from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." What does this mean? From a study of the rest of Scripture, what this means is a part of God's predestination is also tied to His foreknowledge. If you're here today and you have believed then you are saved. And there is nothing that you have to continue to do to get to the rest of verse four. What does verse four, the last part, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love? That is at the very end, folks, when we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ completely glorified. And some people, they cringe at that, like, oh, I don't have any glory. Oh no, no, you don't. We still don't have any glory. It's all Jesus. But we're going to stand before Him completely perfect, completed, without any sin. The chosen us in Him is God's response. And I know that Calvinists, that's such a hard thing for them to understand. But God has made the offer of salvation clear, and those who believe, they're placed in His Son. And that is something that is done. God knew what you would do. And it's not for us to try and make salvation restrictive. What an insincere offer to say salvation to all except those I have already chosen. What a bait and switch. You can't go out and soul win, honestly, with that method. How dare we look at someone who's not elect and give them the assurance of everlasting life? Or look at somebody who chooses to reject the gospel, but we have no idea what their future holds. Do we go with the principle of, well, they didn't believe me when I told them, so they're not saved. And they're never going to be saved. Seems like you just elevated yourself quite highly. How about we hold Revelation 22-17 in high regard? Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. We can go ahead and turn the lights back on. Some closing phrases here. God offered, God knew, God predestinated. Man hears, man believes, God saves. Amen? Now if you're here today and you say, Pastor, I don't know if I'm going to go to heaven when I die. I'm here this morning and maybe you're here and you say, well, I'm not that bad. Well, you probably aren't. If we are comparing ourselves to each other, there's going to be some who are worse than others. You may say, well, because I'm not that bad, maybe God will show me mercy and grace. And to other people who really deserve it, they'll be the ones that go to hell. And so I'm just going to hope that God shows me mercy and grace when it's all said and done. There are two things that I want you to address with that thinking. The first thing is, God says we are not compared to one another. We're compared to His righteousness, which is perfection. So true, you may not be as bad as the other person, but we all fall short in light of God's standard of perfection. And the second thing is, you don't have to hope that God will show you mercy and grace. You can receive that mercy and grace today. Now, I know you may have walked in here today and say, I didn't have any plans to make a lifelong commitment. I'm not asking you to make a lifelong commitment. I am asking you to recognize the fact that God has demonstrated his love toward you. And that demonstration is found in Jesus Christ. And all those who simply believe on him are given everlasting life. You say, well, that sounds too easy. Or pastor, you don't know me. You're right, I don't know you, but God does. And He loves you anyway. He sent Jesus to die for your sins. Now I want to illustrate what I just said to you using this little block of sin in my two hands here. This hand represents you and me and everybody in the entire world. This block of sin represents sin. I put it on top of my hand because as I said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We don't have to argue that point. We all know we missed the mark. God loves us. He hates sin. It separates us from Him. In order to get to Heaven we have to be completely sinless. Some people think, well, I can make a decision today to be sinless. No, no, all that stuff in the past that you did on your way here, that has to be paid for as well. Perfection is required, we all fall short. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from a literal, or in a literal fire burning hell. Many theologians have questioned what is worse about hell, the separation from God or the eternal flames? It's all bad, but I think the worst of it is you're separated from the only one who could ever do something about it. The wages of sin is death. Somebody, the Bible says in Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding of blood there is no remission. So not only does somebody have to die to pay for sin, but they have to be sinless and shed their blood for it. None of us can, I can't die for you, you can't die for me or for the most loved person in your life. We all have a problem, we're all, the Bible says, found sinful. Now earlier I told you that God loves us and this is how we can know and see that love demonstrated. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. And what God did is he sent his Son into the world to take your sin, lay it on Himself and He paid for it. Jesus took the wrath of God. Jesus shed His blood. Jesus died. We should have been on that cross, but we can't pay for our sin. There's no amount of blood that we can shed that God would accept. That's why what God has done for us is called love. 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. The moment that you, and some of you, you may have believed right now, you may have just decided, you know what? That makes sense. I believe that Jesus, as the Son of God, he died on that cross, was buried and rose again to pay for my sins. Let me show you what just happened. You are now passed from death unto life. And that life has a description. It's called everlasting or eternal life. It lasts forever. Jesus says in John 5.24, the one who believes is passed from death unto life and will never be brought under condemnation again. So you can be here today and not only have assurance that you're going to heaven, but you also have assurance that all your sin is paid. And you say, why? You have done what the Bible has said brings about eternal life, which is to believe on Jesus Christ. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes with me, please? Nobody's looking around. This part of the service is called an invitation. And it's an invitation for those of you who might be on the fence still. Right where you are, would you recognize that you're a sinner? We all are, folks, myself included. I'm not standing up here better than you. I'm just like you. Would you recognize that God has offered the only way to have our sin paid? Would you just believe that Jesus Christ has died, was buried, and rose again to pay for your sins? He's the Son of God. If that made sense to you, either at this moment or earlier in the message, if it made sense to you and that's the first time in your life that it's made sense. I would like to pray for you. I ask for no one to look around for your privacy. But would you just slip your hand up? Raising your hand does not save you. It just lets me know that it made sense. God bless you. I see you. So if you would just slip your hand up and let me know. Pastor, today I trusted in Jesus Christ. I know I'm going to heaven now. Would you pray for me? I certainly would. Raising your hand doesn't save you, it just lets me know. Anyone else before we close? Before we pray for the one, I want to encourage you here in the auditorium today to be people of substance. That substance being the gospel message. Our ministry seeks to equip you in many ways to share the gospel. There is one thing we cannot give you, the desire to do it. And so I pray that you would look at the world the same way Jesus looked at the world. He died for them. Let us go out there and share that message regardless of the persecution, regardless of the shame that it brings from the world. There's no shame in Christ. We do not have a lot of time left, my friends. Let us be about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Father, I pray for the one by an uplifted hand indicated that they have believed on Jesus Christ for eternal life. I thank you, Lord, for the power that is found in Jesus Christ. This person is now delivered. They are saved. They have experienced salvation. They are justified, and one day they will be glorified. We praise you for that. Lord, I pray for all of those here who are already believers, that we would be people of substance sharing the gospel in this limited time that we have left. And I pray, Lord, for anyone here that might still be on the fence, that might be unsure. I pray that they would do what is necessary to come to assurance and belief. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.