What I want to talk about today is being saved - so I will start off by asking you - Do you want to be saved and Go to heaven? This is a very important question and it is something anyone of age to think should consider - whether there is truly a God out there in a spiritual world that we can not see. A world we hear about only through the Bible - and a God we will all have to account to some day for our lives lived in the flesh while living through this life.
 

If I were to ask that question to most people anywhere out there in the world most of them anyway would answer with a resounding - YES - of course I want to go to heaven - if there is such a thing as heaven and hell I would surely want to go to heaven.
 

And yet if I asked those same people how to get to heaven I would get a different answer from every one of them. Some think that just being human God is not going to send us to hell. God is just too good for that. So they think they will automatically go to heaven no matter what - God is such a forgiving God he won't send any one to hell. Others think that by belonging to a particular church will get them to heaven especially if they work hard and do things that are pleasing to God just as added assurance we will qualify ourselves to go to heaven - put the icing on the cake so to speak. Others think that if they try really hard and keep as many of the commandments as they possibly can then the balance sheet of bad and good on their record will be tipped good enough to warrant going to heaven.
 

Every one of these is wrong - there is only one way of getting to heaven and that is what I want to instruct you on today. Listen VERY closely for this knowledge is the difference between your spending eternity in heaven or hell.
 

First lets look up - Acts 4:12 - Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we MUST be saved.
 

This we must understand clearly - that God is the author of salvation - therefore He and He only has the right to dictate how anyone gets to heaven. He has declared here in this verse that NO ONE will get to heaven except through the Lord Jesus Christ because if you read other scriptures around this verse it is clear Jesus is who is being talked about.
 

So how do we get to heaven? Lets take a look at some scripture to see the answer Jesus and His followers gave people when they asked that question. The first is that well in known verse :
 

John 3:3-7 - 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.
 

Here Jesus states we must be "born again" before we can "see" or understand the words we hear from the Bible. Nicodemus by not understanding what Jesus was talking about demonstrated that He had not received that requirement - of being born of the Spirit that would enable him to understand what Jesus was talking about - he could not "see" (understand or perceive) what Jesus was talking about.
 

Being born again means we must have a second birth - a second nature born into us. This new birth is God's Holy Spirit entering us. When we were born the first time only our parent's nature entered us and this nature from our parents cannot understand or believe the things we read in the Bible.
 

Lets read a couple of scripture to see how our own nature functions - contrary to anything God desires of us. Let look at - Romans 8:7-8 - Because the carnal mind (our human nature) is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh (those not born of God's Holy Spirit) cannot please God.
 

Note here that our own nature is an enemy of God and God is an enemy to our human nature. So something has to happen to over come that enmity.
 

And that is what we call being born again - or saved. Other words for the same experience is - we are quickened - which means that the Holy Spirit has been activated - or made alive in us. Another name is regeneration - all meaning the same thing - that is - God's Holy Spirit that has come into our minds and soul and is now an active nature in us - a second nature in us.
 

Lets read about that experience in: Ephesians 2:1-5 - And you heath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation (way of life) in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were BY NATURE the children of wrath, (of the devil) even as others. BUT GOD, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)
 

And it goes on to show the difference God makes when His Holy Spirit enters our mind and takes over. Notice to begin with it goes over how we lived our lives before God enters us. We all can relate to that - we know how we were before being regenerated, and we can see the people of the world about us how they certainly do not love God and His ways. There may be many religious people in the world pretending to live as the Bible states but in fact if you look closely these people do not want to live and believe as the Bible says we should or believe and practise the doctrines as they are taught in the Bible. But then something changes - BUT GOD moves into us and all things in our life changes.
 

Those of us who are born again have two natures in us controlling the way that we think or act - and we act the way we think. The Holy Spirit in us now acts as a nature in us. This nature wants to do things that God wants us to do - since it is God's nature that is only reasonable..
 

The old nature - our human nature we received from our parents still wants to do things we always liked to do before the Holy Spirit came into us. This causes quite a conflict in us as we can read in the seventh chapter of Romans. Lets read it -
 

Romans 7:14-25 - For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not: but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good . Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me ( that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law os sin.
 

Most of the time we want to do good under the influence of our good nature from God working in us.
 

Other times we will want to do bad things (called sin) - things against the laws of God under the influence of our old nature. So sometimes we still do some very bad things. This is all normal - but still not right and will send us the hell if things are not made right with God.
 

One of the real good things the Holy Spirt nature does is cause us to believe in Jesus Christ and all the works He accomplished in order for us to get to heaven.
 

This is one of the requirements of getting to heaven - to "believe in Jesus Christ". That means to put our trust in what Jesus did for us and not trust anything we can do for ourselves since we can't be good enough to satisfy God. Remember - to satisfy God's justice we would have to be perfect - not one single sinned charged against us. Nobody can say they have never sinned sometime in their life - in fact many, many times.
 
 
 

Lets read: Acts 8:36-37 - And as they went on their way they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, see, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he(the eunuch) answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
 

And another verse: Acts 16:31 - Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
 

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved - that is an absolute must - but we have already learned we can't believe unless the Holy Spirit abides in us giving us the ability to believe.
 

His Holy Spirit in us does this by first putting faith in our hearts - which instantly produces repentance.
 

Repentance means there is a change in our way of thinking and acting - from our old way of thinking and acting.
 

When God gives us faith to believe we certainly do have a change in our way of thinking about God and the Bible He left for our instructions. We change from a mind that is an enemy of God to a mind that is a friend of God.
 

Another thing faith and repentance brings about in our mind is the understanding that we are hopeless sinners - hopeless in that we can not be good enough to enter heaven by any amount of works we could ever perform.
 

The Holy Spirit nature also tell us who to look for to relieve us of this terrible burden of helplessness.
 

The Holy spirit nature will tell us as we hear and read the Bible that if we want to get to heaven we will have to stop depending on what we do but instead look to and trust in what Jesus has done for us.
 

The Holy Spirit nature will teach us that Jesus has already kept the law which made Him good enough in God's sight to go to heaven by His good works - even without His Holiness but based soulley on His good works.
 

Jesus did not need those good works he earned - He was already Holy - He did what He did for us because He knew we could never be good enough to satisfy God ourselves.
 

But Jesus does even more - He will take all your badness - the sins you commit - and suffer all the pain and suffering you should and would have borne for all the times you broke God's commands if Jesus hadn't kept them for you.
 

Do you believe - or trust in - these two important facts - that Jesus kept all the laws - FOR YOU? Then died on the cross for your penalty which you deserve for breaking God's commands?
 

If you do believe all this - then you can be assured that you will go to heaven. If you don't believe at the time of your death - then I am sorry to say you won't got to heaven but will be cast into hell instead.
 

I pray the Holy Spirt nature will take control of your life and guide you to heaven the way I have told you about here - as he has taken over my life and I know as strongly as I know I am alive that I will meet the Lord in heaven some day. That is God imputed faith.