Let's open our Bibles, if you will, to John chapter number 1. John chapter number 1. I wanted to kind of put a little parenthesis in our Bible lesson. We were going through some things regarding the transition epistles in the Bible and showing some of the differences regarding salvation and how it's presented. And I want to kind of draw a parenthesis and hopefully maybe give some explanation regarding church age salvation. So you can get it real clear and understand this is a big book. You think about the Bible. 1189 chapters, and you think about all the history in the Bible. Moses begins to write, you have the first five books of the Bible, that's 1500 BC. The book of Job, Job lives around the time of Abraham, that's 1800 BC. That's the oldest book in the world. You think about Job, and you think about over 40 authors spread out over three continents over a period of 1600 years, yet the Bible has continuity. because you have in the beginning, and then when you get to Revelation, you find out how it all winds up. But here's what we need to understand about the Bible and about where we are in history is God has written some things to us on this side of the cross. We think about how we date our calendar, and we date our calendar based on the birth of Jesus Christ, the year of our Lord, A.D. And so when you think about Jesus Christ, that changes everything. So the message that God has dispensed to us in this age for salvation is very clear in the New Testament. And so the Bible's a large book, and you say, I'm just gonna pick the Bible up, I'm gonna read it, and I'm gonna get something out of it. Well, be careful that you don't do something like this. I'll grab two verses. Judas went out and hanged himself. Here's another verse. Go thou and do likewise. That's not a good idea. You say, well, those are two Bible verses. Yeah, but you grabbed them both out of context and you stuck them together and now you're in a mess. So all of the Bible is for us, but it's all not written directly to us. Old Testament Jews, they had to do those sacrifices and go to the temple and do all of those ceremonies and rituals because they were under the old covenant before Jesus Christ came. And so I just wanna give a short review tonight of church age salvation so we have it real clear. And then when we go further and we begin to compare some of these other doctrinal verses that clearly are not church age salvation, you'll be able to spot it. It's kinda like when you open your mailbox and you pull your stuff out and you start flipping through there. If you see all these checks for millions of dollars, you probably know it's not yours. And you realize, oh, I got somebody else's mail. So you don't wanna read somebody else's mail, you wanna make sure you're getting the message that God has given to us on this side of the cross. So it's very simple tonight, but I think it's needed as we consider church age salvation. First thing I wanna say about salvation is that it's not found in a creed, it's found in Christ. Salvation is in Jesus Christ, not in a creed. Now look in John chapter number one, look in verses 11 and 12. Speaking of Jesus, He came unto His own and His own received Him not. We know that the Jewish people rejected Him. They crucified Him. And then look at verse number 12. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And so salvation is not found in a creed, it's found rather in Christ. There are all kind of different creeds in religion. Even in Christianity, you have the Apostles' Creed, 120 to 250. You have the Nicene Creed, 325. You have the Chalcedonian Creed, 451. Maybe you're familiar with the Westminster Confession of Faith, very popular with Protestants. You have these different creeds. So here's the long and short of it. A creed would be like these statements. We believe this about God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We believe this about the death of Christ. We believe this. If you grabbed a creed, and you stood up, and you read that creed, and you said, well, I read this creed, now I have salvation. That is not true. You can read a creed, and you can say that you believe a creed. There's all kind of people that believe all kind of things about Jesus. You know, if we went around, especially down south as this storm is approaching, or if we went to the places where you have people that are fleeing the storm, there's a little intrepidation, there's a little anxiousness. I bet a lot of those people would send up a prayer tonight. Maybe those that don't even go to church. I bet if you were to survey a lot of people tonight, you said, do you believe in God? They say, yeah, I believe in God. There are scores and scores of people that believe in God, but that doesn't mean they're saved. So you can believe a creed. You can say, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe he came down here. I believe he died on the cross. I believe he rose from the dead. There's a lot of people that believe that, but they're not saved. It's kind of like saying, I believe Dr. So-and-so, Dr. So-and-so at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital is a great surgeon. You can believe that all day long, but that's a big difference than saying you believe he's a great surgeon, and you sign on the paper after the anesthesiologist comes in and says, OK, we might lose you. Are you OK with that? Sign here. And you sign the paper, and then you let them put you to sleep. And then you let Dr. So-and-so that you, quote unquote, believes a good surgeon, you let him operate on you. And so you have a head belief versus a heart belief. And so salvation is not in a creed, it's in Christ. So it says in the verse, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. So it's receiving a person, it's not believing a creed. Come over to Acts, the book of Acts, Acts chapter number four. Give you a couple verses on this. We are in a Baptist church, and I've been a Baptist all my life. Baptist born, I was Baptist bred, and when I die, I will be Baptist dead. But you know, I say this all the time, being a Baptist doesn't save me. And being a Baptist doesn't save you. Salvation is not in the Baptist church. Salvation is not in the Catholic church. It's not in the Methodist church, the Presbyterian church, the Orthodox church. It's not in a creed, it's in a person. So when we talk about salvation, we're not trying to present, hey, we have a great religion, why don't you come join our religion? That's not what we're trying to get people to do. We're saying, hey, we have a great savior, his name is Jesus, can I introduce you to him? He's a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's in Christ, not a creed. Look in Acts chapter number four. This is the apostle Peter preaching. Look in verse 12, this is a great verse. Acts 4 verse 12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So salvation is in a person. It's in Christ, not a creed. You're in Acts, keep turning, go over to chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. Here in Acts 16, Paul and Silas, they're in jail for preaching. And as they're in jail, they have been praying, they've been singing, and no doubt, Paul, he's been preaching, because that jailer has been hearing this stuff all night long. And at midnight, the Lord comes through there with an earthquake, and all of a sudden, all the doors fling open, all the bands drop, the handcuffs drop off of them, and the jailer doesn't know what to do. He's like, oh no, this is it for me. And Paul says, do thyself no harm, we're all here. And the jailer brings in a light. And the first thing the jailer says, look at it in verse number 30. He brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, join the church. They did not say that. They said, believe the creed. They did not say that. Look what they said. They said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And so it's in Christ, not in a creed. One more verse on this one and then we'll move to the next thing you wanna see. Look in Romans chapter five. Romans chapter number five. So when you think about the Bible as a whole, you see obviously some different scenarios with the Old Testament Jews and Gentiles and then you see when Jesus Christ comes, he dies on the cross and everything changes. Because the way of salvation is made because the Son of God dies as an atonement for our sins. And so you wanna understand the clarity of salvation. Look in Romans chapter number five. Come down if you, there's so much good in this chapter. Let's start in verse number six. Romans 5, six. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. to be atonement, think about that word, atonement. You say, what does that mean? Well, just break down the word, atonement. So atonement is kind of like, okay, you're at odds, and then now, instead of being two at odds, now you become one in agreement. And so before you're saved, God is not your father. You're on the other side, you're on the bad side. You're the enemy of God, you're under the judgment of God, but when you trust Christ, there's that atonement that's made. And it comes not by a creed, it comes by Christ. The atonement is not because of a church, and it's not because of a creed. The next thing, this leads right into the next point, number two, it's not centered around a religion, but around a relationship. All right, so go to John chapter 3 and John chapter 4 real briefly for these. Now these are two examples, John 3 and John 4. We have a good man in John 3 and we have a bad woman in John 4. The good man in John 3 is a rabbi. His name's Nicodemus. He's a ruler of the Jews and he starts off flattering Jesus. He says, hey, we know that you're come from God because nobody can do these miracles. Jesus Christ showed up and he did all the signs wonders and miracles to authenticate who he was and There's no doubt that Jesus was who he claimed to be because he had the power of God in his life The attributes of God are manifested in the Son of God Jesus Christ. He had the power over nature He had power over disease and then he made the statement of John 10. I said if you take my life He goes you don't take my life because I lay down my life that I might take it again. I And so Jesus Christ proves that and Nicodemus says, hey, you can do these miracles. Well, Jesus turns to him. Notice what he says in John chapter three, verse. Number three, 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. So he immediately goes to this whole issue. Nicodemus, there's a problem here. You've got ceremonialism, you've got religious stuff on the outward, but you've got to be born again. And Nicodemus is like, hey, how can I be born when I'm old? He goes, you don't get it. You've been born of the flesh, but you've got to be born of the spirit. And then he gets down to the greatest verse in the Gospel of John that everybody's familiar with, which is verse 16. So the issue is the man Christ Jesus, not the miracles. And it's not about a religion. It's about a relationship with the man Christ Jesus. And that's why when you talk to people about the Lord, it's not about, hey, I want you to come join my religion is, hey, I want you to meet my savior. Have you met Jesus Christ personally? And I grew up and most of you know, my testimony, my dad, my father, he became a Christian the year I was born. He was 30 years of age and he got saved. Well, I was about seven years of age when He led me to Christ, and I got saved. And so I got saved as a young boy, and you say, well, you have a testimony of your father and your mother and all that. And yes, that's great and that's good, but their salvation can't save me. I had to personally come to Jesus as a sinner, and I had to talk to Him and say, Lord, I need You to save me. I'm going to hell. I can't save myself. I had to meet the man, Christ Jesus. So salvation is more than just knowing about Jesus here, it's knowing Jesus. You people, there have been people that have sat on church pews their whole life and they've never met Jesus. And that's a tragedy. That is a tragedy. People that have heard the gospel. They know it up here, but they've never met Jesus. It's not about miracles, it's about the man Christ Jesus. And then chapter four, we have the wicked woman. She's the woman at the well. Everybody knows about her. I mean, she's been very promiscuous with her life, and she meets Jesus, and Jesus starts talking to her. He says, hey, I'll give you the water of life. And she's like, what do you mean water of life? I'll give you water where you won't ever have to come and drink at this well again. And she's thinking, you're kidding me. I'll take this water. But he's talking about spiritual water. He's talking about satisfying a thirst that's beyond the physical thirst. I don't know about y'all, but you all. Y'all? I don't know about y'all, but when I get thirsty, all I want is water. Now occasionally I'll get Gatorade and mix just a little bit of Gatorade in the water. I need a little energy boost, but most of the time it's just water. If I'm super, super hot, I'll get some cold water, but a lot of times I just want regular room temperature water is what I like. And that's what satisfies your thirst. I remember being kids, you know, we played baseball and stuff and we, you know, the parents would always have their turn to bring the drinks. And of course, back then it was sodas. And you're out there running around sweating like a pig and then you go and you drink all these sodas and you never can get your thirst quenched. Now looking back, I know why because sodas can't quench your thirst. And this woman's like, I'll take some, if you have something that I don't have to keep coming back to this well, I'll take it. And he's like, lady, I've got a well that'll spring up inside of you. And so he begins to develop that relationship with her and lets her know that he's the Messiah. And when he deals with her, what he has to deal with is the big problem that prevents people from having a relationship with God. And that big problem is sin. He says, you need to go get your husband and we'll talk about it. She goes, well, I don't have a husband. You've well said that you don't have a husband. The guy you're staying with is not your husband and you've had five other husbands. He calls her out on the carpet. And so what happens whenever you have that thirst and you want to get close to the Lord, it's kind of like you get close to the Lord and you realize how sinful you are. And the Lord's like, we've got to deal with this sin problem. And aren't you glad Jesus Christ knows how to deal with the sin problem? The hard part is just admitting it. Saying, Lord, I do have a sin problem. I have lust, I have covetousness, I have pride, I have whatever the sin is. Lord, that's me, I am a sinner. And so it's not in a religion, it's in a relationship. That's the next thing. And then that moves on from the religious idea. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11 real quick. Since we're dealing with this whole creed, religion, Look in 1 Corinthians 11. Church-age salvation is not in sacraments. Rather, it's in the Savior. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Now, I use that word sacraments because that's the word that's used a lot in religion. We don't use it because it's not a Bible word. The word sacrament does not appear in the Bible, not in the King James Bible. And the reason it doesn't, because the word sacrament in religion is connected to some type of ritual that actually can impart saving grace. So that's why we don't use it because there are two church, what we call ordinances, actually Paul calls them ordinances in the Bible. And the two ordinances are baptism and the Lord's Supper. Now both of those ordinances, going all the way back in early Christianity with different things as corruption crept into the church, have been corrupted to teach that they do bring salvation. There are people that actually think they're going to heaven because they were baptized. There are people that actually think they're going to heaven because they partook of the communion, the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, the Mass, the Lord's Supper, whatever they call it. And so you want to understand how the Bible presents this view. Now, let me give you a few views from Christianity. First of all, you have the Roman Catholic view. It's called transubstantiation, and what the Roman Catholic view is, is that the bread and wine literally change into the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's official Roman Catholic teaching. You say, I don't know about that. Well, I got the Catholic books with the Neil Obstinate from the Archbishop, official Catholic stuff, catechisms, you can look it up. Some of you are Roman Catholic, you understand that. That's exactly what they teach, and they've always taught that. It's transubstantiation. One of the big arguments in the Protestant Reformation was dealing with the transubstantiation idea, and so they came up with consubstantiation. Con is a word with, like conscience, with science, with knowledge. Consubstantiation, with substance, substance, substantiation. Instead of the substance translating into kan, that means the presence of Christ is, it contains it, it's with it. And that's the Protestant view. The Protestant view is the body and blood of Christ are with the elements. And then you have the Reformed view. Reformed view is a little different. This will be Calvin, John Calvin, over in Switzerland and all that. Calvin would teach that the presence of Christ was literally there, but only spiritually. Just a little different way to say it. And then you have the Bible view. You have all those views, and then you have the Bible view. The Bible view is a memorial. And here in 1 Corinthians 11, we have the We have Paul the Apostle giving us the details of the Lord's Supper and it's a memorial. It does not teach that Jesus Christ is present physically or spiritually in the elements. And when we have Lord's Supper, which we will have come November, it's a great time to have a Lord's Supper to commemorate and be thankful for our salvation. We'll have the bread and juice and we'll pass it out. And Jesus is not in the bread and he's not in the juice. And that's the Bible view. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you'll read it, he goes through and he says, this is my body, verse number 24, which is broken for you, this do, look at that word, in remembrance. That's what you call a memorial. If you ever go visit your ancestors' tombs, and sometimes you go, maybe they used to call it decoration day. Y'all remember when they called it that, Decoration Day? You celebrate when loved ones pass, maybe those in the service, and they go, and what they do is you decorate the grave. You take fresh flowers or you take fake flowers, they last a lot longer, and you put them on the grave. Now, if you go to a national cemetery, you can put them there all day long, but at the end of the day, they're gonna take every single one of those up. That's their rules, because they keep it all pristine and nice and clean. But you go and you put those flowers there. When you go there, And you go there because that's where you laid the body to rest, so to speak. But that person that you knew and loved is not in the ground. There's just a memorial, the little stone there. We like to use these stones. They're very costly, and they last years and years, sometimes hundreds of years. You can go look at old graves. You ever walk through an old graveyard? Just don't do it at nighttime. But you walk through an old grave, sometimes you'll see some really old, you have the cemetery down here, the end of this street, and then you have to the left, that's the old cemetery. And you can walk over there and look at some of those. Those stones have been there for a long time. You say, what's the stone there? It's a memorial. The person's not there. Maybe their bones are, but their soul's not there. And so Jesus Christ is not in the bread, he's not in the juice, that represents his body and his blood. Now we know in John chapter six, when he made that great discourse on the bread of life, he clarifies all of this, and you think anybody he could read would get this, but they don't, they just read right over it. He said, hey, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you don't have eternal life. People say, well see, Jesus really, his real body and blood has to be in the elements or you can't have eternal life. Well keep reading John chapter six. You know what he says? He says a couple things that are real, pertinent to this whole idea. He says, number one, the flesh profits nothing. The words I speak are spirit and they are life. And then he says, as I live by the Father, so he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood will live by me. So did Jesus Christ literally eat God the Father? Come on. Obviously, Jesus Christ is speaking allegorically, spiritually. There's a symbol. And he says, hey, you need to eat my flesh, drink my blood, or you don't have eternal life. And he's referring to believing on him. He's referring to trusting him. And so the idea that sacraments can save you is not biblical. It's not sacraments, it's a savior. It's not a creed, it's Christ. It's not a religion, it's a relationship. And that brings me to a couple more. Go to Romans chapter number three. because when you think about church age salvation, especially as you compare it to the Old Testament, Romans chapter three. In the Old Testament, the Jews, they had obviously faith in what God said, but they also had to keep that Old Testament law to the best of their ability. Nobody could keep every jot and tittle of the law, but they had to do righteous deeds in the Old Testament. And if they didn't do righteous deeds, they would be considered wicked. And there were some sins back under the Old Testament law For instance, when David committed the sin of murder and adultery with Bathsheba, those were sins that were unforgivable under the Old Covenant. There was no sacrifice. When the law was given in Exodus chapter 20, you read about those 10 commandments, and when you go through the book of Leviticus, especially when you hit, let me, off the top of my head, 17, 18, 19 in there, he goes through and talks specifically about the sins of adultery. When they found an adulterer and adulteress under the Old Testament law, they killed them. They put them to death, capital punishment for adultery. Now if that took place in America today, our population would decrease really quickly. And under the Old Testament law, those were the stipulations, so there's no sacrifice for that. So when David commits those sins, he falls and prays Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and none this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou judgest, and overcome when thou art judged. And he goes through that whole thing because he knows he's at the mercy of God. God makes an exception in David's case. And for David's sake, thank God he did, because he had no hope. That's Old Testament. And so Old Testament, their righteousness played a big deal. If a person died wicked, he went to hell. Psalm 917, the wicked shall be turned into hell. We read those verses a couple weeks ago out of Ezekiel chapter number 18. He talks about all the different righteous things that a person could do. And then if a person lived half, let's say he lived 20 years and he was righteous. And then when he hit 21, he figured he could go out and buy something to drink, you know, because now it was legal. And if it's legal, it must be okay. Right? Y'all are looking at me like you believe that or something. Hey, just because they say it's legal doesn't mean it's not a sin. I mean, our society thinks a lot of things are okay. That doesn't mean it's okay with God. God's Ten Commandments hadn't changed. But let's say somebody back in Old Testament times did 20 good years and all of a sudden they hit 21. They said, I'm gonna go live it up a little. I'm gonna go sow some wild oats. And they're going out there living like the devil and they died in that condition. God said, I won't remember those righteous things they did. They die in their sin and they're wicked. And the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's Old Testament. And that's not New Testament situation at all. And you want to understand what's required in the New Testament. In the New Testament, God doesn't look at individual righteousness. Here's my comparison. I'm giving you something real easy to remember. You've got creeds, you've got Christ, you've got rules or religion and relationship, you've got a sacrament or you've got the Savior. It's either relative righteousness or absolute righteousness. And you can probably come up with an easier way to remember that. But see, we think in the terms of relative righteousness, well, I've had so many people tell me, well, you know, God's going to outweigh, He's going to weigh my good works versus my bad works, and if I have enough good works, I'll make it into heaven. That's not how it works in this age. For you to make it into heaven on your own righteousness, you have to have absolute righteousness. You would have to be sinless. Here's how you'd have to do it. You'd have to be born of a virgin. Well, that disqualifies you already. You would have to live a sinless life. You'd have to die on the cross and rise again from the dead. Only one person ever did that, and that's Jesus. And so look in Romans chapter number three, it's real clear here, verse number 21. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. So here you have the righteousness of man. The righteousness of man is relative. You ever have people that you really look up to and man, you respect them and you really think they're good and then you find some dirt on them? Or somebody tells you something about them or maybe they let you down or something? Man's righteousness is relative. The best people that you can find, they have a chink in their armor somewhere. Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But if you look over here at the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God is absolute righteousness. Purity, holiness, sinlessness. When Jesus Christ lived, he never messed up. Can you imagine being a kid and being raised around Christ? He had brothers and sisters. He was the oldest, of course. He's the firstborn. But can you imagine his half-brothers and sisters and somebody would get in trouble, you know, and they tried to blame Jesus? That didn't fly because Mary knew Jesus didn't do it. And he never sinned. That's absolute righteousness. So how do we get that righteousness? Well, you see it in verse number 21. Verse number 22, the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all. So it's for everybody. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Anybody on the face of the planet can have the righteousness of God if they will put their faith in Jesus Christ. It's that easy. It's unto everybody, but it's only upon those that believe. It's kind of like I was saying, there's all these people who say, yeah, I believe in that surgeon. Or we could use it this way. You say, hey, everybody's sick and everybody's dying. And there's a 100% chance you're going to die. But here's this little pill. If you'll take this pill, you won't die. So who can take the pill? We've got enough pills for everybody. We have 10 billion pills on the planet. If you want it, you can take it. It's for everybody. Well, some people say, well, you know, I just think I'm going to ride it out. I'm going to ride it out, like some of them are doing the hurricane. I'm going to ride it out. I'm not going to take the pill. OK. It's for everybody, but it's only upon those that take the pill and put it in their belly. Salvation's for everybody, but it's only on those that will believe on Jesus Christ. Those that are believing in creeds or in religion or in their own self-righteousness or whatever else, those pills don't get the job done. Everybody see that? And then you look at the person, you say, well, why did the guy die? Well, I'll tell you why he died. Did he die because he was sick? No. I mean, he really did, but I hope you understand the play on things. Did he die because he was sick? You say, well yeah, but yeah and no. He died because he didn't take the medicine. Everybody's dying and without Jesus Christ, everybody would go to hell. But if you take the medicine, if you take Jesus Christ, you're forgiven. That verse in John chapter 16, it tells us that, John chapter, yeah, John chapter 16. The Holy Spirit has come. He will reprove the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment of sin because they believe not in me. You say, what does a person have to do to go to hell? Does he have to kill somebody? Hey, there have been people that have, I have seen testimonies of guys and they have told about this after they've been in jail, after they have killed someone, they've trusted Jesus Christ as their savior. So what, do you have to kill somebody to go to hell? Do you have to get drunk to go to hell? Do you have to do drugs to go to hell? Do you have to hurt somebody to go to hell? What are the sins you have to do to go to hell? There's one sin that puts people in hell. It's the sin of unbelief. Not taking the pill, not taking Jesus Christ. We got to stop, but I want to give you another one. Go to Ephesians chapter 2. And then I'll read kind of read these others quickly and we'll wrap it up. But Ephesians chapter number two is by God's grace, not human effort, grace, not works. So it's not religion. It's a relationship. It's not a creed. It's Christ. It's by God's grace. not by works. Look in Ephesians 2, very popular verses, y'all know these. Verses 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So if I gave you a gift, and I mailed you a gift, or we had a Christmas party, and I walked up to Brother Will, and I said, here you go, Brother Will, and I give you a gift, he says, thank you. And he takes it, he receives it. He didn't earn it, I just gave it to him as a gift. Now come January, if he opened his mailbox and he had a bill in the mail for that gift, that wouldn't be a gift. He doesn't have to pay for it. There are no strings attached. The Lord will save you with no strings attached. It's a gift. He died on the cross in your place. He paid the penalty for your sins when He hung on the cross. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. What do you have to do? You have to receive Him as your Savior. And here's what happens. He'll take your sins, and then he'll give you his righteousness. It's an even swap. It's a gift, and you receive that gift of God. And I've kind of already mentioned this, but this is another easy one to remember. It's not baptism, it's belief. It's not baptism, it's belief. We're Baptists, we have the word baptism in our name. We have a pool back behind us here. But baptism doesn't put you into Jesus. It's belief in Christ that puts you into Jesus Christ. And so I hope that clears it up a little bit for you. Another good verse, Romans 4, 4 and 5, it says, not to him that worketh. I'm kind of quoting it off the top of my head, but I think I'm getting it wrong. Romans chapter 4. Verse number four, now to him that worketh is a reward reckoned not of grace, but of debt, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So it's not works, it's faith, it's grace in Jesus Christ. And so I hope that clarifies church age salvation. Let's pray.