Rev 21:8 says, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Yes, even all liars! I recognized that we are all in trouble; we are all on a line that is heading towards a cliff so to speak and I wondered, how do I get off of this line? This is the dilemma because God does not want to send us to hell, but someone has to pay for our sin.
This is where God comes in and provides salvation because he loves us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Don’t miss that: while we were yet sinners; while we were yet fornicators, while we were yet liars, while we were yet thieves and adulterers, while we were yet idolators, etc etc. Now watch this, the Bible says the wages of sin is death and here it says that Christ died for us, meaning that the punishment or penalty I deserved, Christ paid that for me and not only for me but for the sins of the whole entire world.
Now here is what you have to understand about Christ: he was born of a virgin and lived a sinless, perfect life. Jesus was without spot, without blemish and the perfect lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. And Jesus performed many miracles: he walked on water, healed the blind, deaf, lame and dumb. He preached great sermons and men heard him and they said never man spake like this man. There is something different about this man. He proclaimed to be the Son of the living God and not only that but he said I and my father are one. One what? One God. He claimed to be God.
Jesus is not some ordinary man. He is the God man; God manifest in the flesh. The Bible says in John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. 1 John 5:7 says that the father, the word (son) and the Holy Spirit are one. These three are one. Hebrews 1:8 says, “But unto the son he saith, thy throne O, God, Is forever and ever.” So, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, died for your past, present and future sins and paid the fine on the cross.
He was buried in a tomb for 3 days and 3 nights and on the 3rd day, gloriously, he physically rose from the dead and conquered hell and death. So that is the gospel, that is the crux of what we have to believe to be saved. So the Bible says in acts 16:30-31, it asks that question, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Then it says in verse 31, “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”
THIS IS KEY. Salvation is very easy, very simple. It is as easy as drinking a cup of water and walking through a door. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is putting all of your trust and faith on Jesus alone for salvation, putting your trust in what he did to take you to heaven. Ephesians 2:8-9 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.” Romans 4:5 states, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
See, it is not by works and it is not of ourselves, so that we won’t boast. Of course, God wants us to do good and do what is right, but that is not required for salvation. You see, many people like to say that there are thousands of religions, but there are really only two: Christianity and the rest, because every other religion aside from Christianity is salvation by works, like Buddhism with Nirvana, which is the goal of the Buddhist path and extremely difficult to attain, very few do. However, in Christianity you are saved only by faith and anyone can be saved.
Only by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. By putting your trust on what Jesus did for you. Jesus Christ is also the only man to ever claim to be God. No other religious figure from any other religion every claimed to be God. Keep this in mind. Romans 10:9 says, “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.”
